my spinner hack using a mouse and a hard drive and a rubber band

[facesmiths]

this is actually part of an idea I have to make a mouse based yoke but only half of it since it is just for startrek tempest and tron. I have not added the wood yet but I will soon (knob made of coco bola)

**edit**

I havea sort of page with the pictures on it and more info but again any questions would be appriciated as I may over look something I did since I dont keep track of every little detail and I know sometimes a seemingly insignificant detail or step might prove to be really imprtant if some one does not know to do it.

http://morphious69.co.cc/spinner.html

[facesmiths]

a picture of the top metal part the knob is to be anchored to

[facesmiths]

one last one for now i have time to properly document it. it does work great I just had to reverse the controlls in mame and now it does it all fast move and no revers like sometimes you get from going to fast with a track ball (slamming I think it is called)

[gonzo90017]

Cool. Hope you can make a tutorial. 

[facesmiths]

I am trying to document it a bit better but I think it will be a while before I get all the details down. any questions people have would help me make sure I dont miss something people might want to know to make it easier to make one. this guy really spins for ever by the way. when I get the mounting plate on the bottom bearing to stablize the center rod I think it will go even longer but it is not effecting it's performance at all. I had no idea I could do so well at tempest and using as a mouse I can see how this and a y co-ordinate split in two would be really helpfull in a lot of applications.(there are usualy keys to restrict movement on one or another plane with most programs but I get them all messed up so it is easier to just enter numeric data to avoid problems but with this thing it would be a snap man.)

[IG-88]

Very Interesting....

I'm curious, doesn't the rubber band travel all up and down the shaft? How do you keep it in place? Also don't that type of rubber get brittle after a couple months exposed to the air?

What's the inside of the mouse look like?

Nevermind just seen your website. Very cool   

[Xiaou2]

 There was at least one person who made a Starwars flight yoke with optics...
and they regretted it. 

 Optics easily get out of calibration for Pot based games... and on devices like yokes...
you cant reset them easily.   It would become very annoying very quickly.

 
 Steven's International sells a nice set of green gears of varying sizes which
work excellent for yoke/pot applications.


 www.stevenshobby.com
 Part# SVM-MR8

 

[facesmiths]

I thought the travel was going ot be a problem to but it wasn't got the angle and positioning right the first time and yes sadly they do degrade so as soon as I can find a way to make a printer band solid I will try to migrate to one of those. ( rubber with some sort of cloth string type stuff inside and usually has gear ribbing so go on the motor and around something to move cartridges and such) as for the optics needing recalibrated I am not sure how it is going ot go but I am going to try and leave enough movement to allow the person to simply swing it over the edge of the screen to calibrate it them selves. we'll see how it goes and maybe a new approch will be garnered maybe not and I may have to go the other route but I will look over www.sdp-si.com/ gears to be sure as well

[DaOld Man]

I like this idea.
You might want to use a rubber o-ring in place of the rubber band. (Check your hardware store).
O-ring would probably last a lot longer than a rubber band, but wont stretch as much, so you will need to get one the right size.

Again, i like this idea!
 

[facesmiths]

"O"rings man shear genius (and I am not kidding that is really awesome I had not thought of it. though unfortunatly this will die as soon as I finish getting my table top CNC mill running again.(space constraints) then I will start cutting encoder wheels and just do a "direct drive" type of install. this may be the way to go with my yoke too since I will know exactly how many passes the sensors will get and then calculate to avoid calibration issues but I am leaning toward not blocking movement on either  rotation on those so it can be re calibrated by the person playing in mid game if need be. I have played it with a track ball and it works excellently. will see soon enough I suppose as I am possessed by this hobby

[DaOld Man]

Well, definitely keep us posted on the CNC project.
(Man I really hate you guys with cnc's  )

I think we all are possessed by this hobby. I know I am..

[Barry Barcrest]

The problem with a yoke as opposed to a mouse or track ball is that it has a center. When you power on your pc you move the mouse to the bes place on the pad so you can move the cursor, with a trackball you just spin the ball to center it but with a yoke it gives a whole world of problems. It would probably be easier with software and a button on the yoke that when centered and you pushed it centered the mouse pointer on the screen. You could probably make that an automated process by sending a signal to center the mouse pointer when the yoke was centered...

Sorry just thinking out loud here.

[bsellers100]

interesting hack.  How did you reverse the controls in Mame?

[facesmiths]

P to pause and then tab and go to the analog controls

[facesmiths]

ok I have my CNC unit set up so I will be building a proper spinner. so is there any interest in a  metal encoder wheel? any ideas on what would be the best amount of "spokes"I have 1/32nd" 1/16th" and 1/8th" diameter end mills. I also have a drill mill anyone know if maybe the angles would be bad on the sides of the holes? reason I ask is because I can make any size slot with that by just not going all the way through.

[IG-88]

No help with your last question but I would be willing to buy one of these from you when you get a few built.

ps. What the hell is your avatar?

[darkomen64]

Interesting way of doing it.. i was thinking about following this method myself.. tweaked a little...
http://www.instructables.com/id/Desktop_Scroll_Wheel_and_Volume_Control/

[facesmiths]

@IG-88 that is actually a pic of me at a local coffee shop.

oh yeah selling well it depends on how well they work. if the thickness does not negatively effect it once painted with a mat black paint of some sort (I have looked and it seems lacquer is going to be the best I can find since they don't make a black epoxy paint that is mat.) if this fails to be effective I have another idea for a type of clear film with black image that has to be solid and opaque since it is used with a very bright light to set light sensitive epoxy for screen printing processes, which might be more effective for higher resolutions I am just wondering about the reflections from the transparent material since this may negatively effect the eye of the set up. I will keep you all posted

[djcalle]

Hey Facesmiths,

I was looking to build one of those and saw a few diy guides, but your idea with the rubber band and mouse encoder "as is" looks the best way to go for me.


I opened a hard disk and located the needed part.
But I'm not sure how to remove it from the casing.
I thought of drilling the center from the bottom, but I dont know if that will leave the part functional.
How did you do proceed?

Thanks,

Calle

[IG-88]

Don't know if this helps or not but I think that center post is just friction fitted in there. A couple good whacks with an appropriate sized punch has knocked them out for me....

[facesmiths]

that is what it looks like to me as well but I would check closely in the center of the top and make sure there is not a torx (star shaped hex) or a hex (allen wrench type hole) cause it may be held to that as the part with the platters spinning on it has 2 bearings inside and the center of the bearing is fixed on the motor base while the inside of the spinner that the discs are on is where a magnet that has many poles (magnetic poles ns ns) radiating inward. I took the bearings from one and used it as a locking point by pinching them with the nuts on a piece of all thread. then I used a second center and removed one of the bearings so I could pinch only one of them from both sides thus not stopping it from spinning freely. let me draw up a couple renderings and I will post them in hopes they help explain this.

[facesmiths]

sorry this is a duplicate post that had not had the pictures added and I can't seem to delete my own posts so it stays as this explanation.

[facesmiths]

ok here are the pics basicly the first is just a bearing so you know the parts I am talking about (if you are color blind it might be hard so let me know and I can find another way)

first picture:
the blue part is the outside and the green is the cover over the little balls that do the smooth ride basically. the gray inner thing is the inner race and that is what the rod is actually going though

second picture:
the yellowish thing added here is supposed to be the threaded rod but it has no threads so pretend ok?

third picture:
here is shown the nuts on the all thread (remember to pretend it has threads and is not a smooth rod) pinching on the inner races (cant see them as they are under the nuts but they were gray remember?)

this way the rod moves smoothly.

if you leave space and pinch on the race from one bearing and another it creates friction on the balls in the bearings thus the two bearings become just a pair of washers. if you want to use both bearings you have to put something inbetweeen them that hits only that inner race and nothing else before pinching on them and then they will rotate smoothly. I would do this for stability as the knob wobbles a bit with only one except I am working on a differing design that has the encoder on the rod going into the knob and using bearings with a 5/16th inch inner hole so it will be much beefeir. also the encoders will be metal instead of plastic. I will update it and here when I get it working properly and have some pictures.

[djcalle]

Thanks for the detailled answer.

I will try this tonight when  I get back from work.

[SirPeale]

P to pause and then tab and go to the analog controls

They must have fixed that...once upon a time if you paused when setting your controls they wouldn't stay in place.  You had to do it with the game going.

[facesmiths]

P to pause and then tab and go to the analog controls

They must have fixed that...once upon a time if you paused when setting your controls they wouldn't stay in place.  You had to do it with the game going.

that is good to know incase I use an older version. I have noticed some serious improvments when using the command line versions of mame.