Pole Position wheels with an Opti-Pac - A Mini HOWTO

[trcroyle]

This has come up before, and has been partially answered, but never all together, so I've taken what learned and made a little web page. This is confirmed working on my machine:

http://actionmush.com/pole_position/

Let me know what you think.

[leapinlew]

I think it's awesome! Good pictures.

I'm trying to figure out a couple things. This may be a dumb question, but that won't stop me from asking it. Why use the optipac? Couldn't this plug straight into a ps2 mouse slot? I assume it's a resolution issue?

 I have an Atari 1976 Lemans steering and I was trying to figure out how to run the steering wheel through a mouse. I'm worried it won't be responsive enough and be choppy on screen. The original sensor is on there and I was going to attempt plugging it up to a mouse and I still may.

[trcroyle]

My main reason is that I want 4 of these hooked up at the same time. Much easier to wire them to the opti-pac. Plus it's a modular cabinet, so I can plug any simalar control into that jack now.

I'm trying to figure out a couple things. This may be a dumb question, but that won't stop me from asking it. Why use the optipac? Couldn't this plug straight into a ps2 mouse slot? I assume it's a resolution issue?

[telengard]

Ah cool.  I have a modular panel cabinet also and a PP wheel and pedals.  Haven't gotten around to hooking them up yet.  I need to build something that the wheel can attach to, same goes for the SW Yoke.

What method did you use for your modular panels to hold them down etc?

~telengard

[Silver]

What happens if you hook it up to an optipac without bypassing on the extra components? I'm sure I tested this with one of those "complex" boards and an optipac and it worked fine, but it was a couple of years ago and I could be mistaken....

[trcroyle]

When I tried (and I just confirmed it with an extra board) all I got was a slight "jiggle" without the modifications.

What happens if you hook it up to an optipac without bypassing on the extra components? I'm sure I tested this with one of those "complex" boards and an optipac and it worked fine, but it was a couple of years ago and I could be mistaken....

[Silver]

Ah fine.

But are the boards compatible? ie if you have a pole-position machine with a broken original board, can you replace it with a complex version?

If you can I would expect both to work with an optipac?

[u_rebelscum]

When I tried (and I just confirmed it with an extra board) all I got was a slight "jiggle" without the modifications.

I haven't had this problem unless there was a bad connection (with different boards).

The symptom you list is what happens if one of the sensors is not connected or broken.  It could be a bad chip, resistor, diode, cap, or broken weld/short.  I'm guessing it's a short with all that grime around the chip.


OTOH, I could be wrong about these specific boards, as I never had one of those.

[trcroyle]

I believe I've read elsewhere that the later boards send additional information, I assume by varying the output voltage (what else are all those extra resistors for?). I don't think the optipac is capable of reading anything other than a pretty solid 5v signal, but I could very well be wrong about that.

I haven't had this problem unless there was a bad connection (with different boards).

The symptom you list is what happens if one of the sensors is not connected or broken.  It could be a bad chip, resistor, diode, cap, or broken weld/short.  I'm guessing it's a short with all that grime around the chip.


OTOH, I could be wrong about these specific boards, as I never had one of those.

[Silver]

I believe I've read elsewhere that the later boards send additional information, I assume by varying the output voltage (what else are all those extra resistors for?). I don't think the optipac is capable of reading anything other than a pretty solid 5v signal, but I could very well be wrong about that.

If the boards can be swapped, then I doubt it. The signal these boards send out is simply a series of 'pulses'. Technically it's a 2-bit Gray encoding (If I recall the term correctly). It's quite simple, but a lot of optical devices use it.

[trcroyle]

Well I can only refer you to other discussions on this topic. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=6101.msg44610#msg44610

At least three board members have tried connecting the second type board and got garbage (which two of us describe as a "jiggling" mouse pointer - I suppose we could both have dirty circuit boards though my second test board was pretty clean), and at least two of us have bypassed the extra electronics to create boards that work with an optipac. If these boards are directly swappable on an actual Pole Position (and that's purely hypothetical, since no one has tried that to my knowledge) that really has no bearing, since for all we know PP PCBs may have been designed to handle either.

If the boards can be swapped, then I doubt it. The signal these boards send out is simply a series of 'pulses'. Technically it's a 2-bit Gray encoding (If I recall the term correctly). It's quite simple, but a lot of optical devices use it.

[Silver]

Ah right - reading that looks like pole position boards with the chip decode the signal to a different format. So looks like I was wrong - although this also means that those poleposition boards with the chip will NOT be compatible/swappable on a polepostition board that uses the basic board.

[Popcorrin]

I hooked the complex version up to a mouse hack and it worked just fine.

[trcroyle]

I hooked the complex version up to a mouse hack and it worked just fine.

Huh? Do you mean you replaced the circuit board with one from an optical mouse? We're discussing using the original board, without needing any extra parts (other than a tiny bit of wire).

[dirt]

I hooked the complex version up to a mouse hack and it worked just fine.

Huh? Do you mean you replaced the circuit board with one from an optical mouse? We're discussing using the original board, without needing any extra parts (other than a tiny bit of wire).

in this case the mouse hack would act as the optipac. so you could use the unchanged newer board with a mouse hack directly into the computer or you can modify the newer board and connect it to the optipac then to the computer.