Modding a computer mouse. LED mouse modding. The wind is at hand

Once I bought a mouse for a laptop - it was just white, and the light of a laser and kakras shone through the body. On the Internet I saw a video where they were mounted in the mouse - it is very beautiful in the dark! So I decided to remake this mouse so that it shines. First, I found the leads for power supply - I put a simple blue LED there, assembled it.

It was somehow boring just the blue LED. Therefore, I put two more LEDs of the same color (there were no others) and assembled a simple flashing light on two LEDs - they flash in turn. I took the simplest circuit for her - a multivibrator with 2 transistors.

Then, having collected everything and having previously tested the work from the power supply, I installed the parts in the mouse. The whole modding took about 30 minutes.

The LEDs themselves were glued to the board with glue, and one more thing - I used KT815 transistors.

Of course, this is the simplest modding, but just right for novice radio amateurs. After mastering microcontrollers, it will be possible to make LED effects more serious. Design author: Alexander Ivanov (sexzek).

This mod was inspired by a mouse made for WoW Cataclysm

1. The first step was to mark angular slots:

3.Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the slots as they turned out and already covered it with fabric and made an approximate sketch of plasticine.

The brown fabric had to be removed, otherwise it turned out as in bad dream, replace with black.
4. Next, I replaced the fabric with black and molded the skull and blade from tin (I will tell you how this is done later) on this moment I melt the sides around the edges

5. While everything is drying, you can touch up the sword and skull

We make horns and bumpers

This process takes quite a long time, so patience is the main thing here.

What we need:

1. Plaster or alabaster
2. Water
3. Plasticine version of the model
4. Tin (I used POS-30 solder)
5. Well, additional containers for kneading, etc.

Step one. Kneading
I mixed the alibaster with water at the rate of 7 grams (two full red corks) for 8 cubes of water. In terms of density, a mixture of going to cement ... well, or melted ice cream.

Step two

Z we fill in the form with a rim. I applied everything with my finger, because you can't damage the plasticine and you can't put on bubbles.

Step three
We put it on the battery and wait until the whole thing dries up.

After an hour of drying, the mold should be easily removed. We take out and dry without a bath for 2 hours (as a result, the whole drying takes about 3 hours. When everything is dry, you will see wet and dry places on the mold).

While everything is drying, let's start creating a more complex double shape for the horn.
We make plasticine boning small size(for this, the lego but I threw it out a long time ago)

We fill it with a solution and HALF !!! We drown our plasticine model.

We put on drying in the same way as the form with sides.

After an hour, remove the plasticine and make it above the rest of the model.

We take liquid soap and grease the dried form. Then we apply a layer of gypsum on top and dry again for an hour. Then we remove the plasticine sides and continue drying.

After 2 hours, gently with your hands !!! NOT A TOOL !!! separating 2 halves

I left this whole thing overnight (optional)

The matter is approaching thermal executions over forms. I put all the molds on the stove at 100 degrees until all the water comes out of the mold (it is forbidden to pour it into a wet mold because the fumes will make holes and other defects in the tin).

If you bring a glass close to the hot mold, you can see how moisture from the molds condenses on it. You cannot pour it in while it is there.
It seems that everything has dried up, it's time to melt the metal !!!

As slag appears on the metal, remove it. The most optimum temperature pouring is when the tin will be covered with a yellow film.

Fill in the folded shapes and after cooling, separate them and voila!

Cut off the edges and unnecessary metal and clean up where necessary.

A sword was poured into this form.

I put everything on a rodent in the end it turned out like this.

Good old "mouse." ... How much is connected with this, which has already become an integral attribute of any computer. Always this glorious manipulator is exposed unfounded criticism, when the iron hangs, it is always the mouse that pays for our failures in some toy. Why? Yes, because in most cases this device is the first to come under hot hand... Who would kick and hit a table, for example, a video card, if it does not pull the long-awaited Oblivion? That's just it. The mouse has long become unofficial, if one may say so, a "scapegoat".

Recently it became clear to me that the Lord sent me to this world not only so that I could raise a child, plant a tree and build a house, but also so that I could find a way to save the unfortunate woman! And this way has been found! Let's do mouse modding!

List of required materials:

Primer for plastic, black paint, varnish;
Car air freshener;
Super glue;
Blue;
Insulating tape (Or heat shrink. Whom it is more convenient to use);
Few wires;
Cold welding;
Fine skin (preferably Polish);
Small diameter fan (to fit in the mouse);
Double sided tape.

Since everyone has their own set of tools, we will not give it.

As the object of modding was chosen "rat" (a very fresh name for the manipulator - liked it! Approx. For the chief editor) from the company "A4 Tech". And here, in fact, he himself.

First, removing the top cover of the mouse and inspecting the board for any flaws and ambiguities.

The modding object was not very successful in the sense that there is too little space inside. It will not work to mount it into the gut of a mouse. You will have to strain your imagination, ingenuity and modder manipulators. Hands that is.

After examining the inner side of the upper cover of the mouse, it became clear that the task was seriously complicated ...

Let's cast aside defeatism. Since he called himself a load, he shouldn't say that you shouldn't wear your own shirt to your body.

Let's start with a box of air fresheners.

All we need now from its contents is a grid.

We apply it to our experimental and outline the outline with a marker.

The next step is to cut the hole.

As a small reminder: the cut line must be thoroughly processed with files and fine sandpaper. The main thing is that the mesh does not enter this hole too easily, but with a little effort.

That's it, this completes the work with the hole. The next stage is ahead - the implantation of the fan.

For my modding mockery, I chose Carlson, which previously cooled my 6600 GT series video.

But the trouble is that the mouse button mounts interfere with the installation of the fan, and very much. The problem is solved in the simplest and most radical way - cutting out the entire cooler that interferes with installation at the root.

The next sensitive point: the details of the main board also show resistance. It took me about two days to eliminate all the extra household. As a result, the fan stands out like a native. Perhaps the most difficult stage this modding.

Let me remind you that I fixed the cooler with double-sided tape, and connected it to 5 volts and ground. Red wire - 5 volts, black wires (There are two of them, and both are absolutely the same) - ground.

Further according to the plan - the backlight. 4 blue LEDs and a 100 ohm resistor were purchased. This was enough to drop the voltage from 5 to 3.8 volts, which would be just right for the normal operation of the fixtures. All light sources were connected in parallel. The backlight is powered from the same red wire, and ground through the black one. I fixed the lights to the board with double-sided tape. Let it look a little clumsy, but reliable. Moreover, all the same, nothing is visible from the outside.

Before painting the mouse, it turned out that I had not yet replaced the buttons. And the attachments had already been cut off by that time ...

The solution was found real, "muzhitsky": cold welding! I also used it. But first, I did some work with the buttons themselves, namely, "shortened" their legs.

We are waiting for a day before the final hardening of the welding. Then we paint our mouse, having previously degreased it with a solvent.

I remind you of the course of painting: primer-paint-varnish. This is the only way, and nothing else.

We put the primer. We are waiting for it to dry. (In my case, this time period was about 20 minutes).
Then - two layers of paint with an interval of 30 minutes. We are waiting for a day.
The final touch is two coats of varnish. Dry for 24 hours. The mouse is now ready to paint.

When painting, there is one main rule - the layers should not be too thin or too thick (and the latter is much worse). The second, no less important, rule is not to rush. I advise you to remember the old sayings about "hurry up - you will make people laugh", about "measure seven times" and the like.

Well, okay, this is all theory. Here's what I ended up with.

Now our mouse is almost ready for use, in the sense of being used.

Finally, we collect and connect our mouse.

Final photos (I ask you not to be intimidated by the red light emanating from the inside. It comes from the LED used by the mouse optics. There was no way to remove it, and, in fact, it does not bother much, on the contrary):

Rat idle

The rat is active

Happy Endo

Well, that's all, the mouse is ready. the main task, which I put in front of me, was completed - now, when my computer hangs, I vent my anger no longer on the mouse, as it happened before, but on something else. Because the fruit of one's own labors is many times more valuable than someone else's. Now the pens, squeezing the mouse, do not sweat like it is not clear what, but quite the opposite.

Perhaps the easiest way to mod your mouse is to change its color. It is enough to take a can of paint to change the appearance of the desktop "rodent" beyond recognition in just a couple of minutes, and if you have artistic abilities, the surface of the mouse body can be decorated with a picturesque miniature. However, this time we will not consider the issues of artistic painting of mice. This article is devoted to more sophisticated modifications, for the implementation of which you will need to disassemble the mouse and redo something inside it ...

Both optical and optomechanical mice are currently used. The principles of operation of these types of manipulators have been described many times 1, so we will not touch on this topic in this article. From a modding point of view, the type of manipulator you have at your disposal does not really matter: the modifications described below (with the exception of one) can be implemented in both types of devices.

So let's get started. First of all, you need to disconnect the mouse from the computer and disassemble it. Typically, a mouse case consists of two detachable parts - a base (on which a printed circuit board with microswitches, a motion detection sensor and electronics necessary for its operation is installed) and an upper part with movable button panels attached to it (Fig. 1). The body parts can be fastened together either with screws (usually three or four), or with a combination of one or two screws and a pair of latches. The screw heads can simply be recessed into the base of the case - in this case, they are immediately visible. If it is not possible to visually detect the location of the screws, then, most likely, their heads are hidden under the leg plates. In this case, use a sharp object to carefully separate the legs from the base (Fig. 2).

Rice. 1.Disassembled optomechanical mouse

Rice. 2. Sometimes the screw heads are hidden under the foot plates

After unscrewing the screws, carefully remove the upper part of the case. If you have an optomechanical mouse, be sure to remove the ball from the pointing device before disassembling.

1 See the publication Mice: The Next Generation Chooses Optics, # 12'2002.

"Blue-eyed" mouse

The simplest modification of an optical mouse is to replace the LED of the optical sensor (for obvious reasons, this action is not applicable for optomechanical models). This simple operation allows you to change the color of the sensor illumination. The vast majority of optical mice use a red LED as the light source required for the sensor to function. In order to make your mouse more original, you can replace the red LED with a blue one.

Before proceeding with the upgrade, you need to find the sensor backlight LED on printed circuit board... In some models of mice, it can be enclosed in a transparent or opaque plastic casing (Fig. 3), which must be carefully removed before desoldering the LED (Fig. 4). As a replacement, it is necessary to select an LED, the dimensions and brightness of the glow of which correspond to the characteristics of the standard element - otherwise, the modified mouse will be inoperative.

Armed with a soldering iron, remove the standard LED and replace it with a new one (Fig. 5). Since the LED is a semiconductor device, polarity must be observed when installing it. After that, it makes sense to connect the mouse to the computer and make sure that the LED on the board is working. If no light is observed when power is applied to the mouse, check the reliability of the installation and the polarity of the LED.

Rice. 5. View of the bottom of the mouse body before modification (top) and after

If the result is positive, all that remains is to install a plastic casing on the LED (if there was one) and assemble the mouse case.

Light in the window

You can achieve an extremely effective result by installing additional illumination for the mouse. This will require one or more LEDs and a resistor.

Having disassembled the mouse, first of all you need to find comfortable spot to connect the power supply for additional "illumination". Typically, mice use universal printed circuit boards designed to assemble several different modifications of the manipulator. For this reason, almost any mouse has free mounting holes on the board, which are very convenient to use for connecting wires from an additional load.

The power required for the operation of the electronic components of the mouse (+ 5 V) is supplied through the interface cable. Often there is a label on the PCB that indicates the function of the interface cable wires, and you can identify the ground and power bus wires by their color. If there is no such plate, you can ring the interface cable with a tester or multimeter and find the desired wires, guided by the pinout diagram of the USB and PS / 2 connectors shown in Fig. 6. Then locate the free mounting holes on the ground and power rail tracks and carefully solder the wires to them. In the example in Fig. 7 for this purpose, there were empty mounting holes intended for installing a capacitor.

Now assemble the LED and resistor in series (Figure 8). The resistor value (in ohms) can be calculated by dividing the supply voltage (5V) by the operating current of the LED being used, expressed in amperes. For example, an LED with an operating current of 20 mA would require a 250 ohm resistor (5 / 0.02 = 250). If one LED does not provide the proper backlighting efficiency, you can connect one or two more in parallel (Fig. 9) - in this case, install a resistor with a lower rating. It should also be borne in mind that the brightness of the LEDs of different colors with the same amount of current flowing through them will differ significantly. For example, if you need to connect blue and red LEDs together, then in order to ensure the same brightness of their glow, you will need to include an additional resistor (R2) with a nominal value of about 200 Ohm in the circuit (Fig. 10).

Installing the LEDs inside the case and connecting the wires from the power bus to them (Fig. 11), check the functionality of the circuit (and along with the mouse). If everything works, you can proceed to the second stage of modification. The challenge is to make the spectacular glow visible from the outside. If there are transparent or translucent elements or inserts in the mouse body, there are no problems. But if a mouse with a completely opaque body was chosen for modification, it will have to be modified.

Rice. 11. Two LEDs installed in the mouse case

The easiest option is to drill a round hole in the mouse body and glue the LED into it from the inside. You can do differently: drill several small-diameter holes on the side and / or upper part of the mouse body, through which the light from the LEDs located inside will be visible (Fig. 12). These holes can be positioned as geometric shape or letters - in a dark room it will look very impressive.

Experienced modders can be offered a more complex and, perhaps, the most effective option. Cut out a window in the mouse body - rectangular, round or free-form. Then, from transparent or translucent plastic, cut out an insert corresponding to the shape of this window, and carefully glue it into the case. The illumination of such a window looks very impressive when two LEDs are combined. different colors- for example red and blue.

The wind is at hand

Now it is hardly possible to reliably find out which of the modders first came up with the idea to equip the mouse with a palm blowing system. Despite the fact that the benefits of such an add-on are very dubious, this modification has become very popular, and moreover, at present, such a solution has already been implemented in some mass-produced manipulators (for example, in the Xenix Optical Wheel Mouse model). So if on a hot summer day you feel that a light breeze really does not interfere with your palm, then the modification described below is for you.

Unfortunately, not every mouse is suitable for this modification: even a small fan requires quite a lot of installation space. Therefore, before proceeding with further steps, you should evaluate the amount of free space available in the mouse case and make sure that the fan you choose will fit there.

The main element of an impromptu cooling system is a miniature fan operating from a voltage of 5 V. You can use a ready-made fan of a small diameter (Fig. 13), however, most fans used in a PC cooling system are designed to operate on a voltage of 12 V - while a mouse has rely solely on the 5-volt power rail. Fans operating from 5 V can be removed from old video adapters and motherboards with active chipset cooling.

If you can't find a ready-made fan of suitable dimensions, you can make it yourself. To do this, you need a miniature electric motor operating on a voltage of 5 V, for example, removed from a worn-out optical drive (Fig. 14).

A piece of thin plastic is suitable for making a fan impeller. Mark the center on the workpiece, draw a circle required diameter and carefully cut it out. Then make a hole in the center of such a diameter that the workpiece can hardly fit onto the motor shaft (fig. 15).

Rice. 15. Blank for the manufacture of a fan impeller

Divide the cut circle with lines into four sectors of equal size (in principle, the number of blades can be increased to six or even eight, but the process of making the impeller in this case will require extraordinary skill) and make neat cuts along these lines, not reaching 2-3 mm to the center circle (fig. 16).

Now you need to give the blades a curved profile. Slightly warming up the workpiece sector over the flame of a candle or spirit lamp, soften the plastic and use tweezers to bend the edges of the blade at a small angle relative to the workpiece plane. Cooling down, the workpiece will harden; in this case, the blades will retain their shape (Fig. 17). It is more convenient to perform this operation in stages, processing each blade separately.

Now fit the finished impeller onto the motor axle and fix it with a drop of glue - homemade fan ready (fig. 18).

Connect the power wires to the motor and solder them to the printed circuit board (how to find the power bus is described in previous section). To be able to turn off the fan, the mouse cooling system can be supplemented with a miniature switch that disconnects the motor power circuit (Fig. 19). In the case shown in Fig. In the example 20, a small slide switch was used. In order to bring its lever out, a small rectangular hole had to be made in the side of the case.

Rice. 19. The assembled circuit from the fan with the switch is connected to the printed circuit board

In order for the fan to successfully perform its function, holes must be made in the mouse case for free air circulation. The location, shape, diameter and number of these holes depend on the location of the fan and on your imagination. It is also worth providing openings for air intake on the side or bottom of the case. True, you should not get too carried away - from a large number holes made, the mouse case may become weak.

You can fix the fan inside the mouse case using glue or double-sided self-adhesive material used to fix the wall hooks (the foam base will at the same time act as a damper that absorbs the vibration of a running engine). Depending on the features of the modified mouse and the design of the existing fan, it can be attached either to the bottom (see Fig. 20) or to the top of the case (Fig. 21).

on the upper part of the case

Important notes

Please note that additional electrical loading will increase the current consumption of the mouse (typically 100 mA). According to current standards, the maximum value of the consumed current when connected to the ports USB computer or an active USB hub should not exceed 500 mA - which is more than enough for additional LEDs, and even for the fan motor. However, if the mouse is connected through a hub that does not have an external power source (for example, one built into the keyboard), then the current consumption limit may be as low as 100 mA per port. Do not connect a modified mouse to these USB ports.

Before switching on the modified device for the first time, carefully check the correctness and reliability of the installation of the installed elements and make sure that they do not interfere with the normal operation of the standard manipulator assemblies (displacement sensors, buttons, etc.)!