Turn a PC mouse into a Speedo

ph2t · Post by **ph2t** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 5:58 am

Surely this can be done? I have so many mice it's not funny. I remember in the old days you could get a mouse odometer like the one located HERE and another one HERE it would tell you how far your mouse has traveled. So if we had this we could take a snapshot over time and get actual speed. I don't think you would have to worry about scale or ratios because it's based on actual ground speed, not RPM's.

All you would do it place one of your car's real wheels on the mouse spindle and write a program to interface and report, etc, etc.....

Nox, I'm looking at you for this one Programmer phreak!

Of course you could always tell me to

.

Interesting none the less

Buzzbait · Post by **Buzzbait** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 6:44 am

Mouse into a speedo? Let me get this straight. You want to kill a small furry rodent, and use its pelt to make a men's skimpy bathing suit? Count me out. There's no way I'm letting a mouse anywhere near my butt crack, much less riding up it!!!

noxorc · Post by **noxorc** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 6:53 am

ph2t wrote:Surely this can be done? I have so many mice it's not funny. I remember in the old days you could get a mouse odometer like the one located HERE and another one HERE it would tell you how far your mouse has traveled. So if we had this we could take a snapshot over time and get actual speed. I don't think you would have to worry about scale or ratios because it's based on actual ground speed, not RPM's.
All you would do it place one of your car's real wheels on the mouse spindle and write a program to interface and report, etc, etc.....
Nox, I'm looking at you for this one Programmer phreak!
Of course you could always tell me to .
Interesting none the less

I know the programs your referencing.

writing the code would be tit. but I'm still confused on what your after?
Do you want a dynometer?

-Nox

noxorc · Post by **noxorc** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 7:12 am

OK, program is written.

Open up a mouse case.
Place the Rear wheels against one of the 'mouse ball rails'.
and press 'forward' on the transmitter.

The program will display the rotation rate.

-nOx

noxorc · Post by **noxorc** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 7:21 am

noxorc · Post by **noxorc** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 7:24 am

I guess the issue I see is, attaching TWO MICE!

most 'putes only handle one. Let me test with a USB and a serial mouse to see how it reacts.

-nOx

ph2t · Post by **ph2t** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 8:10 am

noxorc wrote:
writing the code would be tit. but I'm still confused on what your after?
Do you want a dynometer?

-Nox

Nah, just a speedo.

Your work is looking good homie. But you'd want to be able to translate into MPH and KPH. I was stuffing around with the program in the second link and taking the total distance covered over a certain time period and then dividing the end value by the time taken. As for the mouse port well that is an issue and it wouldn't be easy to double up on mice I guess. I use a ps2 port at home and I've had to remove my normal mouse before replacing with the speedo-mouse to test.

Keep the ideas comin nox.

ph2t.

noxorc · Post by **noxorc** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 8:20 am

KPH? we don't use that in the States...
and what the States don't use, the rest of the world shouldn't.
(ok..getting off my high horse).

MPH and KPH is just an algorithm...no biggie to me.
can add that in a second.

we'll both keep thinking on this one...

I can work on it in the background.

Namuna · Post by **Namuna** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 10:55 am

I want in on this project. Nox, how can I get my hands on your 'bitspeedracer' ?

using the mouse guts was my initial hope for making an RPM motor tester, but I never could find anything (software wise) that seemed anygood.

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 11:09 am

so how do you turn a mouse into spandex bathing suits? im confused over here

can you use an optical?

Buzzbait · Post by **Buzzbait** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 11:12 am

Never heard of optical spandex. Does it give your butt ground effects?

Namuna · Post by **Namuna** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 11:41 am

No on the optical (at least not easily)

Gotta have the guts of a ball mouse, the critical components are the LED emitter/decoder and encoder wheel (usually used to detect the vertical or horizontal mouse movement).

noxorc · Post by **noxorc** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 12:22 pm

what Namuna says it true, you want the rollers and decoders inside the mouse.
Optical does have the same mechanical movement parts.

I'm willing to work with anyone on this. I'll give out my code.
You just have to define the functionality and scope.

-nOx

Namuna · Post by **Namuna** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 12:38 pm

To add on to what ph2t was already getting to...

Functionality:
To use the components in a standard mouse to track/measure the usage (at the wheels) of a Bit Char-G

Scope:
To ascertain the RPM, Distance (I would suggest in Feet) as well as MPH.

- RPMs: you seem to already have a lock on this with what you have already.
- Distance: The traveled distance could be another way to test battery capacity
- MPH: Using the means for finding the Distance and associating time (perhaps even in Real-Time?) would be the biggest plus of this setup.

I've got mice (from old machines at work) that can easily be donated for the 'cause'.

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 12:47 pm

nox: what if you had a force feedback mouse? could you ad resistance and turn it into a dyno?

bitPimps.lixlink.com

Turn a PC mouse into a Speedo

Turn a PC mouse into a Speedo

Re: Turn a PC mouse into a Speedo

Re: Turn a PC mouse into a Speedo