I don’t know how many people know what a space mouse is, but it’s a little controller that makes it easier to navigate in 3D space in CAD and modeling software. I am really into 3D printing and want to make more models but as a user of Figma, navigating Autodesk Fusion can be a huge pain with just my mouse. Hence, this project!

There’s an open source model and all of the instructions on Printables, so that’s what I’m following for this project: https://www.printables.com/model/864950-open-source-spacemouse-space-mushroom-remix

First day was assembling materials. I actually planned to do this project several weeks ago but never got to it, so I had already bought the joysticks and arduinos and whatnot. Since it was so long ago though, I couldn’t find the Arduinos for way longer than I’d liked. Turns out they shipped in a box, not electrostatic bags!

I also 3D printed the actual chassis for the mouse already. The plate has some visual defects that I’m thinking about whether I want to reprint or not. It’s on the inside, so realistically it probably doesn’t matter.

This is my first electronics project outside of fixing things that already exist, and my first time working with an Arduino. I’m actually kind of excited???

‎​Today I started assembling the chassis. First, you have to drill holes into the joystick stems using the 3d printed replacement caps as a guide. Naturally, I also used this as a guide to drill into my finger.

A lot of blood later, I had all 4 joysticks assembled and then had to screw them into the chassis. This was annoying because all of my screwdrivers are kind of big, so I was screwing at an angle. Get your smallest screwdriver for this!

Anyway, I have a headache so I’m not going to do the wiring yet. I realized I can’t read and am missing the M3 screws I need to fasten everything together anyway (I read M2) so off to Amazon I go!

‎​I went to do the wiring and learned I am missing yet another thing I need: a crumpet. Oops. Next time, I need to make sure that I am actuallly prepared on the first day; I think I skimmed the Printables page and got all the things I knew I didn’t have without properly watching the video documentation the whole way through.

Other than that, I found a remixed model that is slimmer and positions the Arduino such that the USB cable doesn’t need to be permanently connected. I loathe permanent wires on electronics, so a few hours later I had a new chassis.

I briefly considered an accent color for the base but I wasn’t a big fan. I think this might just be a bad shade of yellow.

Once it was all printed I moved the joysticks over. One of the printed tops was too close to the chassis and was preventing it from returning to center, but luckily I just had to unscrew and reposition it.

Anyway, I’ll continue this another time! All of the gear should be here by Tuesday, which will give me some time to finish the Maitsu build that I’ve been juggling with this project!