Retro Arcade Spinner Controller

An updated version of this thing is available here:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4386075

Meet YARMAUS (yet another recycled mouse arcade USB spinner... not affiliated with Yar). I'm guessing if you are looking at this thing, you already know what it is. For the rest, google "diy arcade spinner" and you will find all kinds of well written pictorial guides on how to build one of a variety of spinner designs that use the guts from an old ball type USB mouse. There are even some that use optical mice as well. If you've seen 'em, you know they're a rag tag bunch, and there's lots of room left on that high score board. This thing is my attempt at leveling up the of precision, durability, and ease of assembly for spinners available to budget retro gamers.

This thing fits into a standard Happ joystick drill pattern. To complete it, besides needing a controller box/cabinet to mount it to, you'll also need the following hardware:

1x old ball style USB mouse, hacked with remote sensor PCB's (or another USB rotary encoder of some sort)

2x 608 skateboard bearings (clean with paint thinner or gas if they're greased)

1x 1/4" x 4" coarse thread bolt or all thread

1x 1/4" coarse thread nut

1x 1/4" coarse thread nylock nut (2x if using all-thread instead of a bolt)

4x M3-10 bolts

2x M3 nuts

4x 3mm washers (optional)

24x pennies for weights (optional)

...and the following prints (anything... except TPU of course):

1x base

1x wheel (must be opaque color, or painted black)

1x bracket

2x bushings

1x flywheel (optional)

Assembly is pretty straight forward if you look at the pics. The bushings adapt the 1/4" thread to fit snug in the 608 bearings; they go on the outsides of the bearings (flanges go towards the nuts). Use the regular nut to secure the rotor on the end of the shaft, and the nylock to set the bearing play. I noticed on my Dell mouse that the slots on the stock wheel were placed very close to the sensor (farther from the emitter). I tried to match this configuration when I went to mount my sensor.

OOOH WAIT, THE KNOB... you forgot the knob!

Seriously?... you can't call yourself a retro gamer if you don't buy one of those MAME labeled aluminum knobs for this! j/k... the knob shown in the photo works OK, and it came from this atari paddle design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3824311

You have to drill out the hole since it's meant for a D-shaft. I plan on designing my own more dome shaped knob, but I'm sure everyone is capable of finding or designing a knob of their own choice.

Flywheel penny-weights:

I included an stl file for an optional flywheel, which fits on top of the encoder. The 8 holes are sized to fit US pennies; add as many pennies as required to get the feel you are after. Note, Tempest has a fairly large flywheel... fill it completely with pennies if this is what you're after. The pennies may fit snug depending on your printer tolerances. If not, after you have the proper amount of weights figured out, you can glue them in permanently if you wish.

[Note on encoder spoke counts:

The wheel stl file I uploaded has 64 spokes, which matches the wheels from the Dell mouse I used. I designed this in Freecad, and parameterized the spoke count (and tons of other details). So if you are in need of a spoke count other than 64, please post a comment about it so I can upload an stl that suits your needs. Keep in mind the limitations of your printer's abilities to print thin lines close together (ie, I can upload a wheel with 300 slots, but few 3d printers exist that could actually produce one clean enough to work). The 64 spoke count works very good with my setup... smooth as glass, snappy, and never strobes out during actual game play.]

Print Settings

Supports:

No

Notes:

Category: Games