Just a quickie: DIY spinner

[FinnJävel]

Hi everybody

Just a quick show of a spinner project i did to keep myself occupied.

100% based on UDb23's idea on https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/4858/diy-spinner. A big thank you to him (or her). Being the stingey b'stard that I am, the idea really appealed to me.

The ingedients for this soup were:
- A Nedis mouse: https://www.nedis.com/product/wired-mouse-1000-dpi-3-button-white .   At 1000dpi and 1,60€, an easy choice.
- A KFL000 flange bearing. 4,56€ on Ebay. Would have rather bought it from a local dealer, but they were 35€  there, soooo....yeah. The 10mm was a good choice because I had some
- 10mm threaded rod left over. So 0€, or a few cents if you have to buy it.
- RND 455-00279 plastic box. Thought about making a plywood box but with these at 2,50€ a pop, the plywood box wasn't worth the hassle.
- wood
- glue
- cardboard
- screws

Total spent: peanuts.

Now, I have never tried a 'real' spinner so I can't really compare. These do work but I feel the lack a little something. Partly because of the varied quality of the bearings (I ordered two, the other one spin much better), partly because the mouse skipping on the cardboard but also because of the whole analog/digital thing. But you get what you (don't) pay for, I guess. Still, games like Pole Position and Arkanoid are now completely playable, which of course, they weren't with just joysticks.

The basic recipe is described in UDb23's post. I just changed and added a few flavourings.

The basic construction. Not that pretty to look at but 1: you're not supposed to 2: it does the job. Had to saw off part of the mouse to get it to fit but that was really no problem. I also removed the top half of the mouse but I would recommend leaving the bottom half because the laser and the reader eye are calibrated so.
Other than that, just screw 'n glue.


Rod hole ( ) drilled and cable hole carved. I chose this plastic box partly because of the look, believe it or not. It's kinda retro and reminds me of my beloved Amiga 500.


80mm wood spinner attached with hot glue. It should hold, I had to remove it once to adjust the bearing and it took a decent amount of work to get the spinner off the rod. Dark wood chosen for that 70's/80's vibe.


And here they are sitting on my cab. Here you can also see the rubber tape on the bottom. The spinners stay put while playing but are still completely detachable. I have two usb ports on the bottom of the cp for quick plugging.

Made a pair of them to play Off the Wall (Sente) with a buddy. Great fun, that game.



EDIT: One could naturally get a bigger box and add a couple of buttons straight on the spinner. Wire them to the mouse buttons or whatever.

[PL1]

How far from the center of the bearing is the focal point of the laser?

The further that distance is, the greater the linear velocity i.e. how far the cardboard moves relative to the mouse sensor.
- Too close, you lose sensitivity.
- Too far, the sensor might not be able to keep up during a fast spin.


Scott

[FinnJävel]

Can't really say excactly, I placed the bearing by plugging the mouse into a pc and rotating the rod and moving the bearing so the edge was as close to the focal point as possible (=highest speed) and horizontally centered so the mouse cursor moved as horizontally as possible on screen.

I actually didn't think about the sensor not keeping up with the spin, but I see how that could be a problem. Luckily I'm old and slow so it won't affect me but someone else with normal human reflexes might want to look into it. Or perhaps use a better mouse with adjustable sensitivity. Also don't know if black cardboard is the best alternative here.

[PL1]

I actually didn't think about the sensor not keeping up with the spin, but I see how that could be a problem. Luckily I'm old and slow so it won't affect me but someone else with normal human reflexes might want to look into it. Or perhaps use a better mouse with adjustable sensitivity. Also don't know if black cardboard is the best alternative here.

The problem I ran into while working on the pinball controller with mouse shooter was the IPS rating. (inches per second)

The first mouse I tried was only rated for 20 IPS, but the shooter was travelling up to 120 IPS.   

If you can find the IPS rating for your mouse, you can calculate the max revolutions per second for your spinner using this formula:

     mouse IPS rating / circumference of the cardboard in inches = max revolutions per second

*** Circumference of the cardboard in inches = max distance the cardboard can travel per revolution. ***

Assuming a low estimate of 20 IPS and a high estimate circumference of 2", the mouse can handle up to 10 revolutions per second = 600 RPM.   

Black cardboard should work fine as long as there's enough texture for the mouse to register movement and you aren't spinning the knob so hard/fast that the cardboard tears apart or flies off the rod.   


Scott