Re: Digitizer, Optical mouse hacking

Smoke wrote:

>Well, that all makes sense..but I'd be a bit leery of depending on
>springs to return the part to center. "Identical" springs are
>notorious for not having exactly equal force rates.

Smoke,

AGREED! The use of a 'natural' centering device (like a cone in a
tapered hole, or the star idea, with a 'spring' to HELP the
process "settle" quickly is a better thing, IMO.

If springs are to be used for centering, one should look at a R/C
joystick design. There, the spring works against a stop in one
direction only. In this way good centering is again not dependant on
spring force...

In fact, an inexpensive R/C hobby joystick may be "just the ticket"
to 'prove out' this idea. Probably need to use some 'lighter force'
springs, but the rest is there, just waiting for the mouse...

Hope this helps.

Ballendo