Each LED remains on for one second, then turns off. Once all the LEDs have been cycled, we move on to the main loop where the trackball shows its capabilities.
When the main loop begins, the RedBoad will be waiting for input from the trackball, and will output a coordinate to the serial monitor. The RedBoard first polls each of the trackball pins. The function pulseIn waits for up to microseconds to determine if there is any pulse the pin driving HIGH coming in from the trackballer.
If so, the pulse length again, in microseconds is recorded to the variable name, and the RedBoard moves on to the next pin. If no pulse comes in, the variable is assigned the value of 0. You can find more information on this function here.
Once the variables have been written, the RedBoard then compares each value to determine if there was any pulse input.
In our case, we simply want to see any movement, so we compare to a time of 0 seconds. If you want to only register long scrolls, you can increase the value being compared.
If pulses were recorded, we adjust the x- and y-coordinates accordingly. Since we are basing this off of a Cartesian coordinate system , we record Up and Right movement as positive incrementations, while Down and Left movements are negative incrementations. Finally, we check for any button clicks. If your trackballer is hooked up correctly and your RedBoard has been programmed without issue, you should see the following output on your terminal monitor.
Try scrolling the trackball and clicking the button to verify everything is working correctly. The trackball position counter will increment up or down, depending on how you roll the ball. In this example, I rolled the trackball up and to the right. I then rolled it down several times and to the left. You can see when I clicked the push button towards the bottom. Now that you've successfully got your BlackBerry Trackballer breakout up and running, it's time to incorporate it into your own project!
Once you've successfully gotten data out from your trackballer breakout, it's time to create your own project based around the breakout board! Will you use it as a driver for a remote robot? Or perhaps an interactive art display? We want to see what you come up with!
If you need some ideas to get started, try customizing the LED color of the trackball to light up when you press the button. Alternatively, try using your trackballer as a drawing tool in Processing! Need some inspiration for your next project? Check out some of these tutorials:. If you have any feedback, please visit the comments or contact our technical support team at TechSupport sparkfun.
Need Help? Mountain Time: Shopping Cart 0 items. Product Menu. Today's Deals Forum Desktop Site. The Blackberry trackball is a very ingenious design.
There are four rollers arranged around the trackball in the up, down, left, and right locations. When you rotate the ball towards the right, the ball actually shifts a bit to the right in the housing so that it can engage and rotate the right roller. Rotating the ball to the left would cause the ball to shift away from the right roller so that it would engage and rotate the left roller instead. These rollers are actually magnetic so that a hall effect sensor placed beneath them can detect when they rotate.
The breakout board from Sparkfun provides 4 of these hall effect sensors one placed beneath each roller and the outputs from these sensors are connected to the mbed device so that it can count the amount of rotation in each of the 4 directions. The trackball can also travel down within its housing so that pressing it will cause a microswitch placed beneath it to be depressed.
The fact that the ball is translucent also means that it can be illuminated with 4 LEDs of different colours red, green, blue, and white from below. The raw output from this trackball object is too fine for use as a mouse on the PC. To solve this problem I have added some classes in the acceleration.
This program was created on a mbed-M0 device which has support for PwmOut on different pins than the other mbed devices. In the photo of my breadboard setup, there is a green wire on the left side of the breakout board. This wire passes underneath the board and through the two mounting holes. It is just there to shim up that side of the board so that it matches the pin header on the other side.
It provides no electrical connection. Romilly Cocking has a notebook page which shows how to connect a Sparkfun USB breakout board to the mbed. You don't need to connect the VCC pin of this breakout board if you are going to get power from the other USB cable over which the device is programmed. In the Kensington survey, participants who used trackballs over mice said they found them easier to control for accurate movements. We found trackballs more precise than trackpads and more usable for design work or anything else that required accuracy.
We then used each contender for at least eight hours of work before eliminating models that were awkward to use, suffered from build-quality issues, or had confusing software. Then we used the remaining trackballs for several days of work, paying attention to the build quality, accuracy, and general comfort.
Depending on your needs, the tilted angle of the MX Ergo may be more comfortable than the neutral position of the M The Kensington Expert Mouse Wired Trackball is nearly identical to our finger-operated pick, the wireless Expert Mouse, aside from its wired connection and different colors.
Our tester experienced the same problems noted in a number of Amazon reviews, namely connection issues and erratic tracking. We encountered issues with the left-click working reliably, and the forward and back buttons felt awkwardly placed.
If the tilt is comfortable for you, it might be worth dealing with the quirks. Although the Logitech TrackMan Marble lacks a scroll wheel or ring, it has buttons for paging up and down.
The TrackMan Marble bears a shape similar to that of the Kensington Orbit with Scroll Ring, but the button placement makes accidentally hitting the page-up and page-down buttons too easy; even after a few days of use, we never got comfortable with that placement. Thorin Klosowski is the editor of privacy and security topics at Wirecutter.
He has been writing about technology for over a decade, with an emphasis on learning by doing—which is to say, breaking things as often as possible to see how they work.
For better or worse, he applies that same DIY approach to his reporting. Dust, skin particles, and hand oils will eventually accumulate on a keyboard and mouse. We tested 33 gaming mice this year to find the five best mice for wired or wireless gameplay, including some lower-priced options.
Our pick. Kensington Expert Mouse Wireless Trackball The best finger-operated trackball With a huge ball and four buttons, this is a near-perfect trackball held back by a gritty scroll ring.
KensingtonWorks lets you customize button behavior globally or per application. Budget pick. Best thumb-operated trackball: Logitech Ergo M Logitech Ergo M The best thumb-operated trackball Comfortable to use and easy to get the hang of, the Ergo M is a good choice for new trackball converts.
Long-term test notes. Should you switch to a trackball? Photo: Rozette Rago. How we picked. Ball: A trackball should rotate smoothly, without gritty-feeling friction.
A low-quality ball can ruin the experience of using a trackball. The bigger the trackball, the less rotation you need to employ to move the cursor across the screen. Buttons: We look for the same amount of buttons as we do on wireless mice —a trackball should have at least left- and right-click buttons, but we prefer models with at least two additional buttons for back and forward.
Comfort: A trackball should be comfortable for any size hand and not require wrist extension or deviation to operate. Great software also lets you change the pointer speed, acceleration, and scrolling speed. Battery life: If you opt for a wireless trackball, you can expect anywhere from six months to 24 months of battery life. Some trackballs use AA batteries, while others have a rechargeable battery.
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