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Arkanoid Spinner + mouse hack HELP

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8way:
OK so I picked up an original Arkanoid spinner some time ago and now I’m trying to interface it via mouse hack. I have been at it for about a week now researching and trying different things and still no luck. Tried five different mice and can’t get any of them to work.  I followed the instructions found here http://arcadecontrols.com/files/Miscellaneous/Mouse_to_Trackball_Instructions.pdf . I tested the spinner with a multimeter and it seems fine. Am I missing something here or is finding a compatible mouse really just a shot in the dark. Anyone have any clue to what the problem is here? 

Hoopz:
I tried hacking a mouse to an original Tron spinner without success.  You may consider buying a replacement optical board from fixumdude in the B/S/T forum.  For about $10 or less you can get one shipped to you.  I thought it was well worth the money. 

Not sure if you already have an optical interface or not, but I connected mine right to my Opti-pac. 

Obviously, someone much smarter than me may be able to help you with the mouse hack.   ;D

8way:
I think you misunderstood me, I do have the spinners optical interface, that’s what I’m trying to hook up to the mouse PCB. This way you don’t need something like an Opti-pac, that’s the mouse hack I’m referring too, not the mouse hack that you use its own optics.

But anyways the good news is I got it working. I went back to the drawing boards and did more research to find out I was missing an important step. Active Low/Active High is what I was missing. Still don’t fully understand the difference or how to test it, but I knew I had a spinner and it was Active High and I had to get it to Active Low to work with the mouse PCB.

I was just about to give up and just buy an Opti-Wiz, good thing I didn’t because I would have had the same exact problem. Opti-Wiz only accepts Active Low signals just like the five different mice PCB’s that I tried. I guess Active High Spinners are pretty uncommon, I just happened to end up with one.

In fact the Arkanoid Spinners came with two different optic boards, one by WICO( Active Low) and one by Taito(Active High).

OK so how do we turn Active High to Active Low? Very simple, all you need is two 2.2Kohms resistors. Now all you do is put them between X1 and ground and X2 and ground on the mouse PCB. But you don’t have to worry about any of this unless you have an Active High Spinner or Track Ball.

Now as far as any other compatibility issues with the mice, 4 out of 5 worked for me after finding out about the resistors. The one that didn’t work was a Logitech, it had 4 prong receivers compared to the standard 3. All of them seem to perform equally, no backspin or stuttering. Now time to play some Arkanoid >:D

edit by moderator: added paragraphs for easier reading

Kremmit:

--- Quote from: 8way on May 20, 2007, 09:18:55 am ---In fact the Arkanoid Spinners came with two different optic boards, one by WICO( Active Low) and one by Taito(Active High).
--- End quote ---

There's something I've never heard before.  Every Arkanoid spinner I've come across has the Wico board on it, including the one on my desk.  Mind posting a pic of the Taito board for comparison?


--- Quote ---OK so how do we turn Active High to Active Low? Very simple, all you need is two 2.2Kohms resistors. Now all you do is put them between X1 and ground and X2 and ground on the mouse PCB.

--- End quote ---

This should go in the wiki.  Good info!

muzland:
Well done 8way,

Just the info I needed. I have 2 arkanoid spinners and both have Taito boards.

How did you work out they are active high?

How did you test the optic board with a multimeter? What do you look for?

Both of my spinners are untested so when I do the mouse hack and it does not work (these things never do 1st time around) I will stand a chance of working out what is wrong.

By the way will this work with resistors other than 2K2? I have some 3k7 and 1k's knocking around somewhere. Also where did you get this info from about the conversion from active high to active low. Definitely one for the Wiki.

Muzland

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