Mouse hack,... need some advice.

[Pongo]

OK, I'm taking the plunge and I am attempting my first mouse hack. I just wanted to run this by some of you to make sure I'm not making a huge mess of things. (small messes are OK)

First of all, see the image. I know I need to remove the marked boxes,... what I am not sure is if I need any of the other parts (see pic). I'm only concerned with hooking up X and Y for a Happ trackball, and I do not need the Z axis or buttons. Eventually I will probably purchase something like an opti-pac, but this is so I can play now while I'm still testing some things out.

Thanks for any tips, I'm sure I'll have more questions when I get to the next step.

[cw]

i would think it would be fine.. it looks like it just handles the mouse wheel and buttons... but you can check by pulling those plugs and see if the mouse still works when plugged in.

[8way]

WOW that’s actually a very convenient design, almost everything you don’t need is separated by 2 plugs. Yes you can definitely remove it. What mouse is that?

[Pongo]

Thanks guys, I'll hopefully be pulling this apart more tonight.

The mouse is a Sony VAIO mouse. (Came with a computer,... don't know if they are available on their own) I have 2, so  if I don't screw up the first one I can make the 2nd one available if anyone wants it.

Thanks.

[steveh]

i have read that some mice are not hackable (ie it just dont work)  it would be interesting to see how that one works for ya

[Tiger-Heli]

There's also the Opti-Wiz for $14.95 which is pretty much a pre-made high-tech mouse hack: http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76_85&products_id=260

[Pongo]

Yea, but I'm trying to make my own here. It's a learning experience sorta thing.

I'm actually looking at the TT2 spinner, hoping that I can wire the trackball to the same board that comes with that. I emailed them with some questions but didn't get a response, so I'm doing my own thing for now.

[Kaytrim]

I'm actually looking at the TT2 spinner, hoping that I can wire the trackball to the same board that comes with that. I emailed them with some questions but didn't get a response, so I'm doing my own thing for now.

You can wire a trackball to the TT2 spinner board.  It is designed for that.  Set the spinner for the Z axis and then the trackball on the x & y axises then you are good to go.

TTFN
Kaytrim

[Pongo]

Can you wire that so the trackball uses the X and Y, and the spinner also uses X?

I need to do this since I would like to use the spinner on some games that use mouse X and are not customizable.

I'm not concerned about bumping the spinner while playing with the trackball or vice versa, so they can both be active simultaneously.

[Kaytrim]

I don't see why not.  Maybe Randy will see this and jump in with a proper answer.

TTFN
Kaytrim

[Tiger-Heli]

Can you wire that so the trackball uses the X and Y, and the spinner also uses X?

I need to do this since I would like to use the spinner on some games that use mouse X and are not customizable.

I'm not concerned about bumping the spinner while playing with the trackball or vice versa, so they can both be active simultaneously.

No, you can't.  There are a couple of things you could do - AFAIK, hopefully Randy will jump in.

First, you could hook the spinner up as X and the trackball up as Y and Z.  This will be fine for MAME or for your non-customizable spinner games, but you won't be able to use the trackball as a mouse in windows for navigating your front-end.

Alternately, you could wire the spinner and trackball as X and use a DPDT switch to select which one is active, ala the OSCAR mirror: http://mirrors.arcadecontrols.com/www.oscarcontrols.com/DPDTswitch.shtml.html

If neither of these work for you, then your options are two Opti-Wiz's, one Opti-Pac, or your mouse hack to control one or both devices.

[RandyT]

I'm actually looking at the TT2 spinner, hoping that I can wire the trackball to the same board that comes with that. I emailed them with some questions but didn't get a response, so I'm doing my own thing for now.

My email must be acting up.  I don't see any outstanding messages relating to this in my inbox.  Drop me another one if you don't mind.

First, you could hook the spinner up as X and the trackball up as Y and Z.  This will be fine for MAME or for your non-customizable spinner games, but you won't be able to use the trackball as a mouse in windows for navigating your front-end.

Alternately, you could wire the spinner and trackball as X and use a DPDT switch to select which one is active, ala the OSCAR mirror: http://mirrors.arcadecontrols.com/www.oscarcontrols.com/DPDTswitch.shtml.html

If neither of these work for you, then your options are two Opti-Wiz's, one Opti-Pac, or your mouse hack to control one or both devices.

Everything stated above is true (thanks TH!).  Any of the above will work.  As you are already planning to hack a mouse, I recommend putting your trackball on that and just use the TT2 with the X axis.

RandyT

[Pongo]

Don't know why the email never went through,... might have been me. I never followed up anyways, so don't worry about it. I think I have all my questions regarding the TT2 answered now, and when I get one I think I would still like to hook it all up including the trackball, just so I have one less thing to plug in.

The mouse hack is just my temporary solution until I can convince the wife that I REALLY need a spinner/steering wheel. I've been spending too much money lately though, so I have to lay low for a bit.

[shorthair]

Brief segue on contacting Randy: I've never gotten a response through the GGG message page. Generally have through pm, here.

[Pongo]

Ok, back on topic.

I've removed the black boxes, and wired up two wires for each axis. Now if I understand correctly, I just need the power and the ground. The tutorials I found on doing this showed using the middle for the power,... no problem there, but how do I find the ground? Or how do I test the power properly? As you can see I removed the button and wheel portion of the board. Hopefully I can grab a ground from this part because I really made a mess of the other part already.

Now the bad news. I saw on the back of the board that the mouse is actually a logitech mouse. I saw on a few threads that these did not always work. Hopefully this one does, but even if it does not I want to go through the learning experience before grabbing another mouse.


Also, I'll just throw this out there,,... If anyone has a working mouse hack they are willing to trade for please contact me. I can offer Artwork and/or vinyl services in return.

Thanks again,... pics included in the hope that someone can help.

[RandyT]

Brief segue on contacting Randy: I've never gotten a response through the GGG message page. Generally have through pm, here.

I think we may be getting blocked somewhere.  Some POS has been spamming with groovygamegear.com as the return address.

If anyone sends me a an email and doesn't hear back within 48 hrs, please try again or PM me on here.

Sorry for the thread de-rail....

You'll probably want to get a cheap multi-meter.  It makes things a lot easier when trying to find your way around a circuit.  I may be wrong, but the large solid area looks to be the ground plane.

RandyT

[Pongo]

Yea, I've got a multimeter, but to be honest I don't know really how to use it for testing this. I have not really messed around with circuit boards before so this is all a bit new to me. I usually just use it to check the charge on batteries.

Anyways, so if you think the large area is ground plane, how can I confirm this, and what should I look for to connect the wire to.

Thanks

[Kremmit]

I have done maybe 20-25 mouse hacks, and I always just get the ground from the buttons.  It's never caused a problem, although I won't claim that it works on absolutely every mouse out there.  Look for the common trace that runs to each of the mouse buttons.  That'll be a little more tricky on your mouse because the buttons were on a separate little pcb, so you'll have to find the ground there, follow it to the connector, across the wiring, and to the pin on the main pcb.  The good news is, you can just plug the connector in, and clip off all the un-used wires and leave the one that goes to ground, so no soldering for that one.

And don't sweat the Logitech thing too much- the reports of Logitech mice not working related to a different 4-pin opto that Logitech used to use.  Newer Logitech mice use a standard 3-pin opto, just like yours.  I haven't personally done one of those, but I believe it should work fine.