Trackball Installation for SegaSonic with Original I/O Board

[DrBackhands]

Hello all,

I have a SegaSonic PCB with the original I/O board and 3 Happ trackballs, but it's also my first arcade board and I'm pretty new to a lot of this stuff, so I'm hoping someone can help me figure out how to connect the two.

My thought is I just need to wire the 6p connector of each Happ trackball to the I/O board's 26p AMP latch connector according to the PCB manual's pin-assignment chart, right? Which means I'd need wiring and the right connectors for both the trackball end and the I/O board end, right? Since a few people on here have done this before, does anyone know what part(s) I'd need specifically? I've seen online that at least for the AMP latch, I'll need a Molex C-Grid III connector (26p, 2.54mm). Can anyone confirm that?

Really any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[yonggarri]

Hello all,

I have a SegaSonic PCB with the original I/O board and 3 Happ trackballs, but it's also my first arcade board and I'm pretty new to a lot of this stuff, so I'm hoping someone can help me figure out how to connect the two.

My thought is I just need to wire the 6p connector of each Happ trackball to the I/O board's 26p AMP latch connector according to the PCB manual's pin-assignment chart, right? Which means I'd need wiring and the right connectors for both the trackball end and the I/O board end, right? Since a few people on here have done this before, does anyone know what part(s) I'd need specifically? I've seen online that at least for the AMP latch, I'll need a Molex C-Grid III connector (26p, 2.54mm). Can anyone confirm that?

Really any help would be appreciated, thanks!

It's really far from your posting but I found this while trying to solve the trackball issue and leave a reply.
Did you find out the solution?
I also bought SegaSonic PCB and Sega Astrocity trackball panel but I don't know which components is essential to connect them just like you...
The manual says that JST 11p + JST 10p -> JST 21p -> JST 26p, but I don't know what this means in detail.

 

[ic3b4ll]

The manual says that JST 11p + JST 10p -> JST 21p -> JST 26p, but I don't know what this means in detail.

Just speculation but I think this means that you should get the JST 11 pin and 10 pin connectors and connect them to the 21 pin one and from there to the 26 pin connector. Whether you have all those cables and connectors is another matter entirely...

 

[DrBackhands]

The manual says that JST 11p + JST 10p -> JST 21p -> JST 26p, but I don't know what this means in detail.

Just speculation but I think this means that you should get the JST 11 pin and 10 pin connectors and connect them to the 21 pin one and from there to the 26 pin connector. Whether you have all those cables and connectors is another matter entirely...

This is pretty much it. SegaSonic's I/O board is tricky. I should ask, do you have the I/O board? It's a board in the lower right corner of the arcade board, it has a 26-pin latch-style connector on it labeled 'AMP.' If you don't have this, you'll need to find one, or uh... make your own (which is hard).

Anyway, your trackball panel has two receptacles (I think... I don't own one...), a JST 11-pin one and a JST 10-pin one. These receptacles allow the trackball panel to send out information AND receive power. You need to connect them to the SegaSonic board. There's a couple ways to do this,* but in 2020, your best bet is to build your own harness. It's easy to do, but you'll need to research some parts. First, you'll need 2 connectors: one that takes 11 and 10 pins on one end and one that takes 26 pins on the other (probably this one).** Of course, you'll need wire and crimp socket terminals, but I won't explain that here (feel free to PM me, though). NOTE: The I/O board has nothing to do with the jump/start button. That is wired in through the JAMMA harness. JAMMA harness pins 22, Z, and 24 are 1P, 2P, and 3P jump input respectively. You'll need to connect your jump buttons to these pins. The I/O board doesn't handle these functions at all. (Also, if you want to wire the start buttons as well, that's pins 17, U, and d for 1P, 2P, and 3P).

When you make your harness, you have to figure out what wire does what and goes where. The wire for x-axis control, y-axis control, jump, start, 5V power, and ground are all different, so make sure you know what wire goes where when you make your harness. Use page 5 and 6 of this pdf for reference.

*I believe the original setup would have been with a cage and fingerboard like this. This simplifies the process A LOT, but it might be tough to find one now...


**I'm using Happ trackballs, I am not 100% sure these connectors are correct. Buy at your own risk...

If you have any other questions let me know!! Good luck with the board.

 

[yonggarri]

The manual says that JST 11p + JST 10p -> JST 21p -> JST 26p, but I don't know what this means in detail.

Just speculation but I think this means that you should get the JST 11 pin and 10 pin connectors and connect them to the 21 pin one and from there to the 26 pin connector. Whether you have all those cables and connectors is another matter entirely...

I also think so, but trackball panel has only 8 wires per person (I think they're two 5V, two GND, XA, XB, YA, YB) so it doesn't seem to need 11p or 10p and I'm still a little confused..

 

[yonggarri]

//DrBackhands

Thanks to very detailed reply!
I have PCB with I/O board and Official Sega Astrocity trackball panel(I've heard that it is for segasonic only)
But the trackball panel has only 8 wires per person and someone says I need to attach molex 26p connector to I/O board and just connect wires to molex accroding to their pinout as the manual says.
(Jump & Start button connection is concide with your reply)
That means I don't need 11p or 10, 21p so I'm still a little confused...

 

[ic3b4ll]

As long as your trackball to I/O board connections match you won't have any trouble. The JST connectors probably only apply if you have a filter board as would be found in some SEGA cabinets. Just make sure you don't mess up your GND and 5v pins. A short would damage something for sure.
If I were you I'd use a ribbon cable on the I/O board and do the connections from there to the trackballs.

 

[DrBackhands]

//DrBackhands

Thanks to very detailed reply!
I have PCB with I/O board and Official Sega Astrocity trackball panel(I've heard that it is for segasonic only)
But the trackball panel has only 8 wires per person and someone says I need to attach molex 26p connector to I/O board and just connect wires to molex accroding to their pinout as the manual says.
(Jump & Start button connection is concide with your reply)
That means I don't need 11p or 10, 21p so I'm still a little confused...

I think I understand the issue... the numbers don't make sense, right?

Sega Sonic is able to use 3 trackballs at once. Each trackball has 6 pins (wires) connecting it to the I/O board, 2 for X-axis, 2 for Y-axis, 1 for 5V and 1 for GND. That means 18 pins total for 3 players. Pins 10A to 13B are not used (another 8 pins) which equals 26 pins total (thus the 26p Connector).

You say the trackball panel has 8 wires per player (which is likely true: 6 per ball and 1 per button--2 buttons per player). 8 x 2 = 16...

So why 11p and 10p? ...well, I don't know, I don't own an Astrocity trackball panel and I couldn't find the pin-out chart online : C BUT, I assume some pins are simply unused. Just because you have a 11 and 10 pin connector doesn't mean ever slot on the connector has a wire attached to it... So even if you have 8 wires per player, you might still need a 21p and 26p connector just so the plastic connectors can fit with your trackball panel and I/O board's plastic connectors.

The answer to your question is in a pin-out chart. You'll need to find some document that tells you what wires do what. Conversely, you could open up the panel yourself and try to see what wires are coming from where. I can't help you there though, since I don't own one haha. Let me know if that makes sense.

 

[yonggarri]

// ic3b4ll


I successfully connected with the help of an expert, and he advised me of the shorting issue as you said.

Thank you!


// DrBackhands

I finally succeeded in connecting them with the help of experts and panel manual.
(Sorry, my panel was Aerocity, not Astrocity)
Eight wires (per player) are connected like this.-> (XA, XB, + 5V, GND), (YA, YB, + 5V, GND)




And the number of pins on the connector didn't matter at all as you said.
I use only 12 pins (for 2player) on the I / O board and connected 26 pin connectors but it works well.

like this

He connected the 12pin connector to this other connector and this is connected to the ACK connector above.
There was no pin-out chart for panel so it was difficult to wire, but finally he did it.

Job Finished

Perfect!




Thanks for your detailed and kind reply!

 

[DrBackhands]

Very, very cool. I'm glad this thread exists. It will hopefully shed some light on this for anyone looking to replicate this process in the future.