I used a cheap Chinese slim mouse that I picked up on eBay for $4. I disassembled it and trimmed the PCB by removing the buttons and scroll wheel that were connected on a daughter card. The body is made from a 2 PVC male adapter and cap from the Home Depot. I trimmed off the slip side of the male adapter and most of the rim of the cap. I used a little hot glue to secure the mouse sensor and lens to the cap. I just ordered a 2.125 snooker ball and some silicon nitride bearings to complete the project.
My question is, does anyone know of a hardware method of flipping one of the axes? When you make a mouse into a trackball, up and down are as expected but right and left are reversed (unless you mount the cord towards you left and right are correct but up and down are reversed). This is pretty easy fix if the sensor is a quadrature encoder flip one pair of the four outputs but I have no clue on how to do it with an all-in-one chip like the A2637.
http://www.apexonemicro.com/en/products_detail.asp?Info_Class_Id=1&InfoId=33
Here is a teaser picture. Full parts list and write up when Im done.
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