Use Kensington trackball mouse to control motors

Hello experts,
I am writing a Labview program using a Kensington expert trackball mouse to control two motors. Here is the mouse that I am using :
http://www.kensington.com/kensington/us/us/p/1444/K64325/expert-mouse%C2%AE.aspx
I would like to use the motion of the trackball to rotate the first motor: when I move the trackball left (or right), the motor will rotate left (or right); and the motion of the scroll ring (left/right) to control the second motor (left/ right). Besides, I would like to use the four click buttons as different ON/OFF buttons.
I do not want to use the trackball as a mouse, it means that I do not want the cursor of my computer moves when I move the trackball/rotate the scrolling ring!
So is there any solution that make only Labview "see" the trackball mouse motion, so that I can control my motors, without affecting the cursor function/position of the computer?
Thank you for your help.

I haven't done something like this myself, but like Bob said, once you plug the mouse in, Windows automatically recognizes it as a mouse. You might want to read these on how you can prevent that from happening and get the data yourself. If I understand correctly, you will need to parse and interpet all the raw data yourself:
http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Nugget-1-of-n-GEtting-started-with-USB-communication-via-VISA/m-p/74...
http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Nugget-2-of-n-USB-Control-transfers-using-VISA/m-p/757011
http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/USB-Nugget-3-of-n-Unifying-the-multitude-of-USB-driver/m-p/1814964/
Try to take over the world!

Similar Messages

Anyone using Kensington Expert Mouse or unorthodox methods?

Shown here:
http://www.connectreviews.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/kensington_expertmou se.jpg
I use left and right bottom as normal left and right on any other mouse but for top left i set to Razor Blade and i can then make cut with lower left and top right selects the footage between cut whereas both top together deletes the selected footage. Seems pretty fast, took awhile to get used to trackball but now works out fine.
Also, i set my arrow keys (comma and period) up to go single frame because they are right above space bar (PLAY).
Anyone else have tips, keyboard shortcuts or secrets to spill?

I use a Contour Shuttle Pro V2 and have set up buttons to cut and delete, in addition to other useful functions.
Its well to remember though you should be fluent in the standard key commands of FCP before you create a proprietary method if you are required to edit on someone else's kit from time to time.
Otherwise it's entirely up to you how you edit . . whatever works for you.

Using a seperate thread to control motors

Hi am new to Java and am struggling with a probelm.
The application is to control 4 motors connected to the parallel port. When the user presses a button the motor is set to a certain speed (byte output to port). Once the button is released the port outputs to stop the motors, i also have it working so multiple motors can be driven at the same time (multiple buttons held down) i have the code working ok, but at present the program just outputs a byte of data when its worked out what buttons are pressed/released.
The problem is i want to drive one of the motors using a crude form of PWM (output an 'on' byte, wait 1 second, output an 'off' byte, wait one second, ect)
This is clearly going to have to be performed in a loop that is basically an infinite loop untill the key is released. However the program also need to be listening for other key inputs to turn on other motors.
I think the best way to do it is to create a thread for the PWM that sleeps, allowing the program to do other things, and breaks out when it recieves an interrupt (triggered by another key press), however i am have major difficultly converting the code. at present the code looks like this:
private void DebugKeyReleased(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt) {
int c;
c = evt.getKeyCode();
switch (c)
case 83:     Control(100);
               break;
     case 68:     Control(80);
               break;
     case 65:     Control(40);
               break;
     case 87:     Control(20);
               break;
private void DebugKeyPressed(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt) {
int c;
c = evt.getKeyCode();
switch (c)
case 83:     Control(1);
               break;
case 68:     Control(8);
               break;
case 65:     Control(4);
               break;
case 87:     Control(2);
               break;
private void Control(int direction){
switch (direction)
     case 1:      forwards = 1;
               break;
     case 100:     forwards = 0;
break;
     case 2: backwards = 1;
               break;
     case 20: backwards = 0;
break;
     case 4:          right = 1;
               break;
     case 40: right = 0;
break;
     case 8:          left = 1;
               break;
     case 80:     left = 0;
break;
     global_direction = forwards*1+(backwards*2)+(left*8)+(right*4);
if(global_direction == 0)
moving = "Stopped";
short stop = 255;
lpt.output(Addr,stop);
     else if(global_direction == 1)
moving = "Backwards";
short Back = 239;
lpt.output(Addr,Back);
ECT, there are alot more if statements that account for all possibilities.
i want the backwards and forwards cases to enter loops that output data on and off for certain time periods.
can anybody suggest the best way to convert the code?
thanks for any info / help
cheers John

A finite state machine is an abstraction in which you have a finite collection of states, and a set of transitions between states. One state is active at a time. So a traffic light might have red, green, and yellow states, and transitions between green to yellow, yellow to red, and red to green. There can be multiple transitions out of a single state.
So for your app, each state might be a kind of signal or a kind of sequences of signals set to the motors, and the transitions would be taken when you need to change the signals. You could send the key events and time events to whatever state currently is active. That active state would then decide what transition to take based on the event.
I'm sure there will be an entry in Wikipedia about it.
If the code works, that's great, but (1) it's obviously not working entirely because you're posting here, and (2) code like this can get hairy very fast and thus hard to maintain and thus bug-prone. So if you can simplify it, it will only help.
If you want to use a thread, you can. You basically have that now. But instead of Thread.interruped as you have it now, you could just have the key press event change the value of the flag to one that will stop the loop.
(for example, you'd have a "running" boolean field, a "while(running) {" in your run() method, an the event can change the value of "running" from true to false to cause the thread to stop.

Using Automator to change Kensington Trackball Settings

Hi All,
I have several shared company computers, all have the Expert Kensington Trackball Mouse. The computer in question is an Intel Mac Pro running Leopard. I have 2 sets of users that need to use the rig and both sets of users prefer different settings to the Kensington Mouse (I only need 2 separate profiles, not 4). Kensington does not provide software to quickly switch user profiles. The simplest solution is to create different users for the computer, but that is not an option here. We've been trying to use Automator to script the changes quickly between mouse profiles, but while using the 'Watch Me Do' (none of us are particularly experienced with Automator) feature, we are able to set the bottom two mouse buttons, but the top 2 buttons result in the error message "This operation cannot be performed". The Kensington settings are in System Preferences, and have several drop-down menus and text boxes. There must be a better way to do this. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

I have a similar problem with the ultra sensitive trackpad with the "Clicking, Dragging, Drag lock" checked in Preferences/Keyboard & Mouse. I'm always turning them on and off depending on which application I am using.
My problem is that when I record a series of actions in Automator, the resulting action list has no text behind the action for the mouse click for the Clicking checkbox. Its as though it doesn't even know that its there. All of the other actions show up.
Got any ideas on how to fill that void or another workflow that would do the same thing ? I think that running the workflow again would turn it back on as the actions are identical.

Has there been any new drivers or patches for kensington trackball expert using mountain lion?

are there new drivers or patches for the kensington trackball expert? i'm using mountain lion on the imac 3.06 ghz intel i3 and it will not recogmize any driver i install. all this after the installation of mountain lion.

Kensington has a new version of Trackball Works 1.1.1 available, try it and see if your problems go away.
It is made for Lion & Mountain Lion.
TrackballWorks for Mac v1.1.1
March 11, 2013
Welcome to version 1.1.1 of TrackballWorks for Mac. This document describes the latest changes.
Compatibility
Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Supported Hardware
SlimBlade™ Trackball (K72327)
Expert Mouse® (K64325)
Orbit™ Wireless Mobile Trackball (K72352)
Orbit™Trackball with Scroll Ring (K72337)
Orbit™ Optical Trackball (K64327)
Installation Instructions
To run the installer, double-click on the DMG file, then double-click on"Kensington TrackballWorks.pkg". Follow the on-screen instructions.
Fixes Issues
Resolves an installation problem with Mountain Lion where TrackballWorks may not install properly with the Mountain Lion default security settings.
Resolves an issue with settings persistence where, after a reboot, some settings become reset to their defaults.
Changes & New Features
Button actions that are dependent on the Mac OS X version now correctly display or hide depending on the version of Mac OS X being used.
Button action "Launchpad" has been added for Mountain Lion.

Control motor direction using digital control

Dear all,
I am trying to control motor direction (forward and reverse) based on condition. I am reading data from two load cell left and right.
Currently I am using radio button to control motor direction when stress read from load cell reaches at certain point. For example If I have a fixed cut off value for forward direction +20 as soon the value from load cell reach to value of +20 then motor start moving in another direction (reverse). I tried my best to explain my situation please ask me question if you need further information. I have attached screen shot of my programme.
Thanks in advance
Tariq
Attachments:
help.PNG ‏147 KB

Hi Supreeth;
Thanks for your reply. I think I solved the bit of problem and use two condition for forward and reverse direction of motors and used and gates to set and rest the conditions. But at one point you can see the broken wire would you please help me with this because error said:
These cannot be wired together because their data types (numeric, string, array, cluster, etc.) do not match. Show the Context Help window to see what data type is required.
The type of the source is 1-D array of
boolean (TRUE or FALSE).
The type of the sink is boolean (TRUE or FALSE).
I add the comments.
Kind Regards
Tariq
Attachments:
help1.png ‏39 KB

Can I use SoftMotion to simulate a PID motor control loop using a Solidworks model?

Hi
I'm not a labVIEW user yet. But I probably will become one when I can do the following:
I have a Solidworks model of a complex machine with multiple servo motors. Can I use labVIEW plus SoftMotion to calculate the needed motor forces and aply these forces on the Solidworks model making some parts in the model move and can I get positional feedback from the Solidworks model which I can use in labVIEW to calculate the motor forces again. This way I could use labVIEW to simulate the complete motor control loop including some PID filtering.
I could find some posts about SoftMotion, but they all seem to handle about SoftMotion in combination with external hardware. But I would like to do a complete software simulation.
I hope this is possible.

Hi Melomania
Solidworks for SoftMotion works in an interesting manner. First SoftMotion runs in labview and plots a trajectory path based off the input from the user. The generated points are controlled by speed, velocity and acceleration. These generated points are sent to SolidWorks where the physics engine takes over. SolidWorks calculates the ammount of force required to move the component the given distance and also if there are any collisions that take place. Basically the whole process is open loop with no PID being implemented. The purpose for the software is to test your motion system for collisions and calculate the required torque for your motors to move and the velocities and accelerations provided. A system prototyped with SoftMotion Solidworks will still need to be tuned when constructed in the real world.
For your application I would look into Control Design and Simulation Toolkit.
Thank You
Eric Reid
National Instruments
Motion R&D

Kensington Expert Mouse (Trackball) Button Configuration

I'm trying to set up my trackball mouse. Most of the buttons etc. work out of the box, but I need to make a couple of tweaks.
I've spent ages trawling the net and the arch wiki and I simply can't get my head around this. Especially with the new xorg changes and most of the docs now being out of date.
The mouse has 4 buttons + a scroll wheel. I've managed to map them using xev:
Bottom Left Button: 1
Top Left Button: 2
Bottom Right Button: 3
Top Right Button: 8
Scroll up: 4
Scroll down: 5
At the moment 1 is a left click and 3 is a right click. Button 8 seems to be "back" and button 2 seems to be middle click. The scroll wheel works as expected.
What I want is for button 2 to be a double left click and button 8 to be a right click. Can anyone help me figure this out?

I've figured out how to do the double click thing :-) Here it is for anyone else interested:
1) Run xev and move your mouse pointer into the white square. Now click the button you wish to map to a double click.
2) Make a mental note of which button number xev reveals that mouse button to be - in my case, the top left button is button 8
3) install xbindkeys and xautomation - the latter can be found in AUR
4) run:
xbindkeys --defaults > /home/your-user-name/.xbindkeysrc
replacing "your-user-name" with (obviously) your user name
5) add the following at the bottom, replacing Y withthe number you made a note of in step 2
"/usr/bin/xte 'mouseclick 1' 'mouseclick 1' &"
b:Y + Release
and save
6) run
xbindkeys -n -v
to check if there are any errors in your config file
7) If that has all worked then you need to configure xbindkeys to run at X startup - the method will vary depending on you DE/WM - I use fluxbox and so simply added
xbindkeys &
to my ~/.fluxbox/startup file
Hope that helps!

My trackball/mouse hangs! They work,then they don't. If I switch usb ports they work for a while.

I have a Pavilion a1657c using Windows XP. I use a Kensington trackball and lately it has been hanging up on me. I switched to a Logitech mouse and it did the same thing. Now, I have both plugged in and if I switch usb ports one of them will work for a short period of time and then hangs. If I switch usb ports again, one of them will work for a while....I never know which one is going to work..very sporadic and it is driving me nuts. I am semi-literate with computers, but no whiz. Somebody help me of this road to nutsville..?

Hello icnhndlu, This appears to be a USB common issue, since you mention the issue occurs on different USB ports and devices.
This may be a hardware fault, but you might try uninstalling all the USB devices in the Control Panel, Device Manager. Then reboot the system and see if the operating system will detect new hardware and install the drivers for the new hardware.
The drivers are provided by Microsoft within the operating system.
Not sure this will work, but may be worth a try.
Please click the White Kudos star on the left, to say thanks.
Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem.

Audition and trackball mouse

Hi all. Are any of you using trackball with Audition? I used Logitech Marble for more than 10 years. Then year ago I switched to Logitech TrackMan Trackball because I needed scroll wheel. But I still want to explore other trackballs. So, are any of you using Logitech Wireless Trackball M570 Mouse, Kensington Expert Mouse Trackball or Kensington Orbit Trackball and can recommend for the use with Audition? Thanks.

Unfortunately the present version of Audition does not have any MIDI command support. With that it would be relatively easy with something like the Behringer Foot Controller FCB1010. Since it doesn't the only devices you can use for external control must use the Mackie or Eucon control protocol.
However it might be possible to modify a lost cost USB keyboard with the addition of foot switches to send keyboard commands to Audition to control the transport buttons.
Edit. Something like this might do the job:
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/usb-foot-controller

Kensington Trackball / Losing Left Click after 10.4.7

This is making me crazy... Ever since the last update I have had daily issues with my Kensington Orbit Trackball as well as my USB hubs. It actually seems to be getting worse to the point that I have to re-boot 2-3 times per day when the left-click on my trackball suddenly thinks it's a right-click.
I saw another post regarding someone having a similar issue using a Logitech mouse. Anyone else having this issue? Found a workaround?
I did repair permissions before & after the update and have ran disc utilities, etc...
Is it possible that the relation of the update to my problem was only coincidental? Anyone help or input would be greatly appreciated!
FYI - I also have had WAY more Kernel Panics since the update...

Hi animal,
Do you have the latest software for the trackball? try installing again if you have:
http://us.kensington.com/html/1385.html#mac30

Alternatives to Kensington Trackball?

I've been a hardcore Kensington Trackball user for many years, most recently using the Expert Mouse.
Unfortunately, the Kensington driver software is getting less and less robust on Apple.
I've tried alternative drivers -- SteerMouse does not allow chording and USB Overdrive does not recognize the Kensington device.
Has anyone found a trackball that is comparable to the Kensington?
Thanks!

ctobola wrote:
...Has anyone found a trackball that is comparable to the Kensington?...
Follow sberman's Apple Store link and check out the Logitech TrackMan Marble. I've been using them for years and turned friends on to them; now they wonder how they did without them. While the Logitech comes with software, none is necessary to access quite a few features, and I'd just as soon have as few third party drivers running as possible.

Trackball mouse assignable buttons?

Hey everyone:
I use a logitech trackball mouse, with an abundance of buttons that aren't in use.
Here it is:
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2150,CONTENTID=500 6
I was wondering if there is a way to program a button to do Logic tasks?
I would love the ability to have one button automatically toggle the automation view, or another button jump to the first bar of the song.
I looked in the key commands section of logic's menu, and have already programmed a few keyboard commands, but when it comes to mouse commands I can't figure out how to do that. Is this possible?
Thanks in advance.
CT

You should be able to install a driver or utility that is made by Logitech. I believe the one you want is called Logitech Control Center. It will allow you to assign buttons to keystrokes. Assign the buttons to keystrokes which correspond to key commands in Logic.

Can I use an external mouse with iPad 2?

How do I use an external mouse w/iPad2?

To do what exactly? There is no mouse support for the iPad, since there is no cursor for it to control.

Early 2009 MacBook Air. On startup no keyboard or mouse me to login. Neither is the USB working so I cannot use an external mouse or keyboard either.

Early 2009 MacBook Air. On startup no keyboard or mouse me to login. Neither is the USB working so I cannot use an external mouse or keyboard either. If I keep restarting the machine suddenly sometime I get mouse and keyboard control and I am able to login and work. After sometime though mouse and keyboard Control is lost again and the machine hangs.
Lately another problem has cropped up. Now the machine starts up and seems to work for longer time but I have no 0 key and USB everything else is fine.
What could be the issue

1. Reset PRAM. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
2. Reset SMC.     http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    Choose the method for:
    "Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".

Use Kensington trackball mouse to control motors

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for