We’re not sure how we managed to miss this one, but better late than never, right? This is Trinteract, a 3-DOF input device that’s both open-source and Arduino compatible. There’s even a neat 3D-printed clip to add it to the side of your laptop.
Imagine navigating 2D and 3D environments, or flying around in Minecraft with ease. [Görkem]’s custom PCB features a Hall effect sensor which picks up readings from the magnet embedded in the bottom of the joystick. You can use any magnetic object as input. In the video below the break, [Görkem] shows a 3D-printed sphere with a disc magnet trapped inside as an alternative. The super-neat part is that the thing moves around entirely on flexures. You know how much we love flexures around here.
[Görkem] has written up a fantastic guide for those who must have one of their own. As a bonus, the guide details the background and thought process behind the design, which we love to see.
Don’t like magnets? This space mouse uses an accelerometer and a spring.
Thanks for the tip, [James]!
As a proof of concept? Fine, but shakes like hell. Maybe write your own driver and run input data through a Kalman?
For actual 3D work in CATIA it’s easier to just buy SpaceMouse Pro. Even for hobby modelling at home it’s not really expensive, in my case it’s cost just 1,5 days of work. This month I spent more on Thrustmaster steering wheel and joystick just to screw around in Farming Simulator 25 XD
OTOH, spacemouse drivers/spaceconexion can be absolute hell. I tried using one for a few months, and it was very flaky. Mouse controls are good enough nowadays (even in CATIA!) to be about as fast as a space mouse, but if I were to try one again, I’d steer miles clear of the spacemouse brand.
Are you using it under linux? The windows drivers seem pretty reliable to me. Maybe your mouse had a problem.
On linux, spacenavd (https://github.com/FreeSpacenav/spacenavd) works for me.
(With Freecad, openscad, and with some custom stuff that I wrote that interacts with a web browser, but that I don’t run frequently any more.)
BUYING a spacemouse is a 100% no go for me. I won’t buy hardware from a company that refuses to maintain decent Linux drivers for their hardware. I know there are 3rd party drivers that do work with Linux, but without decent support from the OEM, I’m not going in that direction.
Integrating 3DConnexion support into PrusaSlicer and to maintain proved to be very difficult and time consuming. 3DConnexion does not support older devices and their support is not stellar.
You can just get a used one on ebay and get the hardware without supporting the company
Wow, they got expensive. I got my 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator PEs fpr ~48.
I don’t know now what a “PEs fpr” is, but around EUR 50 seems a reasonable price for a genuine spacemouse. The hardware is quite simple, so even with an EUR 50 price there should be plenty margin for them to make some profit.
https://www.fictiv.com/teardowns/spacenavigator-3d-mouse-teardown
The PE is a model of SpaceNavigator, “fpr” is obviously a typo of “for”
Mystery solved
Looking at the video, I realised that I too have a need for such a device.
When I work in kicad PCB editor, I often have to select a component, zoom out, and then zoom back in to a different spot where I want to place it. This tool could be handy
Although I’m not sure how often I would use it. Keyboard + mouse has been refined over many many years so its pretty good
It looks like zooming in this device is also affecting X and Y, and that’s of course logical with this type of build. The trick of using both hands to perform te required operation separates that linkage of the actions. Apart from using a keyboard, you could easily use a second mouse and use only the scroll wheel for zooming, or somthing like a a “volume foot pedal” that used to be on electronic piano’s.
interesting! obviously, 3dof is at least 2 short for being a decent viewpoint controller for cad, but the mouse can substitute, or have 2.
I have 3dconnection space navigators at work and at home (though i rarely use them tbh) and have climbed the steepish learning curve. They work, although closed source, but they are used with very, very small control inputs. Sadly, some nerve damage my left hand is not that good at at operating them. i’ve long pondered a “better for me” left hand cad controller. So far i still think a thumbstick for roll, one for pan, a scroll wheel for zoom and maybe one more for rotate might be it. along with a few buttons for selection and whatnot.
mouse gestures and whatnot is a decently user friendly cad suite (solidworks for me, i was poisoned a long time ago) means one handed drawing is mostlly possible nowadays anyway, so maybe the entire point is moot now.
First, an actual 3dConnexion SpaceMouse starts at $179 USD, new. Even used on fleabay they are rather expensive. I have 2 of them and despite forcing myself to use them a long while, I could never get used to them. Waaaay too touchy and sensitive. Pity, cuz I find myself doing more and more 3D modeling. And creating a config for an application not already supported is complex and difficult.
I think you did not configure the accel curves and sensitivity.
They are $20 for HP branded models for example. They go ‘unsupported’, but really you only need to drop the DLL from the old software in the directory for the new software.
My only problem is I so rarely use CAD I’m only doing TinkerCAD rarely and couldn’t interface it easily.
Also SpaceMouse is 6DOF. I got really excited at this project, then realized it was 3DOF, but maybe in future?
Which models go for $20 (used I assume)? I can’t seem to find anything below 50.
Has anyone managed to get this or any of the other open source 3d mice to work in Android? Is that even possible with a non-rooted phone?