Spinner with Encoder wheels

[D_Harris]

Are there any spinners on the market with easily swappable encoder wheels that make a mouse hack easy? Or is it common practice to make your own encoder wheels?

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[D_Harris]

Ok, I guess not.

But is seems to me that there would have been a market for an encoder wheel kit consisting of a variety of encoder wheels (and even with optics so a mouse wouldn't be needed), so that one could use any arcade spinner, as opposed to having to buy one of the "MAME" spinners or undertake the task of building one.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[u_rebelscum]

Hacking mice used to be more common, before the optiwiz and other cheap encoders came out.  So the demand for "print your own encoder wheel" software also was higher (I can't google the one I knew about, though).

The print software is way more flexible than kits can be.  You get to pick your diameter and number of gaps.  And you can text different combos to match your sensors.  All you need is a printer and a clear paper to print on.

[D_Harris]

Hacking mice used to be more common, before the optiwiz and other cheap encoders came out.

That's just it. There doesn't seem to be much of an advantage over a mouse. The Opti-Wiz doesn't support more buttons than a conventional mouse.

So the demand for "print your own encoder wheel" software also was higher (I can't google the one I knew about, though).

But since you still need a spinner with the Opti-Wiz as you would with a mouse pcb, I again don't see the advantage.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[u_rebelscum]

Hacking mice used to be more common, before the optiwiz and other cheap encoders came out.

That's just it. There doesn't seem to be much of an advantage over a mouse. The Opti-Wiz doesn't support more buttons than a conventional mouse.

So the demand for "print your own encoder wheel" software also was higher (I can't google the one I knew about, though).

But since you still need a spinner with the Opti-Wiz as you would with a mouse pcb, I again don't see the advantage.

I'm not saying hacking is wrong or you shouldn't do it, just the fact that the number of people hacking mice has dropped drastically since I started into this field.  (Hacking mice used to be a way more common topic here 5 years ago.)  I'm guessing there are two major reasons that the optiwiz/optipac/u-hid/other optical encoder now are more popular are: the encoders are easier, and most mice don't use wheels anymore.

"Open" spinners, with the encoder wheel visible, were very common until the "closed" tt2/spintrak/tt-hl/spintrak2 came out and mostly pushed the open ones off the board.  You might be able to replace the wheels on the open spinners.  Tornado (AFAIK) is the only one still in production (I thought the blackhawk was too, but its website is down, and its not showing on google anymore).


But my point of my first post was that the demand for kits of optical encoder wheels is very small, partially due to that there are ways to make (print) you own. 

As for "encoder wheel kits", GGG has one booster kit for arcade trackballs; I don't know of any other simular kits (to GGG's or your suggested ones) out there (besides replacement, same as OEM, sets).

[D_Harris]

Hacking mice used to be more common, before the optiwiz and other cheap encoders came out.

That's just it. There doesn't seem to be much of an advantage over a mouse. The Opti-Wiz doesn't support more buttons than a conventional mouse.

So the demand for "print your own encoder wheel" software also was higher (I can't google the one I knew about, though).

But since you still need a spinner with the Opti-Wiz as you would with a mouse pcb, I again don't see the advantage.

I'm not saying hacking is wrong or you shouldn't do it, just the fact that the number of people hacking mice has dropped drastically since I started into this field.  (Hacking mice used to be a way more common topic here 5 years ago.)  I'm guessing there are two major reasons that the optiwiz/optipac/u-hid/other optical encoder now are more popular are: the encoders are easier, and most mice don't use wheels anymore.

"Open" spinners, with the encoder wheel visible, were very common until the "closed" tt2/spintrak/tt-hl/spintrak2 came out and mostly pushed the open ones off the board.  You might be able to replace the wheels on the open spinners.  Tornado (AFAIK) is the only one still in production (I thought the blackhawk was too, but its website is down, and its not showing on google anymore).


But my point of my first post was that the demand for kits of optical encoder wheels is very small, partially due to that there are ways to make (print) you own. 

As for "encoder wheel kits", GGG has one booster kit for arcade trackballs; I don't know of any other simular kits (to GGG's or your suggested ones) out there (besides replacement, same as OEM, sets).

Yeah, mouse hacks were a common subject just after the turn of the century. But even then it seemed that not many did them as much as talked about them.

If you get one of those cheaper encoders like the Opti-Wiz, you'll end up buying another anyway so you can use more controls on your panel, if you're like most here and require more than just three buttons and a spinner.

P.S. I was just wondering if I  can plug my Tornado into my MiniPAC.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[u_rebelscum]

P.S. I was just wondering if I  can plug my Tornado into my MiniPAC.

I don't have a tornado, so please bear with my general answers.

If the tornado has its own USB or PS/2 connection, not without hacking it.  The MiniPac is looking for raw quadrature data from the sensors. so you'd need to hack it but the opposite as you'd hack a mouse: you'd use the tornado's sensors and cutout its cirsuits.  But if it has its own usb or ps/2 connection why would you need to hock it to a minipac?

So if it doesn't have its own encoder board, it should work with the minipac.

[D_Harris]

P.S. I was just wondering if I  can plug my Tornado into my MiniPAC.

I don't have a tornado, so please bear with my general answers.

If the tornado has its own USB or PS/2 connection, not without hacking it.  The MiniPac is looking for raw quadrature data from the sensors. so you'd need to hack it but the opposite as you'd hack a mouse: you'd use the tornado's sensors and cutout its cirsuits.  But if it has its own usb or ps/2 connection why would you need to hock it to a minipac?

So if it doesn't have its own encoder board, it should work with the minipac.

I'm not sure I understand what you wrote, but connecting the Tornado to the MiniPAC is so I can use more than three buttons when I need to play non-spinner games.

And I'm assuming it is the same as a mouse, but with only two axis. So if I can plug a mouse into the MiniPAC, then the Tornado spinner should be the same.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[u_rebelscum]

I looked into the tornado, and it's usb (plugs directly into the computer).  So it won't plug into the minipac without hacking.

But why hook it to the minipac?  The tornado supports 3 mouse buttons, the minipac 2 AFAIK.  It won't make a difference if you have the tornado hooked directly to the PC (as long as the 2/3 mouse buttons are also hooked to the same device).  The other buttons on the minipac are keyboard buttons, so it doesn't matter if you have to tornado attached on its own.
 
Hmm, or do you also have a Trackball too?  If you want to drag and drop with both TB & spinner with one set of mouse buttons, that might be a reason to hack the tornado.  Otherwise you're wasting you time.

[D_Harris]

I looked into the tornado, and it's usb (plugs directly into the computer).  So it won't plug into the minipac without hacking.

But why hook it to the minipac?  The tornado supports 3 mouse buttons, the minipac 2 AFAIK.  It won't make a difference if you have the tornado hooked directly to the PC (as long as the 2/3 mouse buttons are also hooked to the same device).  The other buttons on the minipac are keyboard buttons, so it doesn't matter if you have to tornado attached on its own.
 
Hmm, or do you also have a Trackball too?  If you want to drag and drop with both TB & spinner with one set of mouse buttons, that might be a reason to hack the tornado.  Otherwise you're wasting you time.

You lost me again.

I have the PS/2 connection on my Tornado. And the MiniPAC would be for games with more controls(joystick or more than three buttons) when not playing the spinner games.

I was just trying to figure out a way to get all that while only having to use a single connection from the control panel, which would be the USB connector from the MiniPAC.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[u_rebelscum]

I looked into the tornado, and it's usb (plugs directly into the computer).  So it won't plug into the minipac without hacking.

But why hook it to the minipac?  The tornado supports 3 mouse buttons, the minipac 2 AFAIK.  It won't make a difference if you have the tornado hooked directly to the PC (as long as the 2/3 mouse buttons are also hooked to the same device).  The other buttons on the minipac are keyboard buttons, so it doesn't matter if you have to tornado attached on its own.
 
Hmm, or do you also have a Trackball too?  If you want to drag and drop with both TB & spinner with one set of mouse buttons, that might be a reason to hack the tornado.  Otherwise you're wasting you time.

You lost me again.

I have the PS/2 connection on my Tornado. And the MiniPAC would be for games with more controls(joystick or more than three buttons) when not playing the spinner games.

I was just trying to figure out a way to get all that while only having to use a single connection from the control panel, which would be the USB connector from the MiniPAC.

Sorry, I'm making assumptions on what you have. 
AFAIK, the tornado can do either ps/2 or usb, with any passive ps/2 to usb mouse adapter.  It looks like they come with one from happs.  Of course, older versions might not be USB smart*, but then again they could have been.

So I think you could get a USB hub and a passive ($1 - $5) mouse adapter, to get one cable out of CP.  (Hacking might be more your style, though.)

Is the CP removable?  I totally understand wanting one cable in that case.  If it's part of the cab, I don't see anything wrong with two connections.


*USB smart:
An encoder that can tell if it's connected to a usb or a ps/2 port, and send the correct data accordingly.  All these need is a passive physical wiring adapter.  PS/2 & USB are very similar, at lest for mice, so it's easy to do both.  There shouldn't be any performance issues (ps/2 only mice, OTOH, need active adapters, and do have performance issues).
Examples of encoders like this are the optiwiz and every single ps/2 usb mouse in the world.  The current tornado by happs also is usb smart; I have no idea on older version, though.

BTW, I would have been more helpful and more on subject if you had posted more info on your situation.  I've been just guessing and making assumptions on the parts left out, as you can tell by me losing so much.  However, I think the only details that's not clear is what version of tornado you have, and the correlating if it's usb capable or not, and if your CP is fixed or movable.

[D_Harris]

BTW, I would have been more helpful and more on subject if you had posted more info on your situation.  I've been just guessing and making assumptions on the parts left out, as you can tell by me losing so much.  However, I think the only details that's not clear is what version of tornado you have, and the correlating if it's usb capable or not, and if your CP is fixed or movable.

Actually, it was a simple question, so there were no other details to give.

I was just wondering if I could plug my Tornado into my MiniPAC, thinking that someone else with these two devices may have tried it.

But I'm thinking the MiniPACs two PS/2 connections are Keyboard "in" only. (And"out" to PC). in USB mode you can use a spinner.

The bottom line is that anyone who wants a spinner control panel with anything more than two or three buttons on it will need to purchase two controllers.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[apachecontrols]

>
> ...I thought the blackhawk was too, but its website is down,
> and its not showing on google anymore...
>

Still here.

Had some upgrades done on the website, but now this work is complete.

Let me know if anyone has questions about our products.

Thanks,

  David


Apache Controls, LLC
Honeoye Falls, NY (USA)

ONLINE: www.apachecontrols.com
EMAIL: support@apachecontrols.com

[D_Harris]

>
> ...I thought the blackhawk was too, but its website is down,
> and its not showing on google anymore...
>

Still here.

Had some upgrades done on the website, but now this work is complete.

Let me know if anyone has questions about our products.

Thanks,

  David


Apache Controls, LLC
Honeoye Falls, NY (USA)

ONLINE: www.apachecontrols.com
EMAIL: support@apachecontrols.com

Am I correct in assuming that the Push/Pull Spinner has no support for buttons?(Are there any spinner games that don't use buttons?).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Havok]

Am I correct in assuming that the Push/Pull Spinner has no support for buttons?(Are there any spinner games that don't use buttons?).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Looks like you can connect up to 5 buttons to it's interface...

[D_Harris]

Am I correct in assuming that the Push/Pull Spinner has no support for buttons?(Are there any spinner games that don't use buttons?).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Looks like you can connect up to 5 buttons to it's interface...

The wording must is throwing me off.

So I'm assuming you're saying that "5 switch buttons built into the board design (Mouse 0 thru Mouse 4)" means that it will drive five game play buttons.(ie: Left, Right, Thrust, Fire, and Hyperspace).

I'm also assuming that the only product they sell, besides the USB to PS2 Connector and screw driver, is the push button spinner.(A regular spinner with five buttons would have been just what I needed).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[apachecontrols]

Hi Darren,

> 5 switch buttons

That is correct, you can have multiple game play buttons (up to 5).

We currently sell two models of push/pull spinner; primary (full controller board) and secondary (encoder only).

Checkout the online product info and manual for specs on each model.
  http://www.apachecontrols.com/blackhawkinformation.html
  http://www.apachecontrols.com/ApacheControlsBlackhawk.pdf

Hope that helps...

  David

Apache Controls, LLC
Honeoye Falls, NY (USA)

ONLINE: www.apachecontrols.com
EMAIL: support@apachecontrols.com