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Make your own mouse trackball

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Step 1Destroying mouse

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30 comments

Nov 26, 2011. 9:53 AMsteven1996 says:

I made some kind of an information panel using you trackball.

Nov 29, 2011. 11:13 AMelgatoandaluz (author) says:

Very interesting application. Good job.

Jul 15, 2011. 10:11 AMviktortt says:

Cool thing
dental office design

May 11, 2011. 1:27 AMnielvaish says:

your steps is not easily understand to all. So, in step of connection adding two or more steps . But nice

Nov 9, 2010. 2:07 AMpork_hunt says:

Been giving this a shot, intention is to have a game-pad style trackball. Case is an old RC heli controller, mouse is an old USB Dell. I had to chase up the invert y-axis command for linux.

The command to invert the y-axis on a mouse is...

xinput -list

xinput set-int-prop "device name" "Evdev Axis Inversion" 8 1 0

xinput -list will show you the "device name", in my case it is "USB Optical Mouse" Took me 2 hours of google-ing and working from manpages to come up with that damn command!

Nov 9, 2010. 9:40 PMpork_hunt says:

...And here she is all bolted together. You can see the left and right mouse microswitches double-sided-taped to the shoulders of the controller with the wires exposed, for now. Works well, ball sits very high, and the centre-click button isn't working for some reason, but otherwise it is perfect for media-centre/web browser use from the couch!

Nov 16, 2010. 11:37 AMelgatoandaluz (author) says:

Good job. Nice red light.
Wireless be better, do not you think?

May 28, 2010. 6:11 AMet334 says:

cool instructable, i agree that its not very detailed but all thats needed is there, i just added wires to each switch and the mouse wheel now i have a trackball mouse with 5 buttons and a wheel:) it works well in dota:)

May 29, 2010. 6:30 AMelgatoandaluz (author) says:

I am glad my instructable has helped you.

May 26, 2010. 10:03 AMklangton says:

CERN's trackball from 1970's
http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2010/21/News%20Articles/1265855

May 23, 2010. 7:08 AMbitterbierce says:

Mi inglés SI es bueno, mándame lo que quieras traducir y con mucho gusto lo haré.
Un saludico -(|:-)

May 24, 2010. 12:27 AMelgatoandaluz (author) says:

Muchas gracias, con el saludico y la boina me has convencido totalmente.
Dada la popularidad que está teniendo este instructable me gustaria realizarlo con mas detalles y mas textos, en tal caso me haria falta un poco de ayuda (aparte del traductor del Google).
Muchas gracias de nuevo.
Otro saludico, -(|;-)

May 24, 2010. 10:20 AMbitterbierce says:

Si, la gente se queja, en esencia, porque tiene muy poco detalle y tienen que adivinar como se hacen las cosas.

yes, people are complaning because, basically, there is little detail and they have to guess hwo things come together. (this is the English translation of what is written above) The english translation of this instructable should appear soon, (courtesy of yours truly)

May 24, 2010. 3:26 AMlimonchi says:

muy buena idea, te falta mejorar el acabado, pero me gusta,
ya estoy buscando un candidato que destrozar
me suscribo, para ver la evolucion
saludicos
jaja

May 21, 2010. 10:51 PMprofpat says:

muy bien, muchos gracias,

will add this to my future projects....

May 20, 2010. 8:32 PM

bowmaster says:

Um, what?

May 20, 2010. 6:11 PMFTZ says:

Ha! Very nice idea. Just missing those "key elements" in the instructions.

Turning the "down side" of the mouse up and track the ball, then inverting it with software so simple! And to that efect the deodorant ball is just briliant!!!

I will try this one, good work on the idea!

May 20, 2010. 10:46 AMNinja1507 says:

They are, but It gives me the general Idea. so thats all i really needed. but I definately agree with Trainguyxx its very vague

May 20, 2010. 7:20 AMbeavers57 says:

Hi Gato,
Great idea. I could do with more details myself. If your language is Spanish, post the instructions or send me an email and I'll translate it for you.
un saludo,
David

May 20, 2010. 9:13 AMelgatoandaluz (author) says:

Hola Beavers57, mi idioma es el español y mi ingles no es bueno.
Acepto con gusto tu ofrecimiento. ¿Como puedo contactar contigo?
Publiqué este instructable sin imaginar que iba a crear tanto interes. Consideraré la posibilidad de hacer una nueva version del instructable, en tal caso contaré con tu colaboracion.
Muchas Gracias.

Translated by Google Traslator:
Hello Beavers57 , my language is Spanish and my English is not good.
Gladly accept your offer. How I can contact you?
I posted this instructable not imagine that would create much interest. Consider the possibility of making a new version of the instructable, if so tell your cooperation.
Thank you very much.

Don Gato.

May 20, 2010. 5:15 AMTrainguyxx says:

The instructions are a bit vague, aren't they?

May 19, 2010. 7:35 AMxc1024 says:

NOOOOOO! Just after I though of making something like this! Well, my solution is much less invasive so it may be not exactly redundant. I'll post an 'ible anyway.

May 18, 2010. 1:37 PMgmoon says:

Hey, you made Hack-a-day! Nice!

Too bad the feature team here didn't think as much of it...

May 19, 2010. 3:56 AM

Jayefuu says:

I agree with robomaniac, it's lacking enough detail to get featured.

May 19, 2010. 4:34 AMelgatoandaluz (author) says:

Sorry for not giving more details. This is my first instructable.
and my english is not good enough.
Anyway thanks for your interest.

May 19, 2010. 4:38 AM

Jayefuu says:

It's much better than my first one! :D Didn't mean to put it down, was just commenting that it wasn't the best ever so probably didn't meet the feature criteria. :)

May 18, 2010. 12:31 PM

robomaniac says:

There is NO instructions, the track ball mouvement need more detail.

picture of the deodorant roll ball connected to the optical mouse part should be way more clear.