I was disappointed to note that no-one tackled designing a RollerMouse. As a person with limited mobility in my hands, the RollerMouse made a huge difference to my life as well as being ergonomically more comfortable than a regular mouse. The RollerMouse design would be an extreme challenge if anyone is up to it (hint, hint).
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Thanks, Conceptocat. Itâs a big challenge and I am sure you are up to it.
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Just saw one. Ergo Vertical Mouse Left and Right Handed 002 Kit by PrintMint - MakerWorld
should win imho
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You should have included a picture along with your post! I ended up looking up rollermouse, and that thing is pretty cool. Iâm really curious now about it.
For passer-byers, this is the rollermouse. Itâs a roller bar on another bar, so youâve got your X-Y movement. Would sit in front of your keyboard.
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The competition is built around people integrating the mouse kit into their design.
As you likely understand, that mouse doesnât have the ability to capture movement other than through the laser underneath the housing.
This isnât capable of acting like a roller mouse (what you asked) or a rollerball mouse (what you didnât).
The roller mouse requires two rotational inputs that report back as x and y motion.
The rollerball mouse is essentially an upside down old style ball movement mouse, as the mouse kit uses a laser, this also canât be achieved.
Ironically, if the mouse kit was the old style ball type (not laser), some enterprising person with a soldering iron could have (relatively) easily made a roller mouse.
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You could make it work with the laser pickup. You have a surface youâre rolling on the X and moving back and forth on the Y. Youâre just moving the whole table, essentially, instead of the mouse.
(removed the illustration)
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I thought you wrote âloserâ, that is meant to say âlaserâ Iâm guessing.
Was this finger painting?
That is an interesting idea. I was thinking about electronics and you thought laterally.
I wonder if it would actually accept a cylinder as a suitable visual contact point.
If I get time later, I may test the idea by turning the mouse upside down and rolling something over it.
My laser gun barely even looks like a laser gun. Hahahaha
Mouse painting done quickly 
And yes, that was suppose to say Laser
Iâm not sure how ideal itâd be trying to twist the mouse kit around to fit the forum factor. You are right that itâd be better to have some sort of rotational input. I think one could probably do a pretty effective design in 3d printing for this concept, but itâd be best served not trying to wrap it around the mouse kit.
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That was a gun, I didnât write what I thought it looked like. At least I have my hand tremors to blame for any drawing I would do, my friend, whatâs your excuse?
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Iâm so glad we can see edited posts. That is some serious talent you have Josh, not only are you a master of 3d artwork but 2d as well.
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a lot of nurses and people in teh medical field also use this type of pointing device as itâs thought to be a better alternative to reduce RSI. I was at an ER recently and every workstation had one of these and a mouse so I naturally asked about it and nerded out over itâs construction lol. Thanks MalcTheOracle for explaining and how only those of us old enough to remember physical ball mice know about the geneology of how this works vs laser LOL. I love the idea of cracking the laser sensor with the cylinder to make it work! Will be following this closely!
I love love love this challenge yaâll, itâs got some great ideas both for industrial design as well as engineering (if you consider those the same thing please donât hate me lol) one that really made me stop and clap was this print in place design Print in Place Mouse - only one part Kit002 by FunkyArt - MakerWorld just bravo to @FunkyArt
I canât wait to see if someone cracks the rollermouse! Thanks @bennjm for posting this!
I have just performed an extremely basic proof of concept based on the wacky idea that @Josh-3D suggested.
It worked in principle.
If I get time over the next few days, I will create a stable proof of concept.
It will require some texture and/or colour changes on the roller. This is because the laser has a focal distance that expects to see a flat surface underneath it.
It may require a larger cylinder than shown in those pictures.
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Thank you all for taking an active interest in the Rollermouse concept. Here is the latest Rollermouse Red (Redefined) - yes, that is itâs name - it has a larger roller that is removable. It still has sensors inside the roller. I donât know much about electronics, but I wondered if the components may give other clues to solving some of the issues you are having in the R&D.
I think we all understand how it works. It works on a simple process.
The old-style mice had a ball underneath. When the user moved the mouse, the ball moved two rollers - one horizontal and one vertical.
Those rollers converted that movement into a signal that said motion is positive or negative. Depending on how the roller moved, it meant left/right or up/down.
The Rollermouse achieved the same thing without the ball, up/down was achieved by rolling the cylinder up & down. The sideways motion was detected by (what I believe) was a wheel underneath the long roller at 90Âș to it. When the roller was slid left or right, that wheel detected the motion and processed it identically to the old-style ball mouse.
The problem these days is that mice use an optical sensor that constantly scans the surface below them to see how that movement occurs. If the image below them has moved down, the mouse has moved upwards.
This is not ideally suited to the Rollermouse problem as it is looking for an image that it determines has moved rather than actual movement.
As @Josh-3D pointed out, there âcouldâ be a way that uses the physical movement of a roller to make the optical sensor âthinkâ it was a surface moving beneath it.
There are a few problems, here are a couple:
- The optical sensor is expecting a flat surface rather than a cylinder
- The optical sensor on a mouse is always pointed down on the desk, a Rollermouse variant would need to turn the mouse upside down. This makes the button press harder (not impossible) to achieve.
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It would totally work. Just to test the theory, I held an AA battery up to the bottom of my mouse and rotated it, moved it side to side.
Iâd probably print the main cylinder/pad thing out of something like pla-cf/petg-cf. I guess thereâs TPU too, but I think the surface finish of the CF filaments is nice, and seems to track fine with an optical mouse (tested that too).
Yeah, I think the real trick would be figuring out how to make the buttons and everything work, since you would have to position the laser in such unique way.
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The buttons can be de-soldered and re-connected via some wires. Or get additional switches and add them with some wires in parallel to the original ones (de-soldering can be messy).
The mouse wheel however is more complicated.
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PS: I have this Rollermouse Red and find the wrist rest is too narrow. My wrist rests on the edge of the desk which cuts into my hand. If someone does manage to solve the Roller issue, please ensure a wider wrist rest. I am going to print an extension in TPU to solve my problem. The Rollermouse Free 3 has a wider, more comfortable wrist rest (I broke mine and had to replace it with the Red). Have fun with this design and hereâs hoping you can solve the rolling issues 
PPS: here is the link to the manufacturerâs website in Sweden⊠https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://contourdesign.com/products/rollermouse-red&ved=2ahUKEwjJ1IrOysWGAxXgcGwGHYtcBz0QFnoECBwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3pVoUWbHZJytZupBy-pbO4
The ideal would be no soldering at all. Slot the âas-isâ mouse kit into whatever is built.
The buttons could be achieved by a reverse joint that converts the downward pressure into upward pressure.
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My Art teachers were right: Keep it simple, and think outside the box 