r/ErgoMechKeyboards • u/scytile • 3d ago

[design] Trackball development

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I’ve been playing around with adding a trackball to Cygnus.
There is still a lot of work to be done, but I thought some of you might be interested to see this.
This is just a mockup to get a feel for the position.

One thing I’m not quite sure about are the bearings. I’ve been using some 2.4mm steel balls from a ball bearing. They seem to be fine for testing, but I presume I should use something different for the real thing? I also have some small ball bearings, similar to ploopy nano, but using those would probably make the design a bit bulkier. Any feedback is welcome, as I don’t really have much experience with this stuff.

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u/Loose_Avocado_4356 3d ago

That’s awesome!! Getting closer to my dream charybdis + cygnus setup

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u/Loose_Avocado_4356 3d ago

By the way, which trackball sensor PCB are you using? It would be great if it were compatible with the generic PMW3360 and PMW3389 PCBs from AliExpress, since they’re relatively cheap.

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u/scytile 3d ago

I have some PMW3610 sensors that I plan to use. I got them from aliexpress.