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Authentic feeling Tempest spinner

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2084:
I was looking to build an authentic feeling Tempest spinner and after looking at a few old posts on this site (many of which detail options which are no longer on the market) initially decided on a Turbo Twist 2 with an an extra weight attached.  This is a great quality spinner, but to me was missing some qualities of the original.  Specifically, when the originally was spun fast it creates characteristic noise due to the shaft being slightly too small for the bearings that were used.   As someone who frequently goes to the Strong Museum of Play here in Rochester where they have an original machine it was easy to compare my creation to an original, and when I did this I wasn't satisfied with what I had.  I eventually was able to buy an original Tempest control panel (complete with knob, spinner and Atari volcano buttons) on eBay.  Of course this spinner had a great original feel but didn't work (I think the infrared LEDs were burned out).  I might have been able to fix it but even extending the shaft a short distance to use it on my 3/4" wood control panel caused the vibration to be significantly attenuated and ruined the feel of spinner.  I tried a few options such as coupling the Turbo Twist 2 to the original using a shaft coupling from the bottom of the Turbo Twist 2 to the top of the original but this also damped out all of the vibration I was looking to preserve.  I even tried some shaft couplers such as spider couplers that should allow vibration but after spending about $70 at McMaster-Carr all of the options were either too heavy or didn't allow enough vibration.  I finally came up with this option where I mounted the original under the control panel and connected it using some nylon gears.  The gears have big enough teeth that they can be far enough apart so that the vibration and noise occur.  I went to the Strong Museum over the weekend and tested it against the original and mine seems to create the same feel.  I suppose my knob has slightly more inertia, and is a bit of a Rube Goldberg approach but I like it.  I'm curious if anyone else had any experience with a project like this.  I will have to post pictures of the project (a wall mounted Tempest than runs on a Raspberry Pi) when it is done.  But, now that the game is playable I have less incentive to work on it...

yotsuya:
I hooked up the original Tempest spinner I had to one of rablack97's awesome trackball encoders, and it works like a dream.

tron84:
I made a Plexi Controller for my Tempest spinner because of the short shaft.

I used the Opti-Wiz interface from GGG & one of Randy's spinner knobs.
I have the original optic board, which was still fine but I put on this reproduction optic board so I would have a new one on it.
http://www.twistywristarcade.com/atari/781-atari-steering-optic-pcb-.html

RandyT:
Nice!  If you really want authenticity, I have a limited stock of black skirted knobs which are virtually identical to the originals. :)

2084:
tron84-
  That is a nice CP, I hadn't considered the plexi option.  To be honest I would have used the real metal CP I bought on eBay, except when I started the project I couldn't find one in decent condition so I made one out of wood with a reproduction CPO.  I found it interesting you put the spinner on the left and buttons on the right.  Is this a left handed approach?  Thanks also for the info on the reproduction optic board.  If I had known about this board earlier I'm sure I would have bought one.

RandyT-
  I am currently using an original knob I took of the control panel I bought, otherwise I would be in the market.

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