Atari Spinner + Mouse Hack = Problem. Help!

[_Iz-]

Here's the scenario. I obtained an atari spinner from a tempest cabinet. I connected it to my hacked mouse and all the mouse pointer does in windows is "vibrate". Basically moves 1 pixel left and immediately 1 pixel right back to where it started. I know the mouse hack works as I had a 2 1/4" wico trackball connected to it. I know the spinner works because I took it back to the person I obtained it from and he connected it to his tempest cabinet and it worked perfectly. I can't figure this one out for the life of me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[SirPoonga]

Is the encoder wheel simular to the tball's?

[_Iz-]

Similar, but much larger. Trackball encoder wheels are ~1" in diameter. Spinner encoder wheel is ~3" in diameter. cutouts and spokes seem very much the same size on either.

[SirPoonga]

Ask Kelsey (oscarcontrols) , he;d probably be the best to answer that.

[_Iz-]

I solved my problem although I have no idea why this makes a difference. I completely covered every second cutout in the encoder wheel with black electical tape. Had to crank the speed up in mame a bit but other than that works awesome!

[SirPoonga]

it could be speed of wheel.

[u_rebelscum]

I think the sensor wheel gaps are spaced so the mouse optic-receivers get blocked/unblocked at the same time.  They need to do this at different times so the mouse can tell which direction the wheel is moving.

[_Iz-]

I think the sensor wheel gaps are spaced so the mouse optic-receivers get blocked/unblocked at the same time.  They need to do this at different times so the mouse can tell which direction the wheel is moving.

I was using the original optics that came with the spinner. The same optics were in the trackball. (I opened the trackball and compared it's pcb's with the spinner's pcb) I just connected the 4 wires from original optic board in the spinner to my mouse hack same as I did for the trackball. All optic components have been removed from the mouse and wires were soldered to their previous locations.

[Minwah]

I recently hacked Atari optics (RoadBlaster wheel) to a mouse.  I used exactly the same mouse as I used to hack to a trackball ( http://mamewah.mameworld.net/MouseHack.html ).

It worked perfectly  Perhaps your mouse is odd and doesn't like the signal it is getting (don't use a Logitech mouse).

Good luck

[u_rebelscum]

I think the sensor wheel gaps are spaced so the mouse optic-receivers get blocked/unblocked at the same time.

I was using the original optics that came with the spinner. The same optics were in the trackball. (I opened the trackball and compared it's pcb's with the spinner's pcb) I just connected the 4 wires from original optic board in the spinner to my mouse hack same as I did for the trackball. All optic components have been removed from the mouse and wires were soldered to their previous locations.

Ahh, okay.  Since closing ever other gap fixed it, I'd combine Minwah & SirPoonga, then.  I guess the speed of the sensors changing (the signal) does not work with the mouse circuits (too fast) with the unmodified wheel.

At least you did get it to work.