Centipede problem

barneyjb

New member
Joined
Dec 9, 2010
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Location
California
So I've had a stand up Centipede game in my garage for 10+ years. I'm looking to clean it up and get it working. I knew it had an issue when I got it from a friend who didnt want it anymore and I can't seem to get it working.

The problem: it only registers one axis, I can move right and left but not up and down. Or if I switch the wires on the track ball I can move up and down but not right or left. I thought it might be a simple wire problem but I tested the wire that I thought had the issue and it seems to be fine. Any suggestions or what I should try next? I would rather try and fix it myself so I dont have to pay an arm and a leg. But I'm a total noob when it comes to electronics. Any help would be appreciated. =)

Barney
 
Last edited:
one of the optical boards inside the trackball might be bad...those can be replaced easily or you could just buy a whole new working unit
 
So I've had a stand up Centipede game in my garage for 10+ years. I'm looking to clean it up and get it working. I knew it had an issue when I got it from a friend who didnt want it anymore and I can't seem to get it working.

The problem: it only registers one axis, I can move right and left but not up and down. Or if I switch the wires on the track ball I can move up and down but not right or left. I thought it might be a simple wire problem but I tested the wire that I thought had the issue and it seems to be fine. Any suggestions or what I should try next? I would rather try and fix it myself so I dont have to pay an arm and a leg. But I'm a total noob when it comes to electronics. Any help would be appreciated. =)

Barney

One of the trackball optos is probably toast. There should be some readily available. In fact, I should have an extra somewhere....
 
update

Ok so, looks like it was a bad optics board. Here is the kicker, I put in a new (used) one and now I get movement in all four directions. HOWEVER, my X-axis works correctly and my Y-axis is inverted (up is down and down is up). The only thing I can think I did was maybe flipped the fly-wheel when I was cleaning the trackball. Would that cause this issue?

I dont remember did the game originally have a flipped Y-axis?

Any help would be greatly appreaciated.
 
-There are 4 wires going into the clip that hooks to the 4 prongs on the board, I dont know which wires to flip and I highly doubt they were flipped before.

-The clip only goes in one way, I did try plugging it in backwards and got no movement on that axis.

- It was also suggest I flip the optics board, however it doesnt fit into the casing that way.


Sorry for being a total noob but I'm stuck on this one...
 
Can you make a pic of the trackball so we can see both connectors and the wire colors ?

I think it's not possible to flip the entire plug around (even if it would be physically possible) because you would reverse the +5 and GND (the middle pins).

IF anything has to be reversed, it would be the two outer wires on the connector.

By the way, is anyone still selling opto-boards ?
 
Back
Top Bottom