Simple USB mouse project

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1

I have a project where I need to read some sensors similar to the way a mouse works. i.e, I’ll be moving an instrument that will be turning some gears or wheels or whatever, and I need to read this via a hardcoded link to my laptop.

Can anyone give me a rough guide to the easiest way to approach this?

If I want to go via a USB port, are there usb kits available that also include maybe A/D D/A converters? Should I look at arduinos, or is that over engineering it?

I’ve done some electronics, and a lot of programming, but I’ve never had to create an interface to a computer before so if someone can give me some pointers to help me keep from going down the wrong route, I’d be very grateful.

Thanks

Pat.

2

The arduinos approach would be the easiest and isn’t really over kill.

It could be done with less but would be a much harder project.

3

Perfect. Thank you

Pat

4

You definitely want to use USB.

You’ll want a small micro with USB support, like an ATMega32u4.

You don’t actually want a mouse because on most systems it would move the cursor like a mouse.

You want an HID, Human Interface Device (which actually covers a lot of non-human ground).

You connect either a pot to an ADC pin or a biphase pickup to a pair of GPIO pins.

On the host side, you write an application to find the right VID/PID and read the HID reports coming in.

You won’t have to write a driver, only a user mode bit of code.

Yes, there is a bit of stuff involved with this, but once you get it down, you’ll be swimming in HID devices.

I’ve got 3 on my desk right now! :stuck_out_tongue: