www.jaycrowe.com

Yes--the new board design is in fact a two-position. We need two contacts because the serial lines double from the Arduino's USB-to-serial connection (for programming it) and for talking to the orb, so we need to be able to shut them "off" (ie only talking to the USB-to-serial) or turn them "on" (fo...

Actually your two-sider looks a lot better than my one-sider with multicolored jumpers, that's for sure! The real test is whether yours works or if I've got a design which is only working with my stuff (it's happened). Thanks for making one and testing it! I'm very curious to see what your results a...

For silliness' sake... [img]http://omploader.org/vMTYzbg/orbduino.png[/img] Dropped the DIP switch from 6 positions to 2, moved a few things around, switched to 2-sided board, thinned traces. The Eagle3D script doesn't have parts for the zener diodes or USB B connector, which is why you just see the...

RadioBozo: Yes, I had that thought. I didn't go that route for two reasons: 1) I wasn't sure it would work and didn't want to muck with the hardware as I don't have spares, and 2) I figured most people weren't too keen on soldering at all so I wanted to keep it as simple as possible without having p...

[quote] that's quite some controller in the pic: do you work the buttons with your toes?[/quote] Heh... good old Spacetec... they only gave us the SpaceOrb for games, preferring to keep the sexy desk-mounted devices for the CAD purists. Not any more! [quote]I'm impressed with your rate of progress: ...

Well, I posted my "drops multiple zero packets" problem on the Arduino forums, and evidently that's just a problem with long strings of null values in serial communications, since the line goes quiet except for the stop bit, so unless timing is really really tight the receiver just sees a "1" poppin...

Okay, maybe it won't turn out to be the ULTIMATE orb solution, but we're getting there... Here's a control system for you: [img]http://omploader.org/vMTU4ZA/IMG_1355.JPG[/img] Left hand Spaceball 4000FLX, right hand mouse. Could this control system be entirely constructed any more of pure distilled ...

[quote]Digikey now has a USA location (Minnesota) so you don’t have to pay international shipping.[/quote] Other way round--I'm in the UK (grin). But good luck; I got quite a charge out of etching my own board. Hopefully it will work just fine for you. I think you won't have much trouble with the US...

Ron: thanks! And good reminder, I forgot to mention wattage. Low wattage for the diodes! I used 0.5w; from the page I cribbed the USB circuit from: "I'm using 3.6V, 0.5W Zener Diodes (1N5227) although I hear .25W is preferred, and apparently 1W don't work (according to a forum post)." I couldn't fin...

Slow going but just to let you know progress is still being made: I don't think the extra power supply will be necessary. Two things were making the board not talk to regular spaceballs: 1) Not sending the right startup string to the spaceball 2) My nice printed circuit board had a SINGLE CONTACT th...

Well, we're not out of the woods yet... it doesn't work AT ALL with the other spaceball models (and I think this is worth pursuing in case it's revealed to be a power issue). I think that it is a power issue actually, but I'm not yet certain how to diagnose or proceed (I've tried with my 3003 and my...

Thanks, Ranvalone! I made a few more sizing mods to the board design (increasing the diodes to 7.5mm spacing just to avoid the cramped feel of the prototype). I'm holding off sending to manufacturing until I've resolved the "other models of spaceball" issue a bit more (I'm still wondering about that...

Sounds good. I'll go through a couple more iterations although it probably won't change too much (I'd really like to assure myself it can work with other devices like the 3003 and/or 5000, just because that would be sorta cool). The 3003 is vexing me though... I tried talking to it with a term progr...

Hmm... it did NOT love my spaceorb 3003, though--did not even acknowledge the USB device, which tells me something bigger is at stake than communication protocols. I'm thinking that one may have to have EXTRA POWER (so I may want to design in a jumper/header for a battery pack if wiring that in fixe...