Oscar Spinner / Optipac board - Not working

[jchalk59]

All, I have an old school Oscar Spinner (not sure which one it was, but it's just a basic spinner... no push-pull etc). It's hooked up to an OptiPac with my Trackball.

I've validated the wiring, everything looks good, and both used to work just fine.

Since reinstalling my operating system (due to swapping out the motherboard/cpu/memory for my PC for an upgrade), the trackball has been working perfectly. However, the Oscar Spinner only "wiggles" the cursor when I spin it in Windows. No matter how fast I or slow I spin it, no matter which direction, the cursor moves about 1 pixel over, then 1 pixel back. It does not move the pixel across the screen at all, no matter how much I try.

It's been a few years since I messed with configuring my machine, but I seem to remember some type of mouse "hardware acceleration" setting in Windows that I had to turn off in order to get my spinner working. I can't remember where I read that, or who I asked. I'm hoping that someone here knows what it is I'm talking about, and can guide me to the setting in Windows to fix this... it's driving me nuts that I can't find it.

Hopefully this rings a bell?

[AndyWarne]

If you check the Opti-PAC troubleshooting page, there are some voltage checks you can do. The main checks are that the spinner is getting a 5 volt supply, and also the X1 and X2 connections change from approx zero to approx 5 volts when the light beam is interrrupted or open (ie the spinner turned very slowly).
I can also help by email if necessary: andy@ultimarc.com

[Encryptor]

I don't know if this will help or not but I went through something very similar.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72732.0

Encryptor

[jchalk59]

Sorry it took so long, but I finally had the time to pull out the multi-tester and hook it up to my Opti-Pac board. I tested the voltage going in and coming out. I'm right on +5 volts, and I have high voltage when the gates are blocked, and low voltage when the gates are not blocked. Further, when I spin the spinner (very slowly) I see my voltage fluctuating high-and-low.

Based on my above tests, I do not believe that my wiring or hardware is bad... I think this has to be software related. This also stumps me because I have a really clean and new Windows XP install, and haven't had a chance to really bugger it up yet.

I've attached pictures of my wiring, the spinner, and the wire connections. Could a jumper be off? In the far-out picture, you can see my OpticPac, the Oscar Spinner, the Ultimarc Trackball, and the 2 mouse buttons. All of them plug into the USB port in the picture as well... I'm completely stumped as to what's going on. I'm thinking it has to do with some type of sensitivity or driver setting in windows, but would love if someone took a look.

To the poster above that mentioned to turn off auto-detecting of the mouse wheel... I'm not sure where to do that. I looked in the driver properties (generic mouse) as well as the Mouse settings, and all I can see to change are the number of lines the wheel scrolls for.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!
--Jason

[AndyWarne]

Jason, when you mention you have "high" voltage and "low" voltage, what are the voltages approximately?
It might be easier to continue this by email.
Andy

[Dazz]

Was there ever a fix on this issue?  I haven't touched my spinner in about a year and just now getting around to re-wiring it.  I am having this same exact issue.  I am getting 5v from both the player 1 rotary and player 2 rotary.  Trackball works perfectly, but I just can't seem to get my Oscar spinner going.

[Encryptor]

In order to disable the wheel. Go into Control Panel, Mouse.

Under Mouse Properties go to the Hardware tab.

Click on the Properties button near the bottom.

Under the PS/2 Compatible Mouse Properties go to Advanced Settings.

Use the pull down menu by Wheel Detection. There should be a setting to Disable Wheel Detection.

I hope this helps.

Encryptor

[Dazz]

In order to disable the wheel. Go into Control Panel, Mouse.

Under Mouse Properties go to the Hardware tab.

Click on the Properties button near the bottom.

Under the PS/2 Compatible Mouse Properties go to Advanced Settings.

Use the pull down menu by Wheel Detection. There should be a setting to Disable Wheel Detection.

I hope this helps.

Encryptor

Thanks for the suggestion, but these steps don't work if you use USB devices... There are no PS/2 Compatible Mouse Properties options or Advanced Settings.  Unless the driver that Windows found for the Opti-pac are not the correct ones.  My trackball works perfectly.