The trackball and spinner arrived today. Both the spinner and trackball are connectioned and powered via USB. The second photo is the spinner connection.
I ended up having to take all the buttons off the control panel to get old trackball out and the new trackball in. I moved the new spinner right above the trackball any drilled a new hole for it. The trackball instructions said only one mouse button is supported on OS X but I had no problem getting a left and right button working. I put a new hole in the middle for the spinner and split the mouse button on each side. Here is the spinner installed with the two trackball (mouse) buttons.
I also got an little 3 LED light that is powered off 12v. It gives the trackball a fantastic glow. Since it is powered via 12v I had to hack up a hard drive molex power supply. Not sure if you ever thought about it but a typical hard drive molex has both 12v and 5v connections. Have a look at this graphic.
That was pretty easy to do so now the trackball has a sweet light. Since it is LED there is no heat and no need to turn it off and on. Here are a few photos of the glow. It was hard to catpure via in iPhone camera. It looks even better in person.
The lower left photo is about the closest to what the glow looks like. It is not a white glow but a nice red.
Now you probably notice that the overlay and Plexiglas cover is missing. Since I had to drive new holes I have to create a new overlay and Plexiglas. The Plexiglas is a real pain in the butt when you have to replace the trackball since you have to take every button off. Here is one final shot of everything back together.
I want to create a new control panel that is attached to the cabinet and has hinges to open the panel to access the guts. So for now I will leave it as is with the unpainted or covered top.
I put in a few rounds of Golden Tee last night and the trackball is rocking. I had to force myself to go to bed. Another game that is a blast is also from the makers of Golden Tee called World Class Bowling. And we can’t forget about Shuffleboard!
Then there are all the classics like Missile Command, Centipede, Tron, Discs of Tron, and Tempest. All great games that used a spinner or trackball.
The last bit to do is get a brighter light for the marquee. Not sure if I mentioned it but I did put in a sub and speakers already so that is done. Final step is to make a decision on building a new control panel. But everything is working now so time to put in some game time.
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- Happy Memorial Day? | Terrible Analogies - [...] this unexpected free time to get my MAME arcade machine back up and running (thanks go out to House ...
I bow to you and your superior MAME cabinet. Beautiful set up…and the lit trackball is amazing. You’re causing me some serious MAME envy.
I am not sure many can really appreciate the setup. I have to say it is pretty awesome even if the masses don’t get it. But then again I am just a child.
Ed, remember that photo pool you had goin’ on back in the day? why don’t you hook that up again?
Hey Justin, I would love it get it going again. Let me see if I can drum up a few more people. Spring/Summer is always a good time to get out and shoot photos. I think this time I would like to setup a blog for and we all post to the blog with our themed photo(s) of the month.