exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I bet it's a lot heavier than a Mk.I Apple bus mouse ball. That's almost as light as a ping-pong ball.

@Icky I got my kit from Retro Bench on eBay.

stephen_usher wrote: 30 May 2022 13:37 I bet it's a lot heavier than a Mk.I Apple bus mouse ball. That's almost as light as a ping-pong ball.

It certainly is!

I have to say I'm a little shocked at the mouse build quality, it's not great TBH.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 30 May 2022 13:29

stephen_usher wrote: 30 May 2022 13:23 Have you tried scuffing the surface of the balls using sand paper?

I haven't yet, however the internal X/Y rollers are shiny smooth and whilst it would no doubt help to sand the surface of the balls, I'm not sure how effective it would be given the surface of the rollers, hence why I want to add thin rubber to the x/y rollers.

The original ball looks to be like most mouse balls and has a rubber like surface.

The Delrin ball would be perfect if it was just a smidge heavier.

Hey don't try that... yet.

In the YT video posted above the guy has used heat shrinked insulation on the rollers and seems to be happy with the grip on that.

I would try that first, if it was me. (Like @rubber_jonnie is wanting to do anyway.)

Shame you don't have an ethernet card, you can then use omniboot to access windows/samba shares.

I used to have about 60 mixed Archimedes connected up to a NT file server at the school I worked at in the early/mid 90s.

Long since forgotten all the ins and outs.

mrbombermillzy wrote: 30 May 2022 14:35

rubber_jonnie wrote: 30 May 2022 13:29

I haven't yet, however the internal X/Y rollers are shiny smooth and whilst it would no doubt help to sand the surface of the balls, I'm not sure how effective it would be given the surface of the rollers, hence why I want to add thin rubber to the x/y rollers.

The original ball looks to be like most mouse balls and has a rubber like surface.

The Delrin ball would be perfect if it was just a smidge heavier.

Hey dont try that... yet.

In the YT video posted above the guy has used heat shrinked insulation on the rollers and seems to be happy with the grip on that.

I would try that first, if it was me.

Actually, after I'd ordered the tubing (I can always find a use for it) I did remember that on the vid so may try that next :)

I think knowing what I know now, I'd advise replacing all the SMD caps, not only did this have battery damage, but the caps were causing havoc too. I'll fit replacements tonight for the audio circuit caps, and I can't help but think bad caps were pulling the whole machine down.

BennehBoy wrote: 30 May 2022 14:38 Shame you don't have an ethernet card, you can then use omniboot to access windows/samba shares.

I used to have about 60 mixed Archimedes connected up to a NT file server at the school I worked at in the early/mid 90s.

Long since forgotten all the ins and outs.

Yeah, the Econet card seems to work ok based on what I see in the OS, but no way of connecting it to my cat 5 network :(

That would be a big help.

Ok, so the heatshrink is looking like it sort of works with the steel ball, well partly, so I will scuff up the heat shrink see if it improves things

Ok, so we have some mousage, you can just see here the X/Y rollers with heat shrink on them:


And here is the mouse with its ball of steel!!


There is going to be a need for a rubber mouse mat I think, but I expect given it works reasonably well when operated by hand, a rubber mat will do the trick nicely. Smooth surfaces are out for sure!

I may still use the silicone tubing in place of the heat shrink as it should provide a better grip overall. Once again, I'll take the win.

One other thing is, if I can't get the IDE working, I have a SCSI interface, so I could use that instead since it has internal and external connectors.

Hmm, do I have any old SCSI drives though?