Electrical engineer Colton Baldridge, self-described “engineering dork,” has put collectively an open supply equal to the SpaceMouse 3D pointing system — providing six levels of freedom (6DOF) for a fraction of the price of off-the-shelf equivalents.
“I take advantage of a name-brand 3D mouse at work most days, however someday I got here dwelling and needed the identical functionality right here,” Baldridge explains of the mission’s origins. “After discovering the price of a standard 3D mouse ($150-400) and realizing that just one firm had a monopoly on 6DOF mice, I got down to make my very own. One that’s 6DOF, largely 3D printable, low cost, and open supply.”
The corporate in query is 3Dconnexion, creator of the well-known SpaceMouse household of six-degrees-of-freedom pointing gadgets — helpful devices to have when working with three-dimensional representations in pc aided design packages. Unable to justify the worth tag for private use, although, Baldridge set about constructing his personal — and determined to make it open supply, in order that others may benefit from his efforts.
Baldridge began the mission in mid-2022, designing the mechanics of the mouse and 3D-printing numerous customized flexures and knobs to experiment with their really feel — a course of that took longer than anticipated after he fell down the rabbit gap of finite component evaluation (FEA).
An preliminary customized PCB design adopted, with the primary actually purposeful prototype and “minimal viable product” delivered almost a yr after the mission started. Then, a five-month delay — “my life acquired busy,” Baldridge explains — with one other {hardware} revision required, leading to a tool which delivers on the maker’s need for one thing lower-cost, although higher-effort, than a 3Dconnexion system.
The mission consists of painstakingly-designed 3D-printed flexures and a customized PCB. (📷: Colton Baldridge)
Baldridge is not the primary to construct a do-it-yourself 3D-printed SpaceMouse equal. Again in March 2022 pseudonymous maker “FaultyDaantje” confirmed off a model constructed round a Pimoroni Tiny 2040, a compact growth board based mostly on the dual-core Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller. The House Mushroom, by maker “Shiura,” is a more moderen various — as is Salim Benbouziyane’s unnamed however extraordinarily modern design. Jacek Fedoryńsk, in the meantime, took a distinct method by constructing a Raspberry Pi Pico-powered adapter for previous serial-based SpaceMouse Basic gadgets — obtainable at a low price on the second-hand market.
“Clearly the mission is much from accomplished,” Baldridge says, outlining plans for future enhancements. “The firmware isn’t nice, would not help interrupts (although the {hardware} is there), remains to be utilizing STM’s HID [Human Interface Device] mouse instance because the backend, and isn’t very straightforward to develop on for any growth performance you need to add.”
“The software program additionally is simply a command line utility which solely helps SolidWorks,” Baldridge continues, “whereas I’ve a dream of a GUI with configurable positive aspects, many packages supported, and growth button configuration. The {hardware} can also be nonetheless not good, as I have not up to date the bottom to help the additional growth header both.”
For individuals who aren’t delay by a work-in-progress, although, extra particulars can be found on the mission’s Hackaday.io web page — whereas design information could be discovered on GitHub beneath an unspecified open supply license, with the PCB at the moment in its third revision.