ArcadeSD trackball and joystick with cocktail question

docquest

Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
77
Reaction score
9
Location
attleboro falls, Massachusetts
ArcadeSD trackball and joystick with cocktail question

I asked this in the arcadeSd thread but got no response so I'll try its own thread.

I have homebrew mame cocktail cabinet with a dead computer so i decided to use the arcadeSD instead of mame based on all of the rave reviews. The exisitng control panel currently has a joystick and a trackball for each players control panel. Can the arcadeSD suppor this configuation in cocktail mode?

It truns outs my existing trackballs are ultimarc from about 7-8 years ago and they don't have the 74HC14 chip so they didn't work as is. Before I buy two new trackballs I want to make sure the arcadeSD can be configured to use a trackball and joystick for each player in ockctail mode.

It looks like for the upright mode you would wire player 1's trackball to the player 2 joystick inputs. Would you wire it simarily for a cocktail? Anyone else use it in a simialr configuration or do I have to choose between joystick only or trackball only for cocktail mode?

Thanks

Brian
 
I have an ArcadeSD and two trackballs from Ultimarc in my cocktail. If it's the same as the one pictured here you can get it to work with games if you wire the trackballs with some pull-down resistors. Unfortunately it doesn't work well with ArcadeSD menu. Officially this trackball is not supported though so you won't get any love from the ArcadeSD folks.

That being said it's not very convenient to have joysticks and trackballs in a cocktail. The ArcadeSD board can't support two joysticks and two trackballs since there's not enough inputs for them from the JAMMA connector. Clay has mentioned on the main ArcadeSD thread about making an add-on board for more inputs but I don't think there has been much interest in it. So you would have to choose between trackball mode and joystick mode for the inputs by going into the ArcadeSD menu. From what I can tell there's no way to switch the inputs from joystick and trackball outside of the menu. Using a mechanical switch to change over the inputs to the JAMMA connector didn't work for me.
 

Attachments

  • tballred.jpg
    tballred.jpg
    20.4 KB · Views: 11
Sorry, it's a pull-up resistor that you want to configure not a pull-down. I was mistaken in my last post. When I originally tried to connect the trackball to the ArcadeSD it seemed like the control lines, i.e. X1,X2,Y1,Y2; never went to an open state. After searching a bit, I got the idea to try the pull-up resistor from this thread (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,72949.0.html). It's worth a read and has some more information about what's going on. The diagram here shows two of the lines wired to the 5v line going to the trackball, but you'll need to wire the other two wires in a similar way. If I remember correctly I used 2K resistors but you can try 2.2K or 1K resistors too. I think the 2K one worked best for me.
 

Attachments

  • Ultimarc_trackball_pullup.png
    Ultimarc_trackball_pullup.png
    18.4 KB · Views: 24
Sorry, it's a pull-up resistor that you want to configure not a pull-down. I was mistaken in my last post. When I originally tried to connect the trackball to the ArcadeSD it seemed like the control lines, i.e. X1,X2,Y1,Y2; never went to an open state. After searching a bit, I got the idea to try the pull-up resistor from this thread (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,72949.0.html). It's worth a read and has some more information about what's going on. The diagram here shows two of the lines wired to the 5v line going to the trackball, but you'll need to wire the other two wires in a similar way. If I remember correctly I used 2K resistors but you can try 2.2K or 1K resistors too. I think the 2K one worked best for me.

Thanks I'll give that a try. I was looking at the dimensions of the recommended digital trackball and its a tad bigger than my current ultimarc one so it won't fit in my exisitng control panel. So I have to make these work or or get all new control panels.
 
Back
Top Bottom