I was digging through my stuff the other day and I noticed that I have a few older mice (nothing real classic though 🤣) that use balls instead of purely optical sensors. Would it be possible to take one of these and mod it into a makeshift trackball? I've been curious about getting a trackball, but I can't really afford to buy one at this moment.
i always thought a trackball was a dead mouse...
Basically, I want to take something like this
and make it into something like this.
For starters, trackballs aren't necessarily expensive.
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-910-000806-Tra … =dp_ob_title_ce
Secondly, the old-fashioned mechanical mice were notoriously difficult to keep clean (if you hadn't noticed), and a mechanical trackball, being constantly pawed by human fingers, is even worse.
Thirdly, this question of "is it possible" is entirely unclear. Yes, if you experienced in designing plastic housings and have the facilities required to manufacture them, then sure, anything is "possible".
wrote:For starters, trackballs aren't necessarily expensive. http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-910-000806-Tra … =dp_ob_title_ce […]
For starters, trackballs aren't necessarily expensive.
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-910-000806-Tra … =dp_ob_title_ceSecondly, the old-fashioned mechanical mice were notoriously difficult to keep clean (if you hadn't noticed), and a mechanical trackball, being constantly pawed by human fingers, is even worse.
Thirdly, this question of "is it possible" is entirely unclear. Yes, if you experienced in designing plastic housings and have the facilities required to manufacture them, then sure, anything is "possible".
I was essentially thinking of isolating the pcb and roller assembly from the rest of the casing, then placing a large ball bearing on the rollers. As for the buttons and scroll wheel, I think I might desolder then from the pcb and attach them to some wires. I'm not really planning on putting it into anything resembling a decent case.
I have an Atari trackball that someone modded for use as a mouse.
The red square button is not stock. I think that's a switch for changing from mouse to trackball and back. The two tiny buttons above the ball are the mouse buttons.
wrote:I was essentially thinking of isolating the pcb and roller assembly from the rest of the casing, then placing a large ball bearing on the rollers. As for the buttons and scroll wheel, I think I might desolder then from the pcb and attach them to some wires. I'm not really planning on putting it into anything resembling a decent case.
I'm not entirely clear on what makes you think this would not be in some way possible. I do reasonably expect that the result won't be anywhere as functional as a professional job. Just sayin'.
