Help with this would be greatly appreciated... I have a decently sized and functioning trackball, bigger than a mouse type trackball closer to arcade size, that is not usb. I want to make it usb. I opened it up and saw that it has the same basic connections as a ball mouse and I have a donor usb ball mouse. I just can't figure out which points should be connected to which. I have two options as I see it, one being to connect the ten points for horizontal and vertical sensors and leds on the trackball to the ones on the mouse (if I can figure out which ones go where) or I can connect the mouse board to the wires coming from the trackball board (8 wires coming out in a ribbon cable referenced in the picture below). I'm not sure which option would be better or what points correspond between the two sets of sensors. It seems so simple but for some reason I can't wrap my head around it right now. Pictures of both and a similar one with ribbon cable side labeled. Trackball Mouse Similar trackball
I think I would try to bodge them together at the rotary encoder level and maintain as much electronics that is not foreign in the new device.
You see on both boards there is a 2 legged light source and a 3 legged receiver hack it in at those points.
Yeah, that was my idea when I bought it. I figured it would be simple enough to do, I just wanted to be sure I wire it up correctly the first time. I don't know if they're in the same order on both boards and I don't want to mix up the wiring and ruin it. I thought I would post and ask people who might know better before I went solder happy The mouse is a dell branded logitech usb ball mouse with scroll wheel if that helps.
It's impossible for me to do much more through the conduit that is the internet! However I will advise to read about encoders and whatever the light source may be (if you haven't done this already that is), take your time and work it out slowly. If you do you'll improve your chances of it working dramatically.
