0

This is a hard thing to Google. No Google I do not want a mouse for the Pi I want the Pi to be a mouse. I'm an Arduino guy mostly, and I'm looking to use the Pi in a manner similar to an Arduino (e.g. not going to use an external monitor or what have you) I bought Pimoroni's ball mouse: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/trackball-breakout in the hopes of adding a mouse to my joystick. However I didn't realize that it's not really plug and play with an Arduino. Not REALLY wanting to develop my own library for the Arduino I bought the Raspberry Pi Zero W. Which I realize is massive overkill for this project but, ain't no kill like massive computational superiority.

So my goal simply is to get the Pimoroni to function as a mouse for a Windows computer. I've found tutorials on how to have the Pi be a HID, as well as tutorials on how to make the trackball work. But where I stumble is how do I turn the Pi on? I've read dozens of tutorials on how to use the Pi but, they all seem outdated and have the end goal of using the Pi as a computer.

Can anyone help point me in the right direction? I'm really just looking to get "hello world" going on the Pi, in a way that is as functionally similar to an Arduino as I can.

Braeden Hamson
  • 1
  • Places I would start with are https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/56152/pi-zero-as-hid-how-to-control-pc-mouse-from-pi-zero-through-usb https://www.usb.org/hid https://www.rmedgar.com/blog/using-rpi-zero-as-keyboard-setup-and-device-definition and Google / DuckDuckGo with HID Pi Zero as search... –  Jul 22 '20 at 11:21
  • Arduinos and Pis are 2 totally different beasts. What your looking to do, your better off making the library for the arduino. Not saying its not possible, just that the library would be easier and faster and less of a headache – Jack Jul 22 '20 at 14:04
  • "have the end goal of using the Pi as a computer" -- It is a computer, in the same sense that your laptop or smartphone etc. is a computer. An Arduino is not a computer. That said, it's possible to do what you want with either one, but if you are going to use a Pi don't approach it as it were an Arduino, approach it as if it is a computer, which it is. "not going to use an external monitor or what have you" -> The conventional term for such a computer is headless. Eg., your router is a headless computer. – goldilocks Jul 22 '20 at 17:46
  • One way of looking at the difference is that with an Arduino, you program it to do one particular thing or set thereof. You can also do this with a computer, but it is much, much more complicated and instead the normative way to use one is to run an operating system on it, and write software to interact with the operating system (which manages the hardware). That's your starting point. First install an OS and go from there; as already mentioned you want the Pi to run in USB slave mode emulating a HID device. – goldilocks Jul 22 '20 at 17:51
  • Ps. WRT semantics my assertion that an Arduino "is not a computer" may be contentious, my point is really about some pragmatic differences between a microcontroller and a microprocessor – goldilocks Jul 22 '20 at 18:52

0 Answers0