Happ Trackball to Mouse Hack (Having Problems)

[Croaker]

Hey all!

I tried the hack connected to a generic Mitsumi serial mouse, and I'm having a couple of problems. Here's a little background. The testing is happening under Windows 98. I wired the mouse PCB according to the instructions on Lusid's site.

1. When not touching the trackball, the cursor is completely still. (As it should be.) When trying to use the trackball, the cursor just sits and twitches. It seems there is a signal, but it's not working right. The buttons work fine.

2. If I plug in my Oscar Model 1 spinner before boot, the spinner works fine, but the trackball and buttons don't work at all. If I boot first and then plug in the spinner, the trackball responds as in item 1, and the spinner works fine.

I wired the buttons using 20 ga. solid wire to the trackball mouse board. They both work. I wired the +5v to the computer power supply using Cat 5 UTP cable. I wired the Happ optical PCB using Cat 5 UTP cable also.

Now with all this, here's my questions.

1. Does anyone know how to resolve the twitch problem?

2. To use dual pointing devices under Windows, are serial devices excluded?

TIA for any help. I know the easy way would be to get the Hagstrom or Opti-PAC encoders. If I could afford to I would. Also, judging by the twitching, I thing I should be able to make this work.

Thanks again!

[JMDickson]

'Twitching' sounds like a problem with 1 of the two optical sensors not responding.  Check the polarity, and make sure all 3 or 4 (not sure of that model) pins on both the LED and the sensor are correct.

[The Man]

I've never looked at the hack you're talking about... but make sure to remove the opti sensors on the mouse pcb if you're using the one in the trackball...

I had the same problem with the hack that I built… used two mice and connected the main mouse sensors leads to the second mouse opti sensors and the pointer would just twitch.  Then I removed the main mouse opti sensors and it worked like a champ.

I know this was a stupid move on my part, but I thought I would share anyway

What’s the site address for this hack?  I would really like to see it.

Game on!
TM

[SirPoonga]

I have recently talked to Kelsey.  He said optics are sensitive, you may have over heated it too...

[The Man]

What’s

"What Is".... not sure how that got all out-of-whack.  

TM

[Croaker]

This is the link to Lusid's site:

http://home.earthlink.net/~seanhat/arcade/arcade.htm

Go to the mouse interface section.

[JMDickson]

It's possible the mouse has a non standard pinout.  I'd expect a 1 pixel movement rapidly back and forth if:
A: you overheated one half of the optical sensor
B: the common pin is swapped with another.

If this happens on both axis, I'd think it's likely the pinout.

+-----+
| O O |
+-----+
|  |  |
L  C  R

'normal'

+-----+
| O O |
+-----+
|  |  |
L  R  C
'??'