Spaceball 5000

[NetAdmin2436]

Hey gang-
Today my mechanical engineer manager decided he wanted to try his spaceball 5000 again. So he blew off the dust and downloaded the latest drivers and installed it. Everything was fine.... for the most part.

His spaceball moves on it's own. He runs Pro/Engineer 3.0 64 bit (Build M060...I think...) on windows XP SP2 64 bit with latest windows updates.

He will open up pro/e and the spaceball works fine. But then if he just lets the computer sit without touching the mouse or spaceball, his drawings will periodically rotate or move. Without the spaceball hooked up, this does not happen.


Thoughts?

[Fred]

Have him bring up the 3dcontrol panel.
then click on help and about.

What firmware is he running?
Does it say 3.2?

Next have him try clicking on the calibrate button.
Then check and see if the device is still moving on its own.

Fred

[NetAdmin2436]

Firmware 3.2
release 3.3.6
driver 6.3.3

I had him click on 'calibrate'. Nothing really happened, but not sure anything was really supposed to...

He is going to monitor the problem and see if that fixes it.


Thanks Fred

[Fred]

If the calibrate doesnt fix the problem have him call us i have a firmware update for his device.

Fred

[Evanlw85]

Hi Fred... I've got a Spaceball 5000 USB, with the same issue as NetAdmin2436.

Firmware 3.2
release 3.3.6
driver 6.3.3

I clicked "calibrate" and it changed nothing.
Any help would be appreciated as leaving max alone when a camera view is selected will end up rotating the camera around the scene within a couple of minutes, ruining photomontage work...


-Evan

[agoenczi]

Hi EvanIw85

If you posess a device with USB interface, please send me your e-mail address in a Private Message and I will send you the Firmware Updater with instructions how to use the software.

[WouterPagter]

I have the same problem, who do i need to contact for the new firmware?

[Fred]

The Spaceball 5000 devices are a legacy device and out of extended suport.
http://www.3dconnexion.com/faq/39
The firmware patch was for devices that were manufactured in 2006-2007.
Any device made after that date would already have the updated firmware.

You can correct drifting with the calibrate function.

Open the 3Dconnexion ControlPanel and press the Calibrate button. Calibration does not provide a visible signal. When you press Calibrate , make sure your 3Dconnexion device is on a flat surface and nothing is touching the cap. You will not see an on-screen confirmation that the process has taken place, but it does re-zero the sensors.

If the calibrate function is either not correcting a problem with drifting or is correcting it only briefly,there is another step you can try. As a slight variation on the calibration process, you can intentionally mis-calibrate by holding the device cap away from center for several seconds and pressing the Calibrate button while the cap is off-center. Then, let the cap return to its center position and press Calibrate again. By causing the distance away from center to become larger before re-zeroing it can sometimes be more easily corrected.