BlackBerry Trackballer Breakout Hookup Guide
This Tutorial is Retired!
This tutorial covers concepts or technologies that are no longer current. It's still here for you to read and enjoy, but may not be as useful as our newest tutorials.
Contributors:
Toni_K
Toni_K Introduction
The SparkFun BlackBerry Trackballer Breakout gives the user easy access to a trackball which measures up, down, left, and right movements, as well as clicks on the board. It also adds a bit of flair to your project with 4 LEDs.
Materials Required
We recommend the following products to follow along with this hookup guide.
Suggested Reading
If you aren't familiar with the following concepts, we recommend reviewing them before beginning to work with the BlackBerry Trackballer Breakout.
How to Solder: Through-Hole Soldering
This tutorial covers everything you need to know about through-hole soldering.
Installing Arduino IDE
A step-by-step guide to installing and testing the Arduino software on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Button and Switch Basics
A tutorial on electronics' most overlooked and underappreciated component: the switch! Here we explain the difference between momentary and maintained switches and what all those acronyms (NO, NC, SPDT, SPST, ...) stand for.
Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
Learn the basics about LEDs as well as some more advanced topics to help you calculate requirements for projects containing many LEDs.
Analog vs. Digital
This tutorial covers the concept of analog and digital signals, as they relate to electronics.