Taito Egret II Mini Rollerball/Spinner Controller

[JootecFromMars]

I wonder if this rollerball and spinner controller will be or can be made compatible with the MiSTer and with games that use these types of controls.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B096FL5VXC/

[XtraSmiley]

I agree. Would be great to get it included as a usable control, BUT only if it doesn't suck. These mini-consoles look cool, but often have worse controls than you would think. I think the SNES and NES ones are the only ones I liked (the controls). The Sega ones are usable, but not as good as the originals for example.

[Alarm]

When I saw the trackball and spinner peripheral in a video, I immediately thought of connecting it to the MiSTer. Let's hope it is good and uses a USB connection.

[werpu]

I wonder if this rollerball and spinner controller will be or can be made compatible with the MiSTer and with games that use these types of controls.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B096FL5VXC/

My assumption is that the spinner/trackball is registered as usb hid mouse, like most spinners/trackballs do nowadays, the buttons very likely are hid button registered. I cannot see taito doing some custom designs for which you can get the circuit boards from the shelve.

But that is just a guess, which is very likely true.
And yes this is a very nice controller. I built my own custom dual player arcade controller and combining joysticks trackballs and spinners was a major pain because the off the shelve arcade parts need a lot of space.

[JootecFromMars]

Here's a link to the official unveil video for the Taito Egret II mini. 16 seconds in to the video there are a few seconds of footage of this controller. It gives a better indication of its size.

[Megahurtz]

Looks like the trackball controller is ~9.5" wide. A fair bit smaller then even a small arcade stick but larger than a normal pad. Only two buttons though, and even then they're on opposite sides of the panel.

[Megahurtz]

Yodobashi posted some pics on their Twitter: https://twitter.com/Yodobashi_Hobby/sta ... 6610825217

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[pva]

Now that the Egret II Mini has started shipping, has anyone gotten their hands on one of these controllers and tried whether it works with the MiSTer?

[Jolezef]

Hi,

Long-time lurker, first time poster.

I received mine today and tried Arkanoid out, here are my results;

• I was able to configure the buttons through the OSD but none of them are working in game.

• The trackball controls the paddle, the spinner does nothing.

Plugged it in my Windows 10 PC;

• It's recognized as "TAITO USB Paddle & Trackball Controller" but not as an actual game controller. (Cannot calibrate, test buttons)

• Trackball moves mouse cursor.

• Spinner scrolls pages.

• Buttons don't seem to be mapped to anything and not I'm able to map them.

If you guys have any idea what I should do to test it out, I'm open to ideas!
Thanks!

[dryosh]

I connected to the Mister through USB, Arkanoid, only the trackball is working.

[Drexl]

It sounds like the spinner could be a mouse scroll wheel.

[triangle]

Received mine today too. Would love to use it for spinner games. What are the next steps for getting spinner and buttons working?

[flynnsbit]

I wonder if the Magic-NS and a Brook MD Mini Super Converter would work? They work the other way into the Egret II mini when using other controllers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co2QUdidKgE

[triangle]

In r/MAME it sounds like folks have narrowed it down to being configured as a nonstandard mouse. It reports mouse buttons 22 through 30, with the trackball as mouse XY and spinner as scroll wheel.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MAME/comments/ ... addle_con/

[evdberg]

Just wondering, would it be possible to use the Egret II mini cabinet in combination with the Mister? So removing the standard ARM cpu board, and connecting the joystick, buttons and screen to the Mister. I really like the rotating screen.

[gus0650]

I received mine today, doesnt do anything when connected to Mister, can someone help?

[Loomes]

I received mine today, doesnt do anything when connected to Mister, can someone help?

Same here! Could anyone give us a hint how to start setting up this new device for MiSTer? Thanks.

[flynnsbit]

The trackball and buttons will work, the spinner will not as the spinner is seen as the mouse wheel and MiSTer doesn't know what to do with it. MAME has a different problem in the fact that you can't map the buttons as they start at btn 22.

So if you map just the trackball and the buttons in the MiSTer menu, you can at least use those. The spinner will need the smart people to fix.

There is also already a github request open for it if you want to track it or watch progress, if it happens. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Linux-K ... /issues/22

[Loomes]

There is also already a github request open for it if you want to track it or watch progress, if it happens. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Linux-K ... /issues/22

Thanks for the link! Maybe it helps if we show our interest directly on github for this request.

[triangle]

I’ve also been trying to figure out how to use what is available (trackball and buttons.) as noted I can successfully use trackball in Arkanoid, however even though the core lets me map the buttons, I can’t actually get them to do anything.

[lamarax]

I've just ordered this, in hope our wizards can make it work properly

Thing is, there's no such combined trackball + spinner* paddle controller anywhere, and making one from scratch would add up to waaay more costs; buying an Ultimarc spinner, trackball, compatible I-PAC and wiring, not to mention sourcing or making a nice case for those, would double the price at the least.

*I always have thought of arcade spinners as being freely... spinning optical devices with inertia, instead of just pots.

[Edit on 30/3/22] Hmm.. maybe I was too hasty to pull the trigger on the Egret II mini con:

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I wonder if these new Arcade1up wireless "couchcades" would function with the MiSTer as stripped-down controllers

[lamarax]

So, I received mine today. The situation regarding MiSTer use, is exactly as flynnsbit describes; everything's working as it should except for the spinner.

As far as quality goes, it's surprisingly pleasant; the trackball has a heft to it despite its small size and fits my hand nicely. I was worried the whole thing would feel plastic-y and toy-ish, but it's far from that. The proprietary (⌀26mm?) buttons are also great; they're of the shallow snap-in variety, and feel somewhat between Seimitsu PS-15s and "western style" Happ/ILs.

The spinner is... indeed a spinner It's not a brush pot; obviously it relies on a gear mechanism and has a high resolution. I didn't open up the unit (yet), so I hope those gears are not out of plastic; they tend to 'catch' with finer rotation.

All in all, I believe this was a worthy purchase. Let's wish combined trackball/spinner (i.e. mouse with scroll wheel) support makes it into main.

At last I can play Centipede as intended

[FPGA64]

The buttons work ? On a PC they are not recognised

[lamarax]

Yes, they do, all of them (including the three little ones).

A common mistake when initializing the controller setup in the menu, is using a different controller or the keyboard to define buttons. Once you go in the setup screen, just push one of the Taito mini buttons to let MiSTer know of the vid:pid id of the particular controller; then erase it and skip functions according with what's available.

[triangle]

Yes, they do, all of them (including the three little ones).

Interesting. I tried defining them in Arkanoid like that, and while it did let me map the buttons, it ignored them in game. I did try Centipede briefly but no matter what I did my player would drift to the right, and I also couldn't get buttons to work in game over there.

[lamarax]

I did try Centipede briefly but no matter what I did my player would drift to the right, and I also couldn't get buttons to work in game over there.

Here, try this:

Centipede_input_map.zip

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Arkanoid also worked for me with the buttons, but I deleted the mapping because I hated the translation from spinner to trackball.

[jca]

Did anyone tried the arcade controller which has a nice feature: a "knob" on the underside to switch between 4-way and 8-way.

[lamarax]

There is also already a github request open for it if you want to track it or watch progress, if it happens. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Linux-K ... /issues/22

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That thread on Github is on fire rn

[mukiex]

sorg.jpg

That thread on Github is on fire rn

For what it's worth, I put all the input information I could get via evtest (along with the VID/PID from lsusb) into the Github thread.

[mukiex]

Potentially as an interim I could bodge together a USB converter from the controller to something the MiSTer is expecting, like a mouse with multiple buttons or a Mr. Spinner device.

Does anyone know of any Arduino-type devices w/ built-in USB host ports? Couldn't find anything online so I've picked up a couple of Pi Picos 'n USB OTG adapters; wish me luck! =D

EDIT Just a min-update:

Picked up some Pi Picos, gonna run Pi-PIO for the USB host capabilities, but I realized too late I'm short a couple 22 Ohm resistors, so as soon as those come in and I solder it all up I'll hopefully update this thread.