Super flashy optical mouse mod!!!

[Chixofnix]

Hey all!

I am currently using a Logitech Cordless MouseMan Optical (http://www.dansdata.com/ltcmmo.htm), and I have come to realize that this mouse just may have to go in the name of higher refresh rates, but before I bid it adieu, I'd like to give a shot at modding this puppy!

There are two things I'd like to try, and both rely on the fact that the bottom half of the mouse casing itself is made of a translucent blue plastic:
1) I want to replace the red LED inside, that the mouse uses for tracking, with a bright blue one.
2) I want to install some sort of small "flash lamp" (like the kind used in dance clubs that make ppl seem to dance in slow motion), that will go off everytime i click one of the mouse buttons - it'd also be cool if it did a rapid series of flashes when i scroll the mouse wheel.

I really want to try this, and will post results, but first i need advice on whether I need a specific kind of LED for tracking, and I need to know if anyone has an idea of where I can get the flashy sort of lamp I mentioned in mod idea #2...

If this all works, i'm keeping the mouse, else she's off to eBay...

thanks for comments, suggestions, advice, experience, etc... ;)
mod on!

[Bensa]

The flash lamp you are refering to, is called a strobe light. They are large and expensive, so I doubt you would be able to place one inside. Instead, you might try to put some laser LEDS behind a 40mm fan in the casing.

[Fast420A]

You can fit a little strobe in there but there is some electonics involved to make it flash as a stroble bulb requires a lot of volts so most have a transformer and capacitors inside them.

Read about them here.

http://www.epanorama.net/links/lights.html#strobe

[Chixofnix]

yea... a strobe light is what i'm thinking of, but in miniature... the inside of the mouseman is already packed pretty tight, so size is of great importance here... Of couse i'm willing to chug out my dremel to MAKE some room XD

do they make these in miniature? i've tried going to a radio shack and asking, but I don't know really where else to look - also i was thinking of controlling said lamp simply w/ two wires attached at the button's pressure point to connect the circuit, but do you think i need to worry about the power drained from the batteries if it's moving at the same time?

[Chixofnix]

this is from the article Flash posted:

"A stroboscope is a special kind of light that flashes in a very regular way. Each flash of the strobe light is the result of an electrical discharge (sort of like a spark) traveling through the special gas contained in the strobe "flash bulb". To the electronics industry, it's simply a high-voltage plasma discharge in a low-pressure gas container. The electrical current flowing through the gas causes it to emit light. Generally we need about 300 volts or more at some decent current to make a flash tube used in a typical stroboscope to flash."

300volts?!? I'm gonna need a big capacitor ... :P

okay, so how about using the mini-strobes in a CAMERA? the anti-redeye strobe-effect is the exact effect i'm looking for for the scrolling mousewheel, but these things do use a lot of power, so maybe i'll need to try to fit a separate power-supply (those fancy camera batteries) in there, eh? I still think i can do this!

can anyone recommend a cheap, easy to tear apart camera that i can steal the lamp from? (still reading through bits of Flash's article...) or would it be cheaper to buy one separately?

i'm thinking the recharge time for this kind of appliction might be unreasonable since I click pretty fast in intense CnC Zero hour games... maybe I don't want to really use a strobe lamp?

[PhoenixMDM]

You can use any standard 5v blue LED. My old Logitech Wheel mouse has a blue LED in it now. I don't really notice any dramatic changes in accuracy, but it definitely gives a pretty cool effect. Any blue radioshack one will work, but they're way overpriced. LSdiodes.com is waaay better.

The circuitry for that strobe is kinda hefty, mostly due to the flash tube itself... you can try if you'd like though, here's a schematic, good luck...

[Chixofnix]

Originally posted by PhoenixMDM
The circuitry for that strobe is kinda hefty, mostly due to the flash tube itself... you can try if you'd like though, here's a schematic, good luck...


Well I've been looking over a few schematics now actually, and it seems that the only way to get a capacitor to charge up to about 300V (for a small lamp) in less than a second (fast double-clicks, etc...) would be to hook it up to the wall, which defeats the cordless aspect of this mouse - even then, quick flashes in that enclosed space may end up w/ a fire hazard (these lamps get HOT)

EDIT: this kind of setup is only used in special cases in photographic studios anyway, and would be very costly to boot :(

while i'm all for the occasional pyrotecnic demonstration, I don't want to see one under my hand - though having my mouse blow up as i simultaneously nuke a tank column in cnc generals WOULD be something to remember :D

still i do want to try to change out the color of the LED

New research dept. : I'm currently looking into using a small incandescent for the flashing effect (sorta like a christmas tree's lights)... this would use a lot less power, and so using batteries might work out here - still not sure how much i can squeeze in there, though :)

[PhoenixMDM]

Well, have you thought of hooking up one of those superbright white LED's to the click circuits? So that way every time the mouse button is depressed, the light lights up. I think it would be relatively simple, but then again I don't know how the click signal is sent to the computer. Might be worth a look...

[Robrules18]

incandescesnt get HOT, it could melt some of the inner workings (i.e solders) of the mouse, youd probably want a LED for that.

[Chixofnix]

LOL, it seems that everything except LED's would get too hot in this kind of enclosure...
dern...

Originally posted by PhoenixMDM
Well, have you thought of hooking up one of those superbright white LED's to the click circuits? So that way every time the mouse button is depressed, the light lights up. I think it would be relatively simple, but then again I don't know how the click signal is sent to the computer. Might be worth a look...

hey there's an idea... making the circuit would be easy, but power? great idea though, i'll look into that next (still shopping for a cheap blue LED)

can anyone recommend just such a superbright LED... I haven't seen any LED roundups out there :D?

more info: do NOT try to tear apart a disposable camera - those things are "shockingly" dangerous :eek:

[BlueWraith]

Originally posted by Chixofnix
more info: do NOT try to tear apart a disposable camera - those things are "shockingly" dangerous :eek:

I found that one out the hardway a couple years back. :D
I ended up running wires from the points that shocked me(and burnt my nice knife) to an insulated connector.. instant stun-pen. :) It was great fun around the shop and at friends houses. heh

[PhoenixMDM]

http://lsdiodes.com/
cheapest place around.
Click on 3mm LEDs, and order one of the 4000mcd Blue ones on top, (IIRC, they're brighter than those $5 radioshack ones and just as good), and one or more of the 5000mcd White ones.

And what do you mean by power? If you're wondering about brightness, let me assure you, 4000mcd and higher is insanely bright. If you're wondering how to power the LED's, they draw next to nothing for current. You probably won't even notice a change in battery life after doing this mod, if you use LED's.

[krakhead]

i put a green superbright LED in a logitech cordless mouse and it looked great, but the batteries would go dead after 3 weeks and i could only use it on a white mouse pad. i think that the wave lenghts of the red LED are diferent than other colers, and thats why i could only use it on a white surface.

[Chixofnix]

UPDATE: I just finished pulling the whole mouse apart down to each little part and putting it all back together - i'm just in that sorta mood i suppose ... still works :D

Originally posted by krakhead
i put a green superbright LED in a logitech cordless mouse and it looked great, but the batteries would go dead after 3 weeks and i could only use it on a white mouse pad. i think that the wave lenghts of the red LED are diferent than other colers, and thats why i could only use it on a white surface.

er... got me a little worried there... i'm using an X-trac Pro HS Mousepad (http://www.xtracpads.com/prohs.htm) , and I'd rather not ditch that... I really like it :(

any reports of blue LED's being picky about surfaces?

Also, I realized that it's real easy to pull the silvery-grey plastic pieces off this mouse, so I'm gonna paint those black to top it all off i think (that'll make it black, shiny blue, and translucent blue, w/ a blue light)

And what do you mean by power? If you're wondering about brightness, let me assure you, 4000mcd and higher is insanely bright. If you're wondering how to power the LED's, they draw next to nothing for current. You probably won't even notice a change in battery life after doing this mod, if you use LED's.

oh I know this, but I phrased that badly - what I'm actually confused over is where I need to connect the bright white LEDs to have them flash as i click... I haven't yet found a schematic detailing the electronics of a Logitech Mouseman Optical Wireless... would it involve opening the little "clicky" black boxes in there (In case you haven't figured it out i'm not an electrical engineer or anything ;) )?

[Oni]

Originally posted by Chixofnix
any reports of blue LED's being picky about surfaces?

Yep. Tried that once. It would only work on very very bright surfaces (like white paper) and even then, it wouldn't track well. I ended up switching it back.

[nosilverman]

to avoid the heat and size issues with a strobe light, what about making a strobe LED? I wouldnt know how to do it though.

[dalilman52]

the schematics for it are here (http://www.overclockers.com/tips018/) along with some instructions, but ud have to do a bit of soldering on a mini-sized pcb u'd find at radioshack...dunno if it would fit in ur tiny mouse casing..or if it would last long, or even if it would run off of the mouse's batteries...

[Black_Ops]

about taking the disposable camera's apart. as long as you practice safe slow disassembly they are safe and easy to take apart. rember to put a grounding strap on the had that is doing the pulling apart. that way if you get poked (descent size poke) it will goto ground insted of thru your heart possibly. second a transformer an oscilator thats bigger than in the cam will allow fast recovery. but i wouldent suggest it for a mouse.

ive taken apart about 1200 of them cams to make sfx stuff for amature action movies, my favorite is a array of 40 flash tubes outa a disposable cam for a flash-bang effect. works wonders.

[StillLife]

When I was younger I used to take apart those disposible cameras and take the capacitor to the flash out. I then taped the capacitor to a stick with the wires sticking out to make myself a nice cattle prod. I then would charge the capacitor by touching the wires to their place on the PCB on the camera and charge. The result was 2 holes burned in my friends sisters leg, it welded itself to the dishwasher and burned of the paint in the area, and a nice large spark..:eek:

I was a little troublemaker when I was younger. This included me also making a chlorine bomb and putting it in the mall elevator (off hours) and almost getting arrested and a hazardous materials crew coming out. The friend I was with ended up getting the book thrown at him because of his previous record and I was released to my parents which became a prison of its own.

Nowadays if I had done those things after 9-11 and all I would of probabley been charged with terrorism and put in the pokey for a long time... Glad I grew out of that phase. Anyways I am rambling.

[Venesectrix]

Black_Ops, are cameras really that dangerous? At camp my friends and I would shock each other all the time with our homemade tasers (cameras), and we never got really hurt (just numb and tingly for a while). Also, can you tell me how you made the 40-camera-flashbang effect?

[Black_Ops]

the human body is quite frail, in theory a shock going across your heart from a camera flash could kill you. so its better safe than sorry.