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Color LED Mouse Mod |
June
6th, 2003 |
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| Introduction
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I have
to admit, I came across this mod by accident. It was actually my
first attempt at modding and more a practice run with my Dremel
than anything else.
Well, since then I’ve gotten quite a few e-mails and even
given a few verbal how-to’s at local LANs. Finally, I’ve
decided to write it all down and share it with the rest of the modding
community.
It’s not a mind blowing discovery nor feat of technical know
how; simply a neat little trick. Let’s begin.
While this is a fairly simple mod, it is important to remember to
be careful when doing any modding. And as always, we here at GrunvtillE
take no reponsibility for any damage or injuries done while you
are attempting to do this mod, though if you come to the forums
we will try to help you fix it!
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I started
this mod with a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer. The details herein
apply only to this particular model but can easily be adapted to fit
any other optical mouse.
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First remove the cover from the mouse by unscrewing the two screws
located under the rear feet pads. Once they have been removed the
top casing should lift of without too much trouble.
There are two tabs located on the interior of the mouse by the front;
take care not to break these off as you remove the top.
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Once you’ve removed the cover, you’ll see that the majority
of the area where you palm rests is occupied by bits and pieces used
to mount the buttons. To make things less complicated, we’re
just going to cut a nice window in the open area like so. You can
use a variety of materials to create the window but for those with
a small budget, I’ve found a simple substitution. Cut a small
piece of plastic from the cover of your average CDR spindle. The natural
curve fits the mouse nicely, and it didn’t cost you a dime.
You can attach the plastic with superglue if you like, but I’d
recommend epoxy. Superglue can create a white “misty”
look if applied to most clear plastics.
Now you should have something that looks like this.
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That wasn’t too hard was it?
Let’s take it a step further by adding a second color LED to
the current red ones. Below is a view of the inside of the mouse.
As you can see, there are two stock red LED’s. One located at
the center of the board in the white holder, and another all the way
at the rear laying flat. You may have noticed that third one in there
between the two I just pointed out. That is the one we’ll be
adding.
First you’ll need to know the basic parts of an LED; the positive
and negative poles. The positive side of a newly purchased LED can
be identified by the longer leg. But that doesn’t help much
with ones that are already installed. Here, you can use a simple rule
of thumb. The diagonal line inside goes from negative to positive
as the line goes from the bottom to top (relative to the legs pointing
down). There is also often a flat edge on the top of the negative
leg on the interior. I’ve blow up a part of the picture below
and outlined it so that you can see it more clearly.
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With this knowledge, you can begin to solder the new LED in place.
You want to connect the legs exactly as I have them shown. With the
Positive leg of the new LED attached directly to the Negative leg
of the LED in the white housing. Then connect the remaining Negative
leg of the new LED to the jumper wire shown. This will put the two
in series and allow them both to run off of the same power supply.
Once you’re all put back together and powered back up, you’ll
notice that the center Red LED is quite dim. This is because the new
LED (blue in this case) is drawing much of the supplied power. Now
go ahead and move the mouse a little. You see the Blue LED dim and
the center Red LED glow intensely. The movement causes the mouse to
give more power to the Red LED and in doing so changes the entire
color of the mouse mod.
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The picture above was taken with the mouse stationary. The mixture
of the bright Blue and dim Red gives it an eerie purple glow. Once
the mouse is in motion, the color goes back to the bright red you
saw earlier in this article. When the mouse is brought to a halt,
the color will shift back to a purple glow after a few seconds. An
easy to do mod, under an hour and a dramatic result; what more could
you ask for? Have fun, and don’t forget to post your result
to the GruntvillE
Forums!
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