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Ultimarc U-Trak "sensitivity" problem

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Cynicaster:

--- Quote from: yotsuya on April 04, 2011, 02:10:42 pm ---

I had the same issue at first, but I think you just need to break it in. Over time, I've noticed mine has gotten smoother. Either that, or I compensate for that jump by using the ball differently.

--- End quote ---

Two questions:

- do you have a U-Trak as well?
- when you say you "had the same issue", are you referring to the "jumping" trackball, the actual behavior of the mouse on the screen, or both?

@markronz--thanks for the info, I'll look into those things. 

yotsuya:
1) I have the U-Trak as well.

2) I had what felt like a jumping trackball. I think I just either subconsciously accounted for it by using the trackball differently, or it may have been how things were mounted. I try not to release the ball as much as I might have when I did when I was a kid, and I think that helps. 

I will say that I opened up the unit and found that one of the encoder wheels was loose to the point that it fell off when I picked it up. I tightened everything up and went from there.

tsaylor:
Interesting ... I have the U-Trak as well and have the same disappointment (smoother some directions than others, "jumping" like you describe).  It feels pretty loose so I'm planning to open it and see if something needs to be tightened.  I've only tested it a bit on my cardboard control panel mockup, so it definitely isn't broken in yet.  Hopefully it will improve over time.

Cynicaster:
Hi guys:

I thought I’d post an update to the situation.

My original post was written pretty much based on my very very first impressions of the trackball after assembly of the CP—i.e., maybe a few minutes of “test play” on Marble Madness, Missile Command, and Centipede. 

The following day, I had a friend over and he asked if we could have a game of Golden Tee.  I was reluctant to load up that game knowing that there were issues to be sorted out with the trackball but we tried it anyway.  It worked fairly well and we played about three 9-hole games of GT. 

The day after that, I went back and tried Marble Madness, Missile Command, and Millipede and noticed a major improvement in comparison to the first day.  Marble Madness went from being unplayable to quite fun (I totally suck at it though).  In playing the other two games, I really felt “in control” of what I was doing.  Maybe it was just in my head but the ball seemed to be more smoothly rolling.

I didn’t change anything else in the meantime (software or otherwise) so I’m wondering if it really was just a break-in issue.  Maybe a few thousand turns on the bearings from driving golf balls in Golden Tee was all that was needed.  I’ll hold off on celebrating for now but the signs are encouraging.  Will update if anything changes. 


   

boardjunkie:
Trackballs are fussy to say the least in MAME. I had problems with not getting the greatest onscreen speed, and when it got close to where it needed to be there was problems with  the players character stopping or reversing direction. This was with a Wico home model trackball hacked to USB via the board from a USB ball mouse.

What I ended up doing was covering every other "window" in the chopper discs and jacking the sensitivity settings way up. Worked great after that.....YMMV.

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