Posted by Steve on 18, 2000 at 10:48 AM:
Only 2 people have shown any remote interest since my last post. I took one apart and got it interfaced to a PC.
The trackball is for the PSX, has 2 metal rollers and a metal guide roller. Internaly its very comparable to the centipede setup (heavy ball, 2 1/4" is bigger than some people imagine, nicely cast rollers). To interface with the PC, I took the PCB out of an old mouse and wired up the LED/sensors. The unit's original PCBs were discarded.
Very easy, obviously you have to be confident with soldering such that you're not going to mess up the mouse PCB.
The box has a lot of excess plastic where the PCB's and 4 buttons were held, this can all be cut down such that the final footprint is no bigger than the combined roller/ball footprint. The top half of plastic doesnt hold any of the mechanical bits in, this can also be discarded.
I have a stack of these, basicaly useless. Yours for $20 each. Unfortunately my digital camera is broken (the macro mode is great for documenting this kind of thing) - I've taken some normal photos and will try and get them scanned ASAP, but I think I've covered it all here.
Cheers.