Just now getting the bug to build a project with arduino after hearing about it for many years.
I would like to use an optical mouse sensor for reasonably accurate movement tracking. I've seen lots of tutorials etc about using these sensors and hope to learn a lot experimenting.
My issue is that I'd like to have the sensor be as small as possible because it needs to fit into a confined space - most of the projects I've seen use recycled mice, which have a fairly bulky board attached. You can also buy a breakout board from sparkfun, which is basically the same size. One can find individual chips & lenses from Mouser etc, but then the application notes describe needing all of that other stuff. I'm assuming that a chunk of what's on these boards is intended to handle buttons, dials, external USB communication etc which I will not really want/need.
Can anyone confirm if once can get away with just acquiring one each of the Avago chips (which has optical sensor embedded) and the associated lens? i.e. no companion chips, no big board etc?
To get the best advise it is advisable to post a link to the data sheet of the chip you are asking questions about. There are lots of these chips even from one manufacturer, so it is hard to answer the question.
In principle you should be able to do this however, it depends on exactly what the chip interface is. The data sheet should have a typical application diagram and you should start there, look and see what is essential and what is not.
Thanks grumpy_mike, I appreciate an elder of the forum reaching out on my first post. You are correct, there are lots of parts available even from only Avago, as can be seen here:
I was digging through several different parts here before I noticed that, at least with Mouser, they have limited the selection by making the min quantity for most of the parts >1300 units. So, really there are just three parts sensor parts and associated lenses. The sparkfun breakout board is designed for the Avago ADNS 2620, so I guess that's the best to go for, even if I dont end up using that breakout board because tutorials etc will be informative:
The 2620 datasheet is linked there, and it's clear from the datasheet that one at least needs the 2620 chip/sensor, the led, the lens and a clip which aligns these reliably. From there I'm not as clear, because the sparkfun board has some additional small chips, not clear if these are necessary, and definitely the board is larger than needed.
Further confusion in that Mouser calls the chip as obsolete, and although one can buy the chip and the lens, it doesn't seem you can buy the kit (obsolete and unavailable) nor can you buy the clip. Perhaps these are available elsewhere, but I hoped perhaps someone has already been through the detective work and could share their "minimalist" implementation.
I developed it a long ago with a ps2 mouse. I had used a logic analyzer to discover the protocol.
At that time used to measure the deformation of a rubber support a bridge.
If I wrote something meaningless in English I'm sorry this is not my native language.
Further confusion in that Mouser calls the chip as obsolete,
That means it is no longer manufactured. So while people might have some in stock now there is no new stock being made. So if you were designing a mouse that you wanted to keep making over the years then don't choose this chip.
A quick look at the data sheet shows that the Cypress chip is a micro controller that talks to sensor and also to the USB device plugged into it. I would have thought you could do without that as the interface to the sensor looks like a standard SPI interface. So basically everything not connected to the cypress chip is needed. That includes the transistor, LED and 24MHz crystal. Go with the SparkFun schematic for the breakout board.
It is not the most straight forward project for a beginner and I would suggest you get some experience using and debugging simpler arduino programs before tackling this.
Thanks, I will take a look at the schematic for the sparkfun breakout. I wonder if all of the required components could be remoted to the arduino rather than be located right next to the sensor. Will there be capacitance issues etc?
I get your point about starting with more beginner projects. I plan to do that, but the project I have in mind is what I want to develop the skills for, and it's the long term goal that's providing me the motivation and current obsession with arduino
I wonder if all of the required components could be remoted to the arduino rather than be located right next to the sensor.
It depends on how remote.
You would be transferring data on the SPI bus, data and clock and so you can slow down the clock if you have issues. I suspect it might be fine for 4 or 5 feet.
