mouse button wiring

[darkmanx]

Ok...so i have the crystal trackball. problem is...i dont know how to wire up the mouse buttons to pushbuttons. there are like little black boxes with a button on top for each mouse button. do i take these off somehow? if so how do i do it? i didnt wanna try pulling it off and break something. i looked at both of the writeups for the crystal ball on this site and they both missed how to wire the buttons. anyone done it that could tell me how?

[ErikRuud]

DarkManx,

Check out the the Cheep Spinner instructions.  They deal with adapting a mouse, but the principles are the same.

The little black buttons are the switches.  I de-soldered and removed them from my Crayola Track Ball, andthen I soldered lengths of wire into the holes that the switches came out of.  Those wires were then attached to a pair of Happs push buttons.

You will need de-soldering braid, or a desoldering bulb to remove the switches.  You can get these at Radio Shack.

[Jonathan_the_Red]

You don't even need to desolder. I didn't.

Flip your circuit board upside down. Look for the solder pads for the switches... there ought to be two for each. You can make sure you've got the right ones by plugging in the trackball and shorting the two solder pads with a piece of wire. If they're the right pads, the trackball glow color will change.

Solder wires to these pads and run them to your buttons. No problemo.

I'll get some pix up on my site in the next few days.

[darkmanx]

hey guys thanks for the replies. as usual, i am unclear on a little bit more. do i just wire one to the com and one to the NO switch on my pushbutton? and does it matter which one is which? just to add: i knew i couldnt get through this project without soldering something   oh well. i need to learn anyway. just hope i dont ruin anything.

[Jonathan_the_Red]

Yup, one to the COM and one to NO. It doesn't really matter which... you've got a simple mechanical switch that will short those leads together when the button is pressed. Just for the sake of style, it's probably a wee bit cleaner to wire COM to the ground trace on the board (you can recognize because it'll be a big ol' thick trace that runs all over the board), but from a practical standpoint it won't make the slightest difference.

This will probably be a good "beginner's" soldering project, because it's a lot easier to solder something to a pad that already has solder on it. In a nutshell, here's what you're gonna do:

Get some nice stranded wire and strip a quarter inch or so.

Apply soldering iron to wire and hold it there for a bit.

Bring solder into contact with wire above the soldering iron (not the iron itself). If you've done it right, the wire will melt the solder which will then flow into and around the strands. It should have a nice, clean, shiny appearance. Don't use too much solder. This is known as "tinning."

Bring the tinned wire in contact with the solder pad. Use the soldering iron to heat the point of contact. The solder on the pad and the solder on the tinned wire should flow together and form a solid connection.

Good luck and have fun