A Homemade SDR Frequency Controller Made From a PC Mouse

Over on YouTube user Mile Kokotov has uploaded a new video showing his SDR frequency controller in action. The controller allows you to tune the frequency with a knob, which is preferred over the keyboard and mouse by many. In his video he shows it in action on the SDRUno software.

The controller is made out of a simple rotary encoder and a USB mouse. The rotary encoder is an EC16 (with no detents/clicks). It is connected up to the mouse PCB instead of the scroll wheel. Mile mentions that the encoder only cost him about $2 from eBay, and the mouse only $3, bringing the total cost of the project to only $5. More information and images can be found on his project page.

The rotary encoder connected to the USB mouse.
The rotary encoder connected to the USB mouse PCB.
Homemade SDR Frequency Controller from PC mouse

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LightCoder

The german site
http://dxpraxis.de/zub.html
did also present this mouse-wheel solution.
There are very interesting designs, mostly from his readers, worth a look!

Miguel

Creo que mucho antes….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIo2-aQUU6o del 2012

Mike

There are high-resolution encoders available on auction sites, cost $15-20. Feels exactly like “real” tuning knob. I tried one with Arduino and Si5351 board, but there was noticeable lag because of the Arduino performance. PC should have no problems handling high pulse rate, but this probably depends on the software.

Max

I think i have seen this before 🙂
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/building-a-tuning-knob-for-sdr/