Trackball Issues

[Moby Ick]

Question. I'm using a trackball (Happ I believe) that is scavenged from a slikstik controller. It had a usb controller already attached. I was thinking about getting a groovygamegear OptiWiz controller for it as I've been having some problems...

Certain games, particularly the Trackball version of Rampart just don't play well. I tried ramping up the sensitivity to the max of 255% and it still is impossible to move the cursor slowly enough when rebuilding the walls.

Is this a MAME issue or trackball issue?

It seems to work pretty well for centipede, but it does seem to pause/freeze up for a few seconds.. Ive adjusted all the mouse settings I can in Windows XP and can't seem to improve things.

Would  a different encoder make a difference? (I don't know what encoder Slikstik uses but I assume ultimarc?)

Help!

mike

[kiddk1]

I dont think the optiwiz will help you.  you are going to have to have it looked at it may be a faulty trackball.

[RandyT]

Question. I'm using a trackball (Happ I believe) that is scavenged from a slikstik controller. It had a usb controller already attached. I was thinking about getting a groovygamegear OptiWiz controller for it as I've been having some problems...

Certain games, particularly the Trackball version of Rampart just don't play well. I tried ramping up the sensitivity to the max of 255% and it still is impossible to move the cursor slowly enough when rebuilding the walls.

Mike,

Please explain in more detail the difficulties you are having.  By increasing the sensitivity you would be making the cursor move faster, not slower.  Is the motion choppy?  Does it seem to be jumping rather than moving smoothly? 

The first part of problem solving is identification

RandyT

[Moby Ick]

I figured it out after taking apart the trackball and looking for dust grime. 

The problem was that if the trackball hadn't been moved for a sec or so, the first small movement was not recognized and responses were jerky.  I looked to make sure nothing was running in the background and the mouse settings were ok.

I finally decided to plug the trackball USB cable DIRECTLY into the PC instead of my USB hub....

Works perfectly now. Rampart/centipede work great.

I didn't realize the USB hub could make a difference. I guess there was a delay for some reason.  I figure I will just grab a usb PCI card and just use USB extension cables to wire everything in directly. 

he hub was a cheap, AC powered $30 4 port I grabbed from compUSA. I mounted it near the CP so I could easily swap my Two panels



Mike