The ADNS-9800 Laser Motion Sensor was built out of necessity: inventor John Kicklighter wanted a super-high resolution trackball for both gaming and CAD design. He found that the trackball he’d been using for 20 years (!) could no longer keep up with the highresolution screens he is now working with.
“Using my old trackball to navigate around the monitors was painful as the ball had to be turned several times before getting from one side of the screen to the other.”
He designed this ultimate gaming trackball which can be adjusted to either move at super speed or fine tuned for delicate design work.
“The body of the trackball was modeled in clay to fit my hand. I transferred the design into a CAD model and printed it on my 3D printer. Originally, I had a sample pack of sensor chips that I obtained from the manufacturer which enabled me to develop the initial circuit board design. After the sensors from my sample pack were all gone, I had a real problem in that these were not available for purchase anywhere I could find.”
Because of the high shipping costs of components, he had the idea to share the winning combination of chips and circuit board design. This turned out to be a great idea, as many people were looking for this type of high performance sensor, and this is was one of Tindie’s top selling products for the month of May.
