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happ mini trackball

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vrf:
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I poked around for kiosk trackballs, and I found one of those Devlin keyboard/trackball combinations on ebay. 50 bucks now, but it could go up. I'd also have to have someone cut the trackball out of the stainless steel shell. (I don't have many tools at my disposal.)

Anyhow, I'm a little under budget right now. I live in Taiwan, so I was able to save some money on a few of the other parts. And it is important to me to have a high-spinning ball like in the arcades. So I think I could swing the $200 dollars, if it doesn't mean I have to buy that $45 cable. Is that just an extension cable, or do I need it to interface to the PC? I suppose I do need the button harness in order to wire up mouse buttons?

As for the mounting plate, the footprint is a little too big. I'll have to rig something else up. I wonder if I can drill holes about 1/3 of the way down into my acrylic CP. That way the screws will fall below the surface and can be covered by my CP artwork.

SteveJ34:
How about this one....

http://tinyurl.com/n7ooz

...not sure about what interface would be required but maybe you can email the seller and get a readable schematic and/or manufacturer info.

Best of luck with your project.

RayB:
The problem with such a small trackball is it has no "spin". In many games, you want to be able to spin the ball and have it keep spinning for a while after you lift your hand off of it. These little kiosk ones don't spin at all (from what I've seen and heard). They stop right away

ArtMAME:
Yeah, I was thinking that also.  Some some do and some don't.  Same thing with Trackballs integrated into keyboards.  I have seen only one keyboard trackball that keeps on spinning (it is less than 1 inch diameter), but most that I have seen don't keep spinning.  Same with kiosk trackballs.  You never know until you actually try it.

Just out of curiosity, how big is your control panel and what controls are you trying to put on it?  Have you considered swappable control panels?  Or maybe even a 2nd cabinet? ;)

vrf:

--- Quote from: SteveJ34 on February 21, 2006, 10:33:38 pm ---How about this one....
http://tinyurl.com/n7ooz

--- End quote ---

wow... that is a good price. I wish the seller gave more information about the footprint and interface. (The second picture he has is too small to read.)

I hear what you guys are saying about the spin. I definitely want a nice spin in a tiny package. That's what initially attracted me to the Happ ball. It claims it has a "big ball feel." ( :-X) But without a BYOACer confirmation of that, I guess it would be pretty stupid to order one. (Can anyone say that this Happ ball definitely does NOT have a free spin to it?)

As for the CP size, it'll be tiny, about 9.5" x 6.5", although I'll go a little smaller if I can't get a decent trackball in there:



Thanks for all the comments guys! You can check out "Project RGB" in the announcements forum for more info on this project.

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