Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: daveg2000 on February 06, 2005, 10:12:45 am

Title: Using Serial Mouse/Trackball - This thing sucks
Post by: daveg2000 on February 06, 2005, 10:12:45 am

Im in the planning stage of building a new mega-cabinet
in place of the cabinet I'm using now (which is a Defender-style cab)

I have no place for a trackball right now, so I just use a Serial
Trackball/Mouse.

I've noticed when trying to play games in Mame w/it, that I only
get movement that only goes so fast on the screen.
Meaning, if I play a game where you could normally ZIP a cursor across the screen, it only moves at a turtles pace, nomatter how fast you spin the ball....

If I go the way of ordering a ball from Happs, say with a USB connector, am I going to run into this same 'limitiation' or is there something else I need to get the true 'spin speed' out of my balls?
(that just sounds wrong)

hehe  thanks.

Title: Re: Using Serial Mouse/Trackball - This thing sucks
Post by: Minwah on February 06, 2005, 10:30:16 am

Have you set the analog sensitivity in the Tab > Input menu? ;)

Title: Re: Using Serial Mouse/Trackball - This thing sucks
Post by: daveg2000 on February 06, 2005, 02:03:03 pm

Actually... I think I did try this (but it may have been loooong ago)
I'll try again later today and see if that helps any....

:)

Title: Re: Using Serial Mouse/Trackball - This thing sucks
Post by: daveg2000 on February 06, 2005, 05:19:04 pm

OKay, I went into a good game to test in (Missile Command)
and changed the default sensitivity to 50% instead of 20%.


Yes, the cursor moves faster, with less ball spin... which I guess
is by design....

But when I spin the ball (say left to right) to get the crosshair
over on the right side... the cursor bounces around a little and
never goes across.

If I roll the ball Slower, the crosshairs respond as they should..

Could this maybe be my trackball/mouse ?   Something
with the sensors inside not being able to handle 'fast response'?

Title: Re: Using Serial Mouse/Trackball - This thing sucks
Post by: JODY on February 06, 2005, 05:51:24 pm

Sounds like the sensitivity is now too high.

Title: Re: Using Serial Mouse/Trackball - This thing sucks
Post by: daveg2000 on February 06, 2005, 08:44:23 pm

Nah.. even when the sensitivity is down... (even at the default of 20%)
it would react the same way if I spun the ball fast...

Is this something that a good quality ball would fix?
I am not familliar with the good or bad qualities in a mouse/trackball.

Title: Re: Using Serial Mouse/Trackball - This thing sucks
Post by: JODY on February 06, 2005, 10:11:17 pm

Does it work fine in Windows?

Title: Re: Using Serial Mouse/Trackball - This thing sucks
Post by: daveg2000 on February 10, 2005, 08:03:12 am

yup.. mouse pointer works normal in windows....

I still think its just junk...  ;)

Title: Re: Using Serial Mouse/Trackball - This thing sucks
Post by: Minwah on February 10, 2005, 10:58:06 am

Quote from: daveg2000 on February 06, 2005, 05:19:04 pm

But when I spin the ball (say left to right) to get the crosshair
over on the right side... the cursor bounces around a little and
never goes across.

This sound like what can happen when the encoder wheel is not set correctly between the optics.  Not sure why that would be the case here...