bobkbusch

You're welcome...I hope you have your spinners and trackball working! As for where to find this info, I wish I had a simple answer, but the truth is, I just slogged through multiple Google searches. I kept reading and watching YouTube videos until I understood (somewhat) what I was trying to do. In the specific case of CPR, there is a link provided in the X-Arcade Tankstick Max Spinner Booster instructions to an arcadecontrols wiki. That site has a lot of very useful info.

By now, I hope you have the Tankstick Max trackball and spinner up and running. If not, I just received my Tankstick and mine work fine. Here's what I checked in MAMe (.273). Start Launchbox and go to the Arcade version of Tempest (it doesn't matter which MAME game, but I chose Tempest for a reason I'll explain later). Right click the game icon (don't start it yet), and choose "Open MAME .xxx." When MAME opens, type "Tempest" in the search box at the top. Then right click on Tempest and choose "Input Device Assignments." From that menu, change the trackball, paddle, and dial from "Keyboard" to "Mouse." Ensure you click "Return to Previous Menu," then click "Save Settings." After that, you now have MAME set for all games with trackball, paddle, and dial controls set to "Mouse." You can exit MAME and start your game through LaunchBox. Once your game is running, in this case Tempest, hit "Tab" to bring up MAME settings again. These will be different menus than the ones opened by the method above. In this menu, choose "Input Settings" then "Input Assignments (This System)." Highlight "Dial Settings" and hit delete to remove the current setting. Then hit "Enter" to set the new Dial device. In this case, spin either your right or left spinner to choose that device for Dial. It should say "Mouse #X" or "Mouse #Y" depending on your DIP switch settings on the spinner upgrade board. After that, hit "esc" to go back one menu and choose "Analog Input Adjustments" and choose Dial Sensitivity. For Tempest, I chose 9 and it works perfectly...one spinner rotation moves 5 spaces in Tempest. The process is the same for trackballs. Also, from what I've read, you don't want to choose any options for "Inc" or "DEC" under "Dial Settings" when setting the device as per above. Lastly, the reason I'm using Tempest in this example is because of the CPR (Counts Per Revolution) advertised with the spinner upgrade kit for the TankStick Max. With DIP switches set as default, the spinner should have a CPR of 1600. If you look at the ArcadeControls Wiki (link provided in spinner upgrade instructions) it has a formula to adjust "Dial Sensitivity" in MAME, based on your spinner's CPR, so it matches the original game. Using their formula (Tempest has a CPR of 72 and my spinner has a CPR of 1600) ... (72*100)/1600=4.5 Therefore, the "Dial Sensitivity" in MAME should be set to 4.5 (or closest available... i.e. 5). This should result in one turn of the spinner moving Tempest 5 spaces. Unfortunately, in my system, it only moves 2.5 spaces so I have to double the "Dial Sensitivity" in MAME to 9 for Tempest. It then works correctly moving 5 spaces for one turn of the spinner. This means either the spinner is only presenting a CPR of 800 or the PC is only sensing at half rate for some reason. I noted that the instructions provided with the spinner upgrade kit say that a Raspberry Pi has this exact issue, but a PC should work correctly. For some reason, my PC is only sensing 800 CPR, similar to a Raspberry Pi. I sent an inquiry to X-Arcade, but haven't heard back yet. Hope all of this helps and would be curious to hear if you see similar behavior with your spinner presenting at only half the rate it is set to via the DIP switches. Cheers!

By now, I hope you have the Tankstick Max trackball and spinner up and running. If not, I just received my Tankstick and mine work fine. Here's what I checked in MAMe (.273). Start Launchbox and go to the Arcade version of Tempest (it doesn't matter which MAME game, but I chose Tempest for a reason I'll explain later). Right click the game icon (don't start it yet), and choose "Open MAME .xxx." When MAME opens, type "Tempest" in the search box at the top. Then right click on Tempest and choose "Input Device Assignments." From that menu, change the trackball, paddle, and dial from "Keyboard" to "Mouse." Ensure you click "Return to Previous Menu," then click "Save Settings." After that, you now have MAME set for all games with trackball, paddle, and dial controls set to "Mouse." You can exit MAME and start your game through LaunchBox. Once your game is running, in this case Tempest, hit "Tab" to bring up MAME settings again. These will be different menus than the ones opened by the method above. In this menu, choose "Input Settings" then "Input Assignments (This System)." Highlight "Dial Settings" and hit delete to remove the current setting. Then hit "Enter" to set the new Dial device. In this case, spin either your right or left spinner to choose that device for Dial. It should say "Mouse #X" or "Mouse #Y" depending on your DIP switch settings on the spinner upgrade board. After that, hit "esc" to go back one menu and choose "Analog Input Adjustments" and choose Dial Sensitivity. For Tempest, I chose 9 and it works perfectly...one spinner rotation moves 5 spaces in Tempest. The process is the same for trackballs. Also, from what I've read, you don't want to choose any options for "Inc" or "DEC" under "Dial Settings" when setting the device as per above. Lastly, the reason I'm using Tempest in this example is because of the CPR (Counts Per Revolution) advertised with the spinner upgrade kit for the TankStick Max. With DIP switches set as default, the spinner should have a CPR of 1600. If you look at the ArcadeControls Wiki (link provided in spinner upgrade instructions) it has a formula to adjust "Dial Sensitivity" in MAME, based on your spinner's CPR, so it matches the original game. Using their formula (Tempest has a CPR of 72 and my spinner has a CPR of 1600) ... (72*100)/1600=4.5 Therefore, the "Dial Sensitivity" in MAME should be set to 4.5 (or closest available... i.e. 5). This should result in one turn of the spinner moving Tempest 5 spaces. Unfortunately, in my system, it only moves 2.5 spaces so I have to double the "Dial Sensitivity" in MAME to 9 for Tempest. It then works correctly moving 5 spaces for one turn of the spinner. This means either the spinner is only presenting a CPR of 800 or the PC is only sensing at half rate for some reason. I noted that the instructions provided with the spinner upgrade kit say that a Raspberry Pi has this exact issue, but a PC should work correctly. For some reason, my PC is only sensing 800 CPR, similar to a Raspberry Pi. I sent an inquiry to X-Arcade, but haven't heard back yet. Hope all of this helps and would be curious to hear if you see similar behavior with your spinner presenting at only half the rate it is set to via the DIP switches. Cheers!