Electrical engineer Colton Baldridge, self-described “engineering dork,” has put collectively an open supply equal to the SpaceMouse 3D pointing gadget — 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 in the future I got here dwelling and needed the identical functionality right here,” Baldridge explains of the venture’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 units — useful 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 gain advantage from his efforts.
Baldridge began the venture in mid-2022, designing the mechanics of the mouse and 3D-printing varied 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 factor evaluation (FEA).
An preliminary customized PCB design adopted, with the primary really practical prototype and “minimal viable product” delivered almost a yr after the venture started. Then, a five-month delay — “my life bought 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 gadget.
The venture 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 newer different — as is Salim Benbouziyane’s unnamed however extraordinarily modern design. Jacek Fedoryńsk, in the meantime, took a unique strategy by constructing a Raspberry Pi Pico-powered adapter for outdated serial-based SpaceMouse Traditional units — obtainable at a low value on the second-hand market.
“Clearly the venture is much from completed,” Baldridge says, outlining plans for future enhancements. “The firmware shouldn’t be nice, does not assist 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 wish to add.”
“The software program additionally is just a command line utility which solely helps SolidWorks,” Baldridge continues, “whereas I’ve a dream of a GUI with configurable positive factors, many packages supported, and growth button configuration. The {hardware} can also be nonetheless not excellent, as I have not up to date the bottom to assist the additional growth header both.”
For individuals who aren’t postpone by a work-in-progress, although, extra particulars can be found on the venture’s Hackaday.io web page — whereas design recordsdata might be discovered on GitHub underneath an unspecified open supply license, with the PCB presently in its third revision.
