.99 spinner mod for logitech marble mouse

[kayoteq]

I was tired of having low scores on tempest.. so I pondered my marble mouse for awhile..
and made a basic removable spinner axis for the thing.

1 1 1/4 'doll head' from art supply store (wood)
1 drywall screw plug (plastic)
1 misc. case screw from PC

Remove trackball. place pc screw into drywall screw plug. insert from bottom; the PC case screw may just fit; your junk drawer may vary. This is all press-fit; no modification to the logitech is necessary. (tried it on 3 different ones; I like them)

In my case, the 'doll head' has a flat part with a hole pre-drilled. a round ball might work but you'll need to make a flat part with a hole. truly sadistic folks with a spare marble could drill that, but that's you and your marble..

anyway, back to procedure:

push wood ball onto screw plug. spin. It's not working, but that's not important right now. You are establishing
the 'spin encoder area'.. press down, let the guide pins dig a groove in the wood. You'll need that.

Now remove the ball, and below that groove line put in a pattern of dots similar to the oem trackball with a sharpie.
re-insert the mechanism. you should now have just left-right direction.

For better results..
A better encoding pattern,
perhaps one more consistent than random dots from a sharpie to prevent 'drift'.

Some sort of bushing,
 would improve the actual 'spinnability' of the ball. this was just the simplest setup that worked.

Result? tempest gives me better scores than the stock trackball, but less than if I can get the encoding pattern right
and put a better axle for the spinning.. right now it's getting friction from being well. a .99 mod. another dollar or two should fix it..

So.. any advice on how to best re-interpret the optical encoding dots would be appreciated. my sharpie pattern works, but I'll bet it would work better with a more consistent dots-per-inch pattern.

[bfauska]

Sounds like a promising cheap way to get almost spinner-like performance out of a optical TB.  BUT...

 

[kayoteq]

um.. still working on it. I'll document it now, but here's a 'fake' of something else I've been working on to keep the centipede
control panel original in appearance..


..the logitech is just a proof-of concept prototype for the 'real' thing. the tb roller remains a roller, but additional optic sensor
from the tb mounted in the pick up the dot  signals from the drop-in modules.. nutters eh?

[northerngames]

darnit I was wanting to see a matching barbie and ken head on your CP 

cool idea though would like to see the outcome.

[kayoteq]

Sorry, haven't done much more with this. I distracted myself by getting a gen-u-ine centipede trackball fixture for the restoration cab.. OEM scum, worn shafts, but after much cleaning and re-oiling it's in bug-killing shape again.. so haven't done much on this.  After getting that TB working right, I see I really need to rethink the bearings for this.. but in theory, any optical mouse could be fooled into thinking it's moving sideways with a proper dot pattern spinning by the sensor.

I just like these marble mouses.. any time I get a new computer that's about the first accessory I get.

[emerica]

um.. still working on it. I'll document it now, but here's a 'fake' of something else I've been working on to keep the centipede
control panel original in appearance..


..the logitech is just a proof-of concept prototype for the 'real' thing. the tb roller remains a roller, but additional optic sensor
from the tb mounted in the pick up the dot  signals from the drop-in modules.. nutters eh?

Not to start a new topic but...

That joystick do-hickey might work well for 720. It would be easy to keep the stick moving around the edge instead of returning to the middle.