Mouse-Controlled Mouse Controller Is Silly, But Could Be Useful

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Useless machines are generally built as a fun pastime, as they do nothing of value by their very definition. The most popular type generally involves a self-cancelling switch. However, thereā€™s plenty of other useless machines to build, and we think [Jefferyā€™s] build is particularly creative.

The build consists of an XY gantry that moves a standard computer mouse. To control the gantry, a Raspberry Pi feeds the system G-Code relative to the motion of a second mouse plugged into the single-board computer. Itā€™s pretty standard fare overall, with the Pi sending commands to an Arduino that runs the various stepper motors via a CNC controller shield.

Yes, itā€™s a mouse that moves a mouse ā€“ and on the surface, this appears to be a very useless machine. However, we could imagine it being useful for remote control of a very old system that uses a non-standard mouse that is otherwise difficult to emulate. Additionally, it wouldnā€™t take much extra work to turn the XY gantry into a competent pen-plotter ā€“ of which weā€™ve seen many. Video after the break.



from Blog ā€“ Hackaday https://ift.tt/3fPXGZ0

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