Centipede

[tinker]

This is a project that I finished many months ago but I thought I would try to contribute...
What I did isn't exactly a case mod but is similar in some ways.
I took an old centipede case that someone in the neighborhood was throwing out and put my computer in it. I mounted my monitor where the old screen used to be and put the computer on a shelf I made so it was easily accessed through the coin door. Probably the biggest thing I did though was mod the trackball and fire button on the control panel to act as the mouse movement and left click. I was going to install MAME(arcade emulator) on it but never got around to it. It is now sitting empty in my room without anything in it because I got tired of having to sit on a bar stool to use my computer:). Hopefully I can someday get hold of a crappy computer and get MAME running on it.

Here are some pix. I don't have very many detailed pictures because this was done several months ago...

The front... I forgot to mention that I made a keyboard tray for it too.
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/3416/dsc00354th3.jpg

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/6650/dsc00358oo6.jpg

Close-up of the side art. The case isn't in perfect shape, but good for being 20years old and found in the trash.
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/4409/dsc00357me8.jpg

Kinda ghetto but when the door is closed you don't see it. That my stock HP case. haha.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/8002/dsc00362bg7.jpg

Control Panel. Its actually very comfortable to use. I would almost prefer it to a mouse if it came in a smaller package.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7784/dsc00369vd4.jpg

Monitor mounts (taken from the inside)
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/9634/dsc00365cw0.jpg

The Trackball labeled and ready for soldering to the mouse PC board.
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/509/dsc00345il4.jpg

The donor mouse PC board that I used to solder the trackball to.
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4870/dsc00350eu4.jpg


Thats pretty much all I have...
If someone wants me to be more detailed on how I made the trackball and fire button control the mouse or anything else I would be happy too.

[jdbnsn]

AHahaha! I love it! Brings me back to.....when I was young :(

Welcome to TBCS my friend, the one question you never need to ask here is "do you want to see more?" The answer is invariably hell yeah! I would love to see how you did the trackball and any more pictures you have would be awesome.

Jon

[tinker]

I'm glad you like it.
Its definitely not high quality work but still fun.

This is how I hooked the centipede control panel to the mouse.
I don't have any picture of the finished product but you should be able to get an idea of what I did from these.

This is of the original mouse before I did anything to it.
I marked a few things for reference later.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9103/mousepcb2ce9.jpg

A more close up shot of the PC board.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/3407/mousepcbiq2.jpg

Ok so first of the second picture is sideways so just rotate it in your mind.
The basic layout of a old(rollerball) mouse is you have two axis. Vertical and horizontal. And on each axis there is a IR emitter, IR receiver, and disk. The disk has little holes in it like this...
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9089/mousediscxa2.jpg
The rollerball spins the disks for each axis and the little holes on the disk let Infrared light (IR) that is emitted from the IR Emitter through the holes and the IR Receiver receives it. Each time the IR receiver receives infrared light it moves your mouse one unit. Thats how the old mice work.
The track ball in the control panel works the same way with all of the same components so basically I removed the IR emitters and receivers from the mouse circuit board and soldered on wires that led to the IR receivers and emitters for the trackball.
For the left click I did the same thing. Removed the left click switch that was on the mouse circuit board and replaced it with wires leading to the fire button leads.

This may be too detailed but I couldn't think of another way to explain it. Hopefully it makes since. I might be able to get some finished circuit board pics up later but for now this is all I have.

[Twigsoffury]

hey you can pick up keyboard controllers on ebay for pretty cheap its how we got our controls to work its pretty simple two. just a +/- with the letter of the key next to it.

[tinker]

I didn't realize those existed. Interesting.
I probably wouldn't have used it because all the function I needed was through the mouse and I didn't really want to spend money on this project.

Do you possibly have a link to a keyboard controller because I'm thinking it could help me out with another project I'm working on. I can't seem to find one.

Thanks for the tip!
+rep