Switch is on the ball for handheld games

The industry's first ever miniature trackball 360-degree scanning and select switch is designed to replace navigation keys or mini-joysticks used in mobile and smart phones, PDAs, cameras, camcorders,

The industry's first ever miniature trackball 360-degree scanning and select switch is designed to replace navigation keys or mini-joysticks used in mobile and smart phones, PDAs, cameras, camcorders, as well as keyboards, remote controls and GPS systems.

The 8mm diameter ball is housed in a unit measuring only 12 x12 x 9.1mm.

Two built-in LEDs can be integrated inside the housing of the trackball and provide an electrically independent two-colour illumination of the ball.

Comments product manager, Christelle Anthoine: "The new and emerging wireless devices demanded a better navigation solution, requiring more accurate navigators, with improved usability, more consistency of the tactile feedback, attractive illumination and faster switching response time, especially for games applications".

Cannon's 360-degree trackball scanning switch can be customised to deliver from 8 to 24 pulses per ball rotation.

Operating life is higher than that offered by a joystick.

With 300,000 full rotations, the trackball achieves from 2.4 to 7.2 million cycles depending of the number of pulses chosen per complete turn.

The trackball is a fully electromechanical component that consumes no current and requires only 0.2VA maximum switching power.

Tactile feedback is designed to be very positive.

The 8mm ball gives very positive feedback, providing a selecting force of 2.2N +/-25% and a scanning rotating force of 0.35N +/-0.1 N.

The trackball has a sealing ring around the ball (IP54) and grooves located on both sides of the bottom plastic body allow snap-in fixing on the front casing of the end device.

Termination is via a flex circuit.

The trackball switch can be customised for a variety of application features, including LED selection, actuator colours and textures.

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