ARpiCADE Forums

Hello,

Noob here.

A week ago I purchased an ARPICADE RASPBERRY PI MULTICADE JAMMA PCB ADAPTOR FOR ARCADE MULTIGAME from HighScoreSaves and I am using a Raspberry Pi 3 b+ setup.

For the life of me I cannot get my trackball to work. I have 2 different lighted trackballs from here:
1) https://www.diyretroarcade.com/index.ph ... ry-pi.html
2) https://www.diyretroarcade.com/index.ph ... mma-1.html

For 1, I am using a PS/2 to USB converter and plugging it into a USB on my pi 3 b+
For 2, I plugged it into what looks like a trackball connector on the Multicade jamma board

I am only using power through the JAMMA board connectors.

Is there something I am doing wrong? Do I need an extra supply to the RPI? Is the connecor on the Muilticade board for a trackball? Why isn't any of my USB ports working? Does it matter if I use the mouse or the keyboard cables on the PS/2 to USB adapter?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

~Birdman

Unfortunately I have no experience with that style of trackball so my advice may not be 100% accurate...

The second one, with the 6 pin (?) connector - I take it you're trying to plug this one into the RaspberryJAMMA kick harness header, that won't work - that header is just wired for buttons, not trackballs.

The PS/2 to USB adapted one may be able to work, again I'm not sure with that particular hardware. Are you using the adaptor recommended by the seller that has 2 PS/2 ends? If so it may be worth trying the other PS/2 connection. If the trackball winds up using the USB standard it should work, if it needs a driver for PC use it probably won't as they have probably ignored the USB standards. It claims to be compatible with Linux & RPi so it should probably be able to work.

If you haven't already I'd try the USB adapted one into your PC and see what happens, if it acts as a mouse and doesn't require any custom drivers it should work with ARpiCADE.

You DO NOT want to add extra power supplies to the RPi when powering via JAMMA - JAMMA power only is right.

What actually happens with the trackball when plugged into the system? No lighting? No input? Nothing at all?

Thanks a bunch for your reply.

You bring up some good debugging that I need to do. Thanks for highlighting that the board connector is for the kick harness and won't work with a trackball...that narrows down the one trackball I need to focus on

I need to pull the ball out of my system and plug into a PC as you suggest. There is a possibility that although the PS/2 to USB adapter cable I have looks similar (with both keyboard and mouse ends) to the one on the site where I bought it, maybe there is something about it not quite allowing it to be recognized by the rpi. I've sent a request to the seller of the trackball if he may have a bit more info on that.

I have tried both PS/2 connectors with same results.

Symptons: nothing Ball doesn't light up and doesn't seem to control anything when the system boots.

Hi Everyone,

Wanted to close this one out. Bottom line was my trackball was bad. I ordered a new trackball, plugged it into the USB, and it worked right out of the chute.

So, I now am using the JAMMA interface to connect to my joystick and a USB port on the pi to connect to my trackball and all is good!

what emulator are you using? Ive only been able to get the trackball working on MAME-203, but Missle Command has sound issues and Golden Tee and Marble Madness and stupid slow

AdvMAME and MAME 172 should work with trackball and have better performance than 203.

Will usb spinner be ok also?

yes