Difference between revisions of "Trackballs"

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On an optipac the "A/HI" jumper should be set.
 
On an optipac the "A/HI" jumper should be set.
  
There were a number of different boards with this same pin-out.
+
There were a number of slightly different boards with this same pin-out.
  
There are a number of places that sell replacement bearings and roller-shafts for these, they are often referred to as 4" trackball rollers.
+
There are a few places that sell replacement bearings and roller-shafts for these, they are often referred to as 4" trackball rollers.

Revision as of 23:15, 2 March 2006



This page should contain brief descriptions of various trackballs available, and details of their setup. If any one portion of the page starts getting a little too long, a seperate page may be started for that topic.

4.5" Atari Trackballs (Missile Command, Atari Football)

These giant trackballs are sometimes known as 4-inch, but are actually 4 and a half inches in diameter. They were some of the first trackballs put into use, and are designed to survive intense abuse.

Happs sells a 4.5" trackball. The ball itself is usable in an Atari 4.5" (a 4.5" diameter sphere is a 4.5" diameter sphere), but the mechanism itself is a different, less industrial design.

Any 4.5" diameter ball, particularly a candle-pin and/or duck-pin bowling ball, is a swap-out replacement for the 25+ year old originals.

The original optical boards on these are fairly easy to interface with an Opti-PAC (and therefore most other optical control interfaces). This is the pin-out for the 10-pin molex plug found on the optical boards:

Atari Steering Bd1.jpg
1 no signal
2 no signal
3 no signal
4 Axis 1
5 no signal
6 no signal
7 no signal
8 Axis 2
9 +5v
10 ground

On an optipac the "A/HI" jumper should be set.

There were a number of slightly different boards with this same pin-out.

There are a few places that sell replacement bearings and roller-shafts for these, they are often referred to as 4" trackball rollers.