Powering LED Trackballs and Buttons

bricknivy

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Although I've been a long time fan of this community I just recently registered and can't thank everyone enough for the help on this forum!

I have a question regarding power supplies and LED trackballs / buttons and I was wondering if someone could point me to another thread or link that may discuss this. I tried to do a general search but wasn't successful in finding direct answers to my couple questions.

My general question involves replacing my normal trackball and buttons on my PGA Tour Golf Challenge machine and Target Toss: Bags machine with illuminated options. I know these will have to be powered by the computer power supply but I've never had to tap into that before. Is this something that I will have to hack into myself or do they sell simple kits for plug and play? In addition, would I be able to power a trackball and separate buttons at the same time or would I need an additional power source? When searching it looks like some of these trackballs are USB powered and others have a pin adapter. I'm assuming I can't use the USB powered as that would be for a MAME set up but both of my games are powered by computers with hard drives so maybe I am mistaken?

Thanks so much for any and all help/advice. I can't wait until I am able to contribute some knowledge to this community as well!
 
If your cabs are powered by PC power supplies then you have a few options.

First, you need to decide if you want LED or incandescent lighting. I would suggest LED due to the low power consumption and limited heat generation. Then you need a source. PC power supplies usually have many unused power connectors, I would tap into one of these. You have +5v and +12v available, so finding LED set ups that can run off of these power sources shouldn't be too hard. After that it is just a case of running the power to the trackballs and switches as well as mounting the lights.


Bob Roberts has a write up on his page for illuminating a trackball. I believe he uses the coin door for power but you can always use a different source.
 
Follow your track ball connection, see if it is indeed USB or an optics board. If it's USB it should be easily swapped out with one that uses LED lighting as you want.

Tapping into the PC supply is easy as explained above. Find a non used 4 pin connection, run a molex to that, use either the +5 or +12 and the 2 middle wires are grounds..
 
Thanks so much for the speedy reply. I haven't pulled the computer out of the cabinet yet but your thinking there will be extra ports on the power supply to plug in the trackball for power and/or lights for power? That sounds simple enough.

Regarding the buttons...If I purchase 4 buttons to replace my existing ones will I have to individually wire each one of them and then somehow converge them into one adapter that would plug into the power supply? I don't know ANYTHING about electrical wiring but everyone has to learn some time.
 
Follow your track ball connection, see if it is indeed USB or an optics board. If it's USB it should be easily swapped out with one that uses LED lighting as you want.

Tapping into the PC supply is easy as explained above. Find a non used 4 pin connection, run a molex to that, use either the +5 or +12 and the 2 middle wires are grounds..

Regarding the molex...anything complicated about choosing the correct one or is it fairly simple to order? I think I remember seeing a molex splitter for a power source somewhere when I was researching this. Thank you for your help!
 
PC power supplies usually have a few different power connections for powering different drives. Usually in an arcade game at least one will not be used. It will be a four position inline connector and usually a red wire (5v) will be on one end, a yellow wire (12v) on the opposite end, and two black wires in the middle.

If I were building what you want I would run all of the buttons and the trackball lights in parallel. Two wires will go to the power source (supply and return). These two wires will then connect to the first light. At the connection points I will then route a second set of wires to the next light and so on until all light are wired in. It is easy enough to do, just crimp in two wires at each of the spade connectors you will be connecting to the light housing. You may have heard of this as 'daisy chaining' the wiring.
 
Very good advice, indeed. I will give it a go. If I have additional questions I hope that you don't mind me posting them. Thanks so much.
 
ebef6402_4PinMolexTypeConnector.jpeg


This is something to look for, the one from the PC should be a Male connection (one on the right side) the molex your wanting is the Female side (left side). You can probably find these at a radio shack or various other places cheap. Just run your two lines "Daisy Chained" and you should be set!
 
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