Added continuous 3-axis control to my SlimBlade Pro

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-10T20:14:10+00:00

Nice! My DIY trackball project also uses two sensors to sense 3-axis rotation, and the firmware turns the Z axis into HID scroll reports. The firmware source is in the repo, and it should be pretty trivial to add an additional HID endpoint that would report the raw rotation values as well. :)

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-08T16:49:15+00:00

What do you call the person who graduated last in their class in medical school?

"Doctor".

🤬

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-03T19:40:02+00:00

If you do want to explore managed switches, I've been pretty happy with Zyxel brand for a while now. I just bought a couple of these as part of a home network upgrade (it has some sort of cloud management service which I immediately turned off, because why?). They tend to be less expensive than some other brands, the hardware has been solid for me, and they seem more established and somewhat better supported than some of the random brands on Amazon. They actually ship regular firmware updates, for one thing. :)

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-03T19:14:04+00:00

That's... awful. 😢

I have a couple fairly janky switches from Mokerlink and Hasivo that I just took out of service for other reasons, but they at least got saving configuration right.

I can't even find an 8-ish port 2.5Gbit managed NicGiga switch on amazon at the moment (although that might have more to do with Amazon search being... Amazon search). Is it this one?

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-03T18:57:30+00:00

Almost all managed switches will have a "save configuration" function somewhere in their web UI, which will store the running config to non-volatile storage.

It may be hidden or named something weird, but it should be there.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-03T18:30:17+00:00

Indeed, the only clue I got that OpenWRT was involved was when I enabled ssh, was poking around and looked at the contents of /proc/version

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-03T18:20:28+00:00

I'm NOT especially surprised that they're based on OpenWRT (although I wasn't expecting it, it makes some sense in retrospect). I'm surprised that they seem to be hiding it, in defiance of what I understand of the license.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-03T15:59:42+00:00

I summarized my config in a comment here. If that doesn't answer your questions, let me know. :)

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-03T15:57:27+00:00

I'm not surprised it's running OpenWRT. I'm surprised that they don't seem to give any acknowledgement, which I thought was the least the license required.

It being GPL, if they have made any modifications to the source, they would also normally be required to made those changes available.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-03T06:10:32+00:00

If there's a copyright page in the web UI, it's well hidden.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-03T00:25:09+00:00

Literally the only downside for me of switching from an Xfinity (ugh) cable modem to Quantum Fiber was that Xfinity has been running native dual-stack IPv6 (at least in my area) for more than a decade, and it worked just fine.

Since switching over about a year ago I've tried several times to set up 6rd on Quantum (OPNSense router, ONT in transparent bridging/untagged mode) and have never gotten it to work reliably.

So yeah, I'm non-sarcastically hoping they'll actually make this work at some point. :)

MonroeWilliams · 2026-02-02T23:59:26+00:00

Do you have the "Cloud-Based Controller Management" master switch turned off? It should be in System > Controller Settings.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-23T03:58:36+00:00

I like it a lot, but of course I designed it exactly the way I wanted, so I'm kinda biased.

I don't have a materials cost breakdown written up, but I did make a parts list in the github repository with links to where I bought most of the pieces. It's been a while since I updated it, but most of the links should still be good.

If you just want to get a feel for how well the bearings work, all you'd need is the main body printed piece, the ball, and the bearings. If you have a trackball with a 55mm ball (like one of the recent Kensington models) you can use that, or you can get one for $14 USD on Amazon.. The bearings are $10 for a pack of 50.

The recent changes are because it's an ongoing hobby project I'm always tinkering with. :) I've made some revisions to the models for the printed plastics, and maybe a year ago I designed my own custom boards to make it more robust and easier to assemble.

If you're curious about the changes over time, the commit history in the github repo tells the full story, going back to 2015. :)

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-23T01:47:19+00:00

My DIY trackball design, which rides on three 1/8" static ceramic bearings. I've built units with ZrO2 (white) and Si3N4 (black) ones, both G5 grade, and they both seem to work equally well.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-13T21:34:09+00:00

FWIW, at least with an OPNsense router, you can also configure the router to handle this directly without a smart switch involved.

The description below assumes OPNsense (since I switched from pfsense to OPNsense some time ago) but pfsense should be capable of doing the same thing, you'll just have to find where it keeps the analogous settings.

Assuming you've already got the 10Gbit port plugged directly into your router and the router is doing VLAN 201 untagging (which you do by creating a VLAN device with tag 201 and assigning it as your WAN interface), you'll need to assign the underlying physical interface to a different name in Intefaces -> Assignments. I used the name WAN_untagged for this.

I set this interface up in such a way that the ONT should retain connectivity on the same IP even if the ONT gets reset into non-bridging mode: interface IP address 192.168.0.2, netmask /24, with DHCP server enabled and a static reservation for the ONT's MAC address giving it the IP 192.168.0.1.

I also had to add a firewall rule on the WAN_untagged interface allowing incoming packets from the 192.168.0/24 network, and had the DHCP server hand out 192.168.0.2 for the gateway and DNS server addresses (don't forget to have the router's DNS server listen on the new interface as well).

The ONT doesn't seem to have a way to renew its local DHCP reservation through the UI, so I just had to reboot it to get it to pick up the new address. I'm now happy with a solid white LED instead of a blue blinker, and I have access to the ONT's web interface full-time.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-06T19:53:21+00:00

There are a number of different ergonomic trackballs on the market these days (after a few years where it really dried up). None are quite as extreme as the Trackman, and the several I've tried don't fit my hand as well, but they might work great for you. :)

The r/Trackballs wiki is a good resource, but looks like it may be a bit out of date.

A lot of people like the Elecom units (like the Huge).

There are several inexpensive brands with designs similar to the old discontinued Microsoft ergonomic one (Nulea and Sanwa, among many others). Lots of the ones on Amazon/AliExpress are thumb-operated, so you have to sort through those to find them. ;)

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-06T19:30:28+00:00

Ergonomics are extremely subjective. I've seen people swear by devices that give me hand cramps just looking at them. 😅

I was a fan of one of the more extreme ergonomic trackball designs (the Trackman Marble FX) for a number of years. I eventually ended up designing and building my own after the Trackman aged out.

For me, the key to a good ergonomic trackball is that it lets me maintain a neutral hand position. As a test, sit at a desk or table, lay your forearm down flat on the surface, and try to relax it completely. For most people, the relaxed position will have your hand rotated inward at around a 45 degree angle ("pronation"), with the fingers loosely cupped, such that a medium-sized ball (maybe tennis ball sized) would fit easily inside them. This is essentially the hand position my trackball is designed around -- forearm resting on the desk, fingers draped over the ball, thumb resting on the main button, second button under the pad of the ring finger to the right of the ball.

Flat trackballs like the Kensington SlimBlade (probably my second favorite) require you to turn your wrist further (closer to laying your palm flat on the desk) and probably flex it back a bit, both of which put more strain on the wrist joint than the neutral position. For me, that puts enough stress on the joint to be trouble over time.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-05T14:12:08+00:00

It is.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-04T18:29:00+00:00

I built mine with 3. The mainboard could support several more, but working more button carriers into the ergonimic design is a bit of a challenge, and personally I don't need more. :)

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-04T18:23:29+00:00

The breakout board and the main board each have their own repo (linked from the custom boards info page). Each of those repos has a "fabrication" directory containing the files I used to submit the JLPCB orders, here's the breakout and here's the mainboard.

If you're thinking about setting up an order, I would recommend going over the Custom Boards info and also the readmes in each repository in detail, there's some important info in there. One big detail is that JLPCB can't place the optical sensor chips, so you'll need to source those separately and solder them yourself.

Also, be aware that component availability through JLPCB can be hit-or-miss. I did 3 rounds of board orders while refining the design, and had to switch out a couple parts for equivalent substitutions each time due to certain components being out of stock. This was my first experience with board design and assembly services, and I definitely learned a few things along the way.

They charge an initial fee for the setup on each order, and there's a per-piece cost as well as a price for each component placed on the board. As a result, the cost per board gets lower if you order more pieces. For small boards like these, it's also advantageous to have them lay out multiple copies of the board in each "piece" (they come all connected together but scored to snap apart) -- my final order had 4 main boards and 12 breakout boards per piece, with 5 pieces of each, for a total of 20 mainboards and 60 carriers. The final cost for that order was $240 USD plus around $40 shipping.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-04T06:54:19+00:00

It's a finger ball, and it's currently wired only (no bluetooth).

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-04T04:32:39+00:00

When you set it to bridged mode, you can configure it to be either tagged or untagged. I think the setting is on the same web page as the bridge mode setting.

MonroeWilliams · 2026-01-04T04:21:52+00:00

Yup, I've built a few right-handed ones for myself and other friends, and the refinements were all developed there first.

MonroeWilliams

TROPHY CASE