MC UR Trak-Ball Problem: CAG Player Using Worn/Grooved Roller Shafts Intentionally

XXI21

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MC UR Trak-Ball Problem: CAG Player Using Worn/Grooved Roller Shafts Intentionally

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I tend to agree that he's psyching himself out a bit ....

Playing with the worn rollers he's still racking up million point+ scores ...... Dunno, you can analyze these things too much. My trak-ball isn't perfect, don't think I've ever played a machine that has a perfect trak-ball. He seems to be saying that he's missing the occasional smart bomb because of drift. But to score a mill points you've got to play 100 screens, so he must be hitting 6-700 smart bombs without a problem .......
 
Still looking for a little input on this, even though I know I'm correct in my diagnosis.:D

I love the lack of follow-up by an OP on repair/help threads... I guess it's the same everywhere.:p

The guy is a moron, and is not going to get anywhere with his problem. I can fix his problem, but with his level of stupidity I would have to charge more than the game is worth to fix it.
 
Apparently I have hurt this poor guy's feelings. If you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen.

OP asks for help
Correct answer is given
Correct answer is given again by different person
OP does something totally different, then whines that it didn't fix the problem
OP whines that I have been cruel in his search for help
? If I was to give the OP the correct answer for the 3rd time, would his toaster still make toast? (probably not without burning it)
CAGDC Admin jumps on the "Cruel Intentions" band wagon

Yeah, I wonder why I am an asswipe?
 
Dok you were being an asshole! Lol Dok is and always will be the shiznit period. If the dumb ass newb can't follow directions then it's his own problem.
 
because of his made-up stupid, doesn't prove a thing, hand roller cursor test.

I'm not taking sides or anything, but I'm moreso asking for my own learning experience: Why wouldn't moving the rollers by hand (without the ball) be an acceptable test? I can understand his troubleshooting logic there -- it seems like roller grooves cause a problem only at the point where the ball contacts the roller, and I'd think that you could test each roller/direction individually by hand without accidentally moving the others. Is this not the case? (I've got a trackball myself, and it could be good future knowledge.)
 
It was spelled out on the other forum:

XXI21 said:
Yes, I'm aware of the test without ball.
The trak-ball reader is simply not getting enough data to read with the slow by hand cursor test. There' going to be some cursor 'drift', with those slow one pin-wheel notch at a time by hand test. Again, we're talking about 30 year old technology here. My MC does the same thing (w/o the ball test). AND OP said someone else's MC is doing the cursor 'wander' thing too. Dang, it's contagious! (All these MCs acting up, all the sudden at the same time, just coincidence?) OP's no-ball by hand roller cursor test doesn't prove squat as far as the optos being defective.

I stand by my orig. diagnosis and cure. TIOLI. Good Luck
 
It was spelled out on the other forum:

I'm not totally sure I understand. To me, that sounds like it will happen no matter what if you're using slow movements -- you'll get the jitter whether you're using a ball or your hand, and that is just the nature of the device. Is that correct? If so, and if it's just a matter of the reader not getting enough data, why would new rollers matter? (Again, not trying to be a d-bag -- just trying to gain some knowledge.)
 
If you want to really test it that way then remove the interrupter disc from the optics on the side you don't want moving. Holding it with a finger can lead to the interrupter disc still moving slightly and causing the cursor on the screen to move.
 
When I repair trackball problems, the first thing I look at are the roller shafts AND the bearings. I also clean the faces of the optics. But in general, 99% of the time, the troubles will be because of worn shafts and/or bad bearings.

Also, when installing new bearings, they should be "run-in" on an electric drill as Bob Roberts suggests.
 
Alright, here's what we got...

Ahhh, alright. I get it. The rollers aren't 100% affecting his problem per se, but it certainly isn't helping matters. I can kind of understand where the guy was coming from, since it seems like a logically sound test (even if it wasn't explicitly mentioned in the manual) -- he just wasn't really grasping that those old style optos were naturally quirky and sometimes inaccurate. (Or, perhaps it could even be the way the programming interprets the data coming from the optos? Maybe even the world's most perfect device would still end up with some funky behavior due to faulty programming.) Either way, the solution should be mitigation -- put in new rollers to lessen the problem as much as possible, and just embrace the rest of it since that old technology is imperfect by nature.
 
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