Does a Centipede trackball work with 60-in-1?

bones3010

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I've heard the old Atari trackballs don't work well with these and other multigame boards but was wondering if a workaround has been found. I have a couple of these laying around and I'd hate to have to buy a new one if I don't have to... any suggestions to getting them connected and working properly with a JAMMA harness? Thanks!
 
Yep, the old Atari trackball optics don't work with the 60in1 PCBs. You could still use the trackball mechanism and just replace the two optical PCBs with newer ones.
 
Bummer.

Thanks for the response... do you know if this holds true for all modern PCBs and these trackballs? Will I need to update the trackball if I want to use it on just about anything made recently?
 
I have only tried the old Atari trackballs with the 60in1 board. I remember I had a surplus of 3" trackballs with the red optical boards so transferred them to the 2-1/4" trackballs and they worked fine.

I have successfully used old Atari trackballs for MAME setups where I either hack a Microsoft PS/2 mouse or I use optical interface boards from Groovy Game Gear.

Have not played with any other multiboards that require trackballs, only have experience with the 60in1s.
 
In the setup of 60-1 there are options to swap x and y to account for the different optics (red vs green)
 
In the setup of 60-1 there are options to swap x and y to account for the different optics (red vs green)



So are you saying that if I did this that I can make the centipede ball work with the 60-in-1 as is?

Next question: do you know what the wiring would be for these? I see the JAMMA Pin outs for the 60/1 are on the P2 side and have 4 pins. But the trackball has at least 4 pins for each axis. Any clue how I'd wire this? I imagine I'd have the same cluelessness with the newer red PCBs having more connections than the game board offers.

Can you tell I have almost no experience playing around with trackball games outside of actually playing them? ;-)

Thanks again for the insight, fellas.
 
I've heard the old Atari trackballs don't work well with these and other multigame boards but was wondering if a workaround has been found. I have a couple of these laying around and I'd hate to have to buy a new one if I don't have to... any suggestions to getting them connected and working properly with a JAMMA harness? Thanks!

I don't see why not. Wire one up and try it. They are functionally the same as the newer ones and the newer ones are backward compatible with the older games.

Report back your findings. :)

Best,
- Mike -
 
I had the opposite scenario where i bought a Happ trackball for my Centipede and i had to switch the X and Y axis wires to make it work properly. So i have a feeling you might have to do the same in your case.


So are you saying that if I did this that I can make the centipede ball work with the 60-in-1 as is?

Next question: do you know what the wiring would be for these? I see the JAMMA Pin outs for the 60/1 are on the P2 side and have 4 pins. But the trackball has at least 4 pins for each axis. Any clue how I'd wire this? I imagine I'd have the same cluelessness with the newer red PCBs having more connections than the game board offers.

Can you tell I have almost no experience playing around with trackball games outside of actually playing them? ;-)

Thanks again for the insight, fellas.
 
So are you saying that if I did this that I can make the centipede ball work with the 60-in-1 as is?

Next question: do you know what the wiring would be for these? I see the JAMMA Pin outs for the 60/1 are on the P2 side and have 4 pins. But the trackball has at least 4 pins for each axis. Any clue how I'd wire this? I imagine I'd have the same cluelessness with the newer red PCBs having more connections than the game board offers.

Can you tell I have almost no experience playing around with trackball games outside of actually playing them? ;-)

Thanks again for the insight, fellas.



60-1 has a CON port specifically for trackball use. There is a harness made for t as well for like $10 or so from a number of places.
 
I know about the trackball support on these boards, the question is specifically regarding support of the Atari trackballs. Apparently they don't work well and require an updated pair of XY mini-PCBs. I'm trying to get a clear answer about this before ordering these new boards. If they are supported then what type of wiring needs to happen in order to make them work, because I haven't been successful in wiring up the old trackballs yet. If I can avoid buying the newer "red" XY boards I'd like to.

Thanks again for the replies, everyone.
 
I realize this thread is five years old, but I am trying to wire a 60-in-1 to an original Centipede cab and running into the same problem. Hard to find help on this or any specific wiring diagram that can walk us through it. I have all the original Centipede manuals, but they are no help in this case and I'm having trouble finding schematics on the cab (which would at least point out where the original wiring from the trackball is intended to go). A few here suggested "go ahead and wire it up", but I see that no one has suggested exactly HOW. As stated by the OP, there are 4 wires harnessed to each axis and the 60-in-1 has 4 pinouts on the JAMMA connector for "player2 up/down - player2 left/right". Reading on in other forums, I've found the trackball needs its own +5vdc supply, and that the remaining 4 wires are for horizontal and vertical sets of two. So there's compatibility, I think. If you remove the "green, yellow, blue and violet" wires from the mix, what you have left is one red and one black wire from each axis, making a sensible place to apply the +5vdc and ground. BUT THIS IS A GUESS. I tried it (fool hardy or not) and got absolutely nothing from the trackball. Not even a scrambled signal or a reverse signal. Can someone please spell this out for us dummies that might refer to this thread moving forward and bury this mystery once and for all?

This has been an excellent reference for me to understand what's going on in the trackball (specifically Centipede):
A Look At Trackballs - Updated 2013
 
Thank you for your reply, but I'm not sure what this product is intended for. There are NO original Centipede components left in my cab except for the user buttons and trackball. The cab itself is in mint condition and all the original Centipede art is on it. The link you provided is for a JAMMA converter of some kind that looks like its compatible with the original harness (which I don't have).

What I need to do is get the original (red board) trackball working with the 60-in-1 wiring.

I don't mind painstakingly connecting it wire by wire, but it requires an understanding of both the 60-in-1 controls (pertaining to trackball use) and the wiring from the original Centipede trackball. There are 3 COM ports on the 60-in-1 as well, but I can find no info on what they are or how to wire them up. The common consensus seems to be that the 2nd player left-righ-up-down wires are able to speak to the trackball, under the right system settings. Ive checked all those boxes, but still have no confidence that Im wiring the trackball properly to the 60-in-1 board.
 

this might help for wiring

 
I am assuming that you have a JAMMA harness installed? Use the JAMMA wiring standard for guidance for hooking up the trackball. If you even get incorrect movement, you have a starting point. I have a JAMMA harness for my Centipede using an original board and the above adapter. You can look at my post history for what I did for my Centipede.
 
This adapter also has a note on the bottom that says, "The original Atari trackball units (optic boards without the chip) are not compatible with new multigame JAMMA pcbs. We offer new optic boards and new trackbball units, see below."

So $45 for the adapter board to JAMMA, plus the $20.95 x 2 for the optic board replacements.

When you can simply buy a cheaper and new 60 in 1 trackball for $35 on FleaBay here: https://tinyurl.com/4fswpd3x

So to answer your original question: No, the original Centipede trackball won't work... Even if you get all the wiring correct, it's not compatible with the original encoders. Period.


Del
 
I am assuming that you have a JAMMA harness installed? Use the JAMMA wiring standard for guidance for hooking up the trackball. If you even get incorrect movement, you have a starting point. I have a JAMMA harness for my Centipede using an original board and the above adapter. You can look at my post history for what I did for my Centipede.
Im VERY impressed at how active this forum is, even on a thread this old. Thanks, guys for your wisdom.

I have a JAMMA harness and the corresponding wiring guide. I have the four wires coming from the harness for 2nd player up-down-left-right controls isolated. They would normally go to the four directional joystick microswitches, along with the grounding block harness on the opposite connection for each switch.

Here, there ARE no groundings (that I can find) for the x and y axis wires. Each of the two axis has a black and red wire, which I have currently connected to +5 and ground respectively. The other two wires (red/org for up/down and yel/grn for left right) are connected to the trackball, but Im not sure which goes to which. I figure even if I get them backwards, I should still get some on screen action from it. No dice.
 
This adapter also has a note on the bottom that says, "The original Atari trackball units (optic boards without the chip) are not compatible with new multigame JAMMA pcbs. We offer new optic boards and new trackbball units, see below."

So $45 for the adapter board to JAMMA, plus the $20.95 x 2 for the optic board replacements.

When you can simply buy a cheaper and new 60 in 1 trackball for $35 on FleaBay here: https://tinyurl.com/4fswpd3x

So to answer your original question: No, the original Centipede trackball won't work... Even if you get all the wiring correct, it's not compatible with the original encoders. Period.


Del
I've gotten such mixed messages about this cardinal question. DOES the original Atari Centipede trackball, IN FACT, work (under any circumstances) with the 60-in-1 JAMMA icade? Many have said "sure, I got it to work fine". Many others have said "no way, you gotta replace it". Your answer is valid, of course, and may be the only one that truly matters. But I was hoping to sleuth out this mystery and get the original trackball to work, if it was at all possible. Maybe something to do with the whole "but that's the original Centipede gear"... thing. Maybe its just a pride challenge for a professional tech like me. Maybe I should let it go.

Thanks so much for the link, by the way. I'm not quite ready to give up yet, but this direct icade replacement track may be just the ticket for an easy way out, although Ill have to wait another week for it to arrive
 
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