How do I hook up aTron spinner to an Optipac?

[Paul Olson]

I did a search, but didn't come up with anything. Does anyone know how to connect an original Tron spinner to an Optipac? There are 10 wires on the spinner and I don't know what to do with them all.

Thanks,
Paul

[ArtMAME]

I believe the optic board for the Tron is proprietary so it is not plug and play compliant for an Optipac.    I have seen one hack where you hack the traces on the Tron optic board and hook them up directly to an encoder, but this may be somewhat tricky.

I removed the Tron optic board and ended up using a mouse PCB mounted on a piece of wood that just happened to be the perfect dimensions to screw on to the bracket where the original Tron optic board was. 

I can't remember what mouse it was, but it was perfect, and it works great.  I will take a picture of it when I get home, which won't be till Thursday or Friday... I am on the road right now working... in scenic Newberry, SC... testing Komatsu bulldozers for regulatory compliance...

[BobA]

You could replace the optic board with one of the GP ones for sale in the buy/sell area.  You would then be left with leads to the switches for the up and down function but a standard 4 pin interface to the optic board.

[Hoopz]

gl.tter had posted how he hooked his up and here is the thread.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=41803.0

It used to link to his website where it showed the details.  I can't find them on there now though.     You could try contacting him but he hasn't logged in here in awhile.  His email address is on his website though.

I had tried it without success.  That could be because I can't solder well.  I ended up buying a board from Fixumdude in the B/S/T section that was great.  Plug and play, very well made, good instructions, and inexpensive.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=48855.0

That's what I would do.  YMMV

Good luck!

[Clu]

I tried that hack on two Tron boards and it worked great.  I originally just had a Happ board mounted on the spinner, but I thought I'd give it a try and use the original Tron optic board if possible.

Don't have an optipac though.

[Paul Olson]

Thanks for the info everyone.

Clu - Do you still have the instructions for the hack? I will try to contact gl.tter, but his site looks like he may have moved on from the arcade stuff.

Thanks,
Paul

[Hoopz]

Thanks for the info everyone.

Clu - Do you still have the instructions for the hack? I will try to contact gl.tter, but his site looks like he may have moved on from the arcade stuff.

Thanks,
Paul

He's writing the code for the light stuff for mame.  I'd bet he would email you back if you asked for it.  I'll go through a box o' stuff to see if I have it still.  I know I printed it when I was trying to get it to work.

[Clu]

Here's the link to the original instructions - http://gl.tter.org/spinnerhack/ and I posted a couple pics of my hack here - http://www.fortunecity.com/rainbow/snowwhite/311/arcade/

I used a drill press and tiny bit to severe the traces instead of trying to cut them, and also soldered onto the traces as opposed to the led/pickups.  Seemed to have a bit more room that way.  I also just soldered the wires onto a 4 pin connector for easier hook-up to a standard harness instead of trying to mount it as gl.tter did.  Good luck if you try it.

[Hoopz]

Here's the link to the original instructions - http://gl.tter.org/spinnerhack/ and I posted a couple pics of my hack here - http://www.fortunecity.com/rainbow/snowwhite/311/arcade/

I used a drill press and tiny bit to severe the traces instead of trying to cut them, and also soldered onto the traces as opposed to the led/pickups.  Seemed to have a bit more room that way.  I also just soldered the wires onto a 4 pin connector for easier hook-up to a standard harness instead of trying to mount it as gl.tter did.  Good luck if you try it.

Nice job posting this!   

I should have tried your way.  I don't know if my board was bad to start with or if I messed it up.  Just wasn't good enough to get it done.

[Paul Olson]

Thanks for posting the links!  Hopefully I will have time to try this sometime this week.  I'll post with results after I try it.

Thanks,
Paul

[Chunce DeLeone]

I have a tron Spinner and took an optic board from a trackball which I used on it.   Works great.

[Nannuu]

Here you go.  One of these days I'll do mine 

http://gl.tter.org/spinnerhack/

EDIT:
Bah!  Double post.  I suppose I should read the above posts first.

[Paul Olson]

No luck so far. I can see the LEDs on my camera phone, but not working at all. I have no way of knowing if the board worked before I messed with it, or if I broke it. I will have to mess with it more later.  I hooked up my oscar spinner and I am having a good time playing tron. After 2 days I can usually score about 40,000, so I am starting to get a little better.    It has been a long time!

Thanks to everyone who helped on this

[Clu]

Did you set your optipac to active high?