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Link for Happs trackball to mouse hack?
rampy:
may i suggest checking out oscar's usb pre-hacked mouse offering? (it's like 9 - 13 ducats if i recall correctly) and it takes the guess work/pain out of doing a mouse hack... Although that assumes you have USB ports available... and aren't determined to do it yourself (i've done both and would just buy Oscar's hack again, or spring for the opticpac next time)
*shrug*
rampy
Stingray:
A little of both. I'm determined to do it myself, but I'm also running my cab on an older powermac that doesn't have USB. I could add a USB card if I had to, but I'd rather do it myself.
-S
Lilwolf:
The oscar ones are nice... better hack then I was able to do...
I killed 2 mice trying to hack it... and never got it really working (I WAS trying to do something else weird with them...that didn't work)... but anyway..
Money to Oscar was money well spent!
SirPoonga:
--- Quote from: Stingray on February 03, 2004, 10:45:01 am ---Thanks Miniwah. I'm going to be doing this with a steering wheel before long. Good info.
-S
--- End quote ---
Want a prehacked 1 axis mouse? PM me. I am going to be in the market of selling mine.
OSCAR:
I've hacked about 1200 mice now, and this is how I do it...
For the most part, I essentially do the same as the other mouse hack tutorials and links mentioned so far. In the below pics, this is a 2.25" Happ trackball that I picked up just a little while ago. It had been left for dead when I got it; the Happ optic boards and the wire harness had been removed, the bearings were frozen solid, and the white ball was very dingy and scarred up. Side note: I soaked the bearings and shafts in penetrating oil (WD-40) for a couple days to remove the crude and rust. When I took the bearings out of the oil/sludge mix, they spun nice and free and the rust was removed from the shafts. Then I put the trackball back together using some old Happ boards I had and threw in an 8-ball instead of the original ball.
Back to the mouse hack...
Most importantly, use a multimeter to determine where the +5V and GND are on the mouse board before you remove any components. When working on an unfamiliar mouse, I decase the mouse and plug it into a PC. Be careful not to cause a short on anything with it plugged in, it can smoke your PS/2-USB port. Don't assume that the PCB plane is GND, I've run across PS/2 mice that have a "hot" board, and the GND is just specific traces. All the USB mice I've used so far have the more conventional GND plane, with the +5V only on specific traces.
I've seen some websites mention removing the LED from the board to "conserve power". DO NOT DO THIS if you want to follow my example. The below pics show getting +5V from the middle pin of the phototransistor location, which is very common with the shared-base style 3-pin transistors. On many mice I've seen, the middle pin of the phototransistor is powered from the cathode side of the LED, so if the LED is removed you won't have +5V at the middle pin location. Don't try to remove the LED from the circuit and replace it with a jumper either, just leave it alone, it doesn