DIY Spinner With Optical Mouse?

[sharkus]

I'm in the process of researching home made spinners (hard drive technique).  One option I was considering is using an optical usb mouse.

The idea is to create a fly wheel with a pattern (or even plain paper seems to work) and mount the optical sensor slightly below the fly wheel.  Before I get started I was wondering if anyone has already tried this idea.  I'm hoping that an optical mouse would have less back spin type issues.

I did a search and didn't find anything mentioned...

[Warborg]

I was looking into this idea last week actually...  I haven't had much time to really dig into it, just gather up some surplus parts to experement...  BUT...  Most optical mice tend to "lose track" if you move them too quickly and just simply stop responding or "jitter".  I'm still going to play with the idea, but I'm really not certain it's going to work well enough.

[Thenasty]

for some tips, check my page. There's a link in there here for the Nasty-Spinner. Or search it in B/S/T for Nasty- Spinner.

[Kremmit]

Some optical mice can actually be hacked in the traditional manner:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=25219.0