What can be made from the electronics of a computer mouse. Making a robot out of a computer mouse. Copy and paste text

Have you ever wondered how things work, how they go from idea to implementation, how simple simple things are? How easy is it to make a comb? What about a computer mouse? What about a wooden computer mouse made from a solid block of mahogany with an LCD screen, with its own electronic filling and a cable made and braided especially for it? I think you will be interested in my path that I went through in 2.5 years of creating my mouse.

Design, construction, modeling

Since I was a complete zero in design, I approached the matter as a complete layman. I bought plasticine and started sculpting the mouse of my dreams.

First, I blinded a mouse, which is ideal for me to work on a desktop. She is a large dark gray in the photo. Then I dazzled a mouse that would suit me as a mobile (dark gray small). And then I took the piece of plasticine stolen from the children to work, and my colleagues sculpted a mouse that claims to be called "folk". She ideally fit into the hands of the majority of the male population of our team (multi-colored in the photo). And what? The result is banal and dull forms, which we pull day and night with our hands in every way. Apparently, among the three standard mice, any user will find a convenient one. The triumph of the ideal?

As a result, a mouse was modeled at the computer, which, from my point of view, pretended to be graceful and beautiful.

At that time, I really liked her. And without thinking twice, I divided the computer model into parts. The elements of fastening and interfacing with the electronic filling have been thought out. It sounds simple, but in fact hundreds of hours of painstaking work have been spent.

After that, the resulting parts were grown on a 3D machine to check the assembly.

Material - polyamide. It sits well in the hand, like a glove. All parts fit together, process assembly also went without problems

The next step is milling in wood. I got probably a dozen different types of redwoods, but I started with the sapele tree, the rest of the species are waiting in the wings.

I didn't like the design live. The vertical gaps between the buttons and the case looked bad and untidy. Technological "sores" are visible when working with wood - chips and tree drift. And the main thing - the keys did not bend, there was no click.

I thought about the design for a long time. Something was embarrassing, and there was no sense of satisfaction. Then I realized that the mouse lacks solidity. I decided to return to the original version of the mouse, which I sculpted at the very beginning, only at a professional level and using sculptural plasticine. There are two design options in one mouse. Convenient for comparison and decision making.

After receiving the final version, 3D scanning and transfer of surfaces to SolidWorks were done.

The second model turned out to be not much more successful than the first. The buttons were not pressed and it was not possible to fix this in the current model. The marriage of the model was laid down at the DNA level. A more comprehensive approach is needed with simultaneous control of both design and technology. Otherwise, nothing will work. There will be either technological excellence or good design, but not all at once. These characteristics sit on opposite sides of the swing. So I throw everything into the trash and start over. Sketch-design-sculpting-testing-cultivation and so on, but with technological control of critical parameters on the one hand, and design on the other. We are looking for a middle ground.

The third model was made already within the framework of the classic product design cycle. I started with a sketch.

Outlines were drawn.

And finally, the approved design.

Plasticine layout.

3D scanner, surface acquisition.

Computer model.

Then the process of finishing the hull began. On the CNC machine, the body was cut out, tested, refined, then cut out again. As a result, only the tenth version of the case turned out to be workable. The biggest challenge was making the keys feel comfortable. As a result, in some places the thickness of the wood decreased to 0.7 mm! It took me a year to finalize the case.

The wheel and the connector were also made of wood.

The wheel has been laser engraved with the Clickwood brand.

The eleventh version of the corpus is on its way, where I will make minor changes. I also started developing a wireless version of the mouse. The wireless module is based on Bluetooth technology, the optosensor is laser based. Accumulators of standard size AAA, 2 pieces, with the possibility of replacement. The mouse will continue to work while charging. All elements are located very tightly, during the layout I had to pretty much break my head. A cavity specially cut in the wooden case of the mouse serves as a container for the batteries.

Wooden parts

Working with wood begins with the selection of wood. Boards must be of the correct geometry, have a minimum of knots and defects, and have the necessary moisture.

First, the boards are dried at home. At least six months.

After that, the board is sawn into small pieces, which are dried for several weeks at the site of their further processing. At all stages, humidity is controlled by a special device. If the drying process is neglected, the wood loses its geometric stability, and the manufacture and operation of the mouse becomes impossible.

The prepared blocks are processed on a CNC machine using a specially created program.

From the very beginning of the creation of the part and until the final assembly of the mouse, the parts are rigidly fixed on the metal tooling so that at none of the stages the part does not change its shape and geometric dimensions.

The processing of the upper part of the mouse has to be done with pinpoint precision, since its profile is designed for a soft click and is very thin in some places. I control the pressing force with a gramometer. In normal mice, it ranges from 50 to 75 GS. I'm trying to get 50 GS.

The tree in my project has the biggest challenges. Not only is this the most significant part of the cost, but the share of rejects is very high here. Wood is an anisotropic material. He can be led, vices can be caught, chips can occur, and a simple error in the finishing coating technology can lead to the mouse body being sent to the trash heap. I admit that I am still improving the processing technology, and I'm not completely sure that I have found the right one. For statistics: in the first batch of ten cases, only three reached the finished product. Therefore, the wood part of the process chain is critical to the cost and quality of the finished product. We are constantly working on it.

In the future, I plan to work with bone. In particular, I am already making a bone wheel.

Electronic part

I developed the first mouse circuit myself. I took the top-end optical sensor ADNS-3090 from Avago as the sensor, the Atmel controller became the brains, the rest of the components of the brand companies such as Murata, Yageo, Geyer, Omron and Molex.

I paid special attention to quality nutrition mice, here, in my opinion, with his perfectionism reached the absolute

First working layout.

In black, final.

There have also been experiments with various buttons. I've always tried to find a quiet mouse among others. Well, since I do it myself, I decided to conduct an experiment and make such a mouse and test it in work. To do this, I replaced the clicking left and right "mikriki" with soft and quiet ones used for the central button (did you notice that the central button always clicks quieter?). A special version of the board was created, where all three identical "mikriks" were mounted.

Picked up and bought a batch of gold-plated connectors for the mouse. As usual in China. I don't know how about " better contact”, But they are in perfect harmony with wood.

Screen, firmware

Carried away by the idea of placing a display in the mouse, he began searching for it among hundreds of suppliers. The requirements were simple: strict dimensional restrictions and the possibility of at least symbolic display of at least eight familiarity spaces. While I was picking up, I learned almost everything about displays. They differ in types: symbolic and graphic, in technology: TAB, COG, TFT, OLED, LCD, E-Paper and others. Each type or technology has many more varieties, sizes, colors, lighting, etc. In general, there was something to dig into.

Break half of the Internet, I found out that the size I need is made by only one company in the whole wide world. All other options are definitely larger in size. And even the display I found barely fit inside the mouse. As an option, a custom display was considered, which could be made for me according to my requirements, but this is a very expensive option for me (about one hundred thousand rubles). For the first model, a graphic display with a resolution of 128 by 64 pixels, which I chose, is fine.

In order to understand how the display really looks and is combined with my mouse, I had to order all varieties of this display from the manufacturers. What do these varieties mean? The model name consists of unpronounceable alphanumeric combinations such as FP12P629AU12. All of them are assembled from various blocks and clearly deciphered in the specification. For example, the given example can be assembled from blocks FP.12.P.629A.U12, where the type, size, voltage, controller, operating temperature range and other information about the model are encrypted. And the last block is the trickiest. It can have several dozen values, each of which means one or another combination of such characteristics as the presence and color of backlighting, background color, color of symbols, a range of degrees from which information is clearly read. These parameters were of interest to me.

As a result, "for trial" I ordered 18 different modifications. The manufacturer agreed, but said that the minimum order is 5 displays for each modification. There was nowhere to go, and I had to agree, knowing that 90% would go to the trash can. And then one of the cloudy days, the express delivery service brought me home a huge box in which a homeless person of average build can live. There were 18 smaller boxes in the box, each of which freely accommodated 5 display devices, securely fixed for a long trip to cold Russia. There were so many accompanying packaging that the mother-in-law was enough to cover several beds for the winter.

As a result, after thorough tests on a specially assembled stand, two displays turned out to be suitable for the series. They differ only in the background: gray and yellow-green. It is them that I will offer for completing the mouse. By default, I plan to set yellow-green, but two more options will be available: a display with a gray background and a mouse without a display at all.

But the main intrigue was what information can be shown on the screen? I was offered different ideas: the ambient temperature, the indication of the arrival of letters, something else not very original.

My train of thought followed a different path. Let's start with the fact that there are two significant restrictions on the display of operational information: the presence of a huge and high-quality source of any information (monitor) in front of the user and the need to turn the mouse over to obtain information. In addition, the screen is small, the resolution is small, and the LED interferes with normal reading. Therefore, I got one conclusion: information should be only entertaining in nature, the applied value of which tends to zero, but at the same time the WOW! Effect should be lethal.

What information can have such properties in a device of an ordinary complexity? There is not much of it: mileage, time of use, speed of movement, number of clicks and scrolling of the wheel. I decided to abandon the last parameter, since it seemed uninteresting to me. All the rest of the parameters are bound to the session (the last time the mouse was used from the moment it was powered up, i.e. connecting to the computer or turning on the computer itself) and to the entire lifetime of the mouse. For example, the user can at any moment of the mouse find out how many times he has pressed left button mouse or how many his mouse has run in meters for today or since the time of purchase. The information is absolutely useless, but it will help especially curious ones to understand how much he torments the mouse. If others appear interesting ideas, then they can be implemented with a new firmware.

I also added general information on the mouse (model, mouse and firmware number, month of manufacture) and a settings screen. It will be possible to select a language and system of measures (English or metric). To store all this information, a persistent flash memory had to be added to the circuit.

To accommodate such a volume of information, I had to split everything into screens. Each screen displays one type of information and shows the parameter values per session and for all time. There are six screens in total, which can be changed with the mouse wheel.

The first option was implemented in a purely textual manner, for which several variants of fonts were even developed.

I made the firmware to evaluate how the text looks using the created font on the mouse screen. Looks awful to say.

Now it became obvious that the screen needed graphics, not a set of symbolic information. Therefore, I hired a designer, and together we prepared three options for graphic design, in the end the second option was recognized as the most successful.

Of course, this design required a higher resolution, so it had to be adapted.

But this is not the end of the story. After I picked up the screen for the mouse, I ordered a trial batch for the mock-ups. As a result, the screens came, but for some reason the number of conclusions differs from what is indicated in the specification (datasheet). The manufacturer received an answer to the request that, they say, everything is fine, this is a small modification, and it will not affect the performance in any way. Meanwhile, the missing two conductors were responsible for the brightness of the displayed graphics.

It was all very suspicious. And exactly as he looked into the water. We remade the board for a modified screen, soldered it, and then it turned out that the screen was completely dim. It's like the device has run out of batteries. And it turned out after a long and painstaking work on the search and selection of screens, the purchase of a trial batch of all modifications and their tests. Time, money, and so on.

But the story ended up with a good ending. After correspondence with the Chinese, it turned out that the screen can now adjust its contrast directly from the firmware. Healed the firmware, and everything began to show just fine!

Everything is shown as planned: mileage, speed, number of clicks, etc.

In the future, the firmware also changed several times: there was a setting for changing the language. Two languages on one screen is bad - readability deteriorates, Cyrillic abracadabra will only annoy an English-speaking user, and support for other languages may be needed in the future. The difficulty started when I tried to adjust the mouse run. It seems that it is difficult there: the optical sensor transmits an increment in two coordinates, which must be reduced to the system of measures and added modulo to the current value. That's the whole run.

But, as it turned out, not everything is so simple. Two people with mice, where the same sensor is installed, can get dramatically different results! The thing is that the resolution of the sensor (sensitivity) is highly dependent on the surface on which the mouse rolls. The best results are obtained when the mouse rolls on white paper. Slightly worse for wood and fabric. Laminate and film are very bad. The declared passport sensitivity is achieved only on ideal surfaces from the point of view of the sensor.

It makes no difference to the end user. He plugs in the mouse and, by trial and error, puts it in operating system comfortable cursor movement speed. The system remembers this coefficient and uses it to increase or decrease the values of the movement coordinate increment.

But it is quite another matter if you are planning to read these parameters directly from the mouse. The mouse on one surface will show the result of a run of one meter, on the other - one and a half. The speed will also "lie". And you have to do something about it.

To solve this problem, we had to introduce the “Sensitivity” parameter, which allows you to individually select the coefficient for each surface. By default, it is equal to one, which corresponds to the surface of the white paper. It can be increased or decreased in the settings. You don't have to touch it at all, everything will work fine anyway. But for true perfectionists in the leaflet attached to the mouse, a table will be given from which you can select the coefficient for the available surface and instructions on how you can independently configure the mouse to show the exact mileage.

During the development of the firmware, another side effect of the sensor was discovered. If you take a mouse and just wave it in the air, the mileage readings will also change. This is due to the fact that the sensor detects the surrounding space as a kind of surface and also tries to get the values of the mouse offset. Therefore, you can observe the following effect: you turn the mouse over, look at the mileage parameters and are surprised that they change upwards right in front of your eyes. Of course, you can install a tilt angle sensor in the mouse, which turns off the sensor during its flip, but it is unreasonable to do this only for the described situation. It may appear in the next version, but not now. After all, the mouse is raised only to look at the indicators, and 99.9% of the time it is on the surface and receives the correct information.

Cable

I decided to make the cable as flexible as possible so that it would not interfere with the movement of the mouse and would be "invisible" for kinematics. Well, I personally do not like the "spring" cable.

Sometimes it seems that when creating a product, the cable is the most insignificant part of the product. What is easier - buy the right amount of cable in the store and unsolder it. A damn thing. But, alas, not here in Russia. Sometimes it seems that our industry is no longer equipped to do anything more complicated than cast-iron irons. Attempts to find a cable resulted in a three-week search and shaking up the assortment of absolutely all manufacturers of Russian cable products. It turned out that our standards did not describe a cable suitable for modern electronic devices. For example, a four-core microphone cable with KMM braiding 4x0.12 mm2 has an outer diameter of 5 mm. This is a lot. Older mice and keyboards have a seemingly thick cable with an outer diameter of only 3.5mm. The closest analogue on sale was a cable by the German company Lapp Kabel, but its outer diameter was just 3.5 mm. Now imagine also the braid on such a cable. Have you presented? I'll tell you that I saw a similar cable on power cords for irons

So, it turned out that such a cable cannot be bought in Russia. Dot. Well, we are not used to retreating. I go into production and try to order, fortunately in Russia they still make a cable. And for this we will define my requirements. So what I need:
The conductors are made of braided copper wires (for flexibility).
The number of cores is 4.
Screen - yes.
Flexibility is maximum.
The outer diameter of the cable is strictly no more than 3 mm.
Color - Pantone 4625 C.
Bottom line: I tried to write, probably, with a dozen possible manufacturers of cable products, no one is interested in messing with my order. They didn't even ask how much mileage I needed. Bottom line: in Russia such a cable cannot be bought or produced. Sad. But we are not used to retreating.

Going to Alibaba.com. I find the first Chinese manufacturer I come across, write a letter and literally a few hours later I receive an answer: we will make any cable for you! I'm shocked. I throw him the specification, money for delivery, and a week later I receive a sample. Blimey! And I lost almost three months, trying to patriotically place an order in Russia. It turned out that the Chinese can easily make me a cable with an outer diameter of 2.5 mm.

The bottom line: I ordered 4 different samples from China. At first, I didn’t like the scratchiness and dullness of the outer shell, then I didn’t like the flexibility of the cable, then again I didn’t like the flexibility, and in the end I settled on the last sample sent, which I was ready to order. They cannot be more flexible. The cable has a memory. As a result, I accidentally got a cable with memory, although I wanted to be as flexible as possible like a rope

I ordered a kilometer, two weeks later I had the cable. Total Time Spent: Six months.

Braided my kilometer of cable. We got two options.

Approximately 10% of the cable was rejected. This is the beginning of the bays, where the braid is unraveling and the machine has not yet entered the operating mode. And some places where, for some reason, loops and knots of the braid threads were formed.

If the end of the cable is not sealed with heat shrinkage, then it will fluff up at the moment, the threads are synthetic! Therefore, the installation of the cable assembly is made more difficult by the preventive heat shrinkage.

The outer diameter of the braided cable is 3.2 mm, i.e. the braid added 0.7 mm to the cable diameter. It seems a little, but with a regular mouse, the cable comes mostly with a diameter of 3.5 mm, and in the era of wireless mice, it seems thick and heavy. Recently, non-budget mice began to be equipped with cables with a diameter of 3 mm, and they no longer interfere with work, they are almost imperceptible. But the keyboard cable can be with an outer diameter of 4 mm. And even more. But it doesn't matter for the keyboard.

Plastic parts

As much as I would like to make the body parts of the mouse completely out of wood, but plastic is indispensable here. You need legs, an axle for the wheel, a support for the axle and a glass for the display.

Therefore, I had to order a mold from the Chinese.

After each test casting, the Chinese sent me a dozen samples, which I tested on my mouse.

As a result, I modified the mold three times, until the quality began to satisfy me. The problems were different. For example, after assembly, I got a problem of dust that forms between the display and protective glass... It looks untidy. Moreover, the mouse will scratch on the surface, and dust will gradually accumulate there. I had to transform the glass into a container with rims, where the display will be inserted, after which the circuit will be sealed.

The result is such a detail.

Modification of the mold is not an easy task at all, and changes can only be made in the direction of increasing the part. Therefore, any inaccuracy or mistake can ruin the whole work. For reference: each revision is a month and a half of waiting for new samples. And the change itself could be microscopic, but necessary.

I will not dwell on the plastic details, this technology is now in the lead, and I cannot tell you anything new and interesting here. I will only say about the legs, for which I have been selecting material with reduced friction for a long time, after which I conducted tests and "races" of mice in order to determine the winner with minimal friction.

Processing and coating

Initially, there is a thorough work with the removal of lint, sanding and polishing the surface.

I was faced with a difficult task. It was necessary to stabilize the tree so that the geometry of the mouse does not change depending on humidity, and to protect the tree from working in an aggressive environment (sweat and grease from the hand).

I gave up varnish from the very beginning. Varnish is a surface film that cracks, breaks down over time, and the tree is exposed. Sweat and grease penetrate the pores, the wood darkens, and an irreversible process of its degradation begins. Therefore, it was decided to use oil as an impregnation and protection, and wax to give it a commercial look.

To make it clear: the tree is soaked through with pores, which contain either air or the oil of the tree itself (if the tree is rubber). Our task is to fill the pores with our oil as much as possible, which should then polymerize and protect the wood.

In order not to stretch the story, I will say that I have tried many oils: linseed, teak, tung, vaseline, Danish. Each oil has its own character. For example, wax is very poorly applied to teak oil, and linseed oil takes a long time to polymerize. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a catalyst - a desiccant - into it.

I ended up developing two technologies. The first is the technology of vacuum impregnation of wood. It works like this: I create a vacuum in an environment with oil and wood. Air starts to come out of the pores. After the vacuum is removed, the pores are filled with oil. As a plus, the tree stabilizes well. As a minus - it darkens a lot. Looks good, but not for everybody.

The second technology is surface oil coating. Apply the oil 1-2 or more times with a non-woven cloth.

Apply carnauba wax.

And rub it with a muslin circle.

Then, with the help of a hairdryer, I "dissolve" dry wax residues in narrow and difficult places. In the case of "insoluble" debris, I pick up a hard-bristled toothbrush, remove the debris and then repeat the waxing procedure locally again.

If we estimate the labor costs of processing, then manual labor per mouse is about four hours.

Assembly

Next comes the installation operation, but before it, you still need to remove traces of processing from the technological holes. Then, using a special 3M tape, I adjust and glue the legs (the body can lead by a fraction of a millimeter, and this will immediately be noticeable: it will stagger like a lame stool). Then I lay the cable, mount the board, support, install the wheel and also, if necessary, adjust the buttons (there should be no chatter) and the pressing force. This operation can also take up to four hours.

Nowadays even from computer mouse you can make original things. Many lovers of fakes have long figured out how to use a non-working mouse.

Is it worth throwing out the old computer mouse

Sometimes a computer mouse becomes unusable, sometimes you have to replace an outdated model with a more modern one because of convenience. Often in this case appearance and its contents remain in good condition. If you do not want to throw away computer parts that have served their life, you can give them a new life, using them to create interesting things.

What can be done from a computer mouse: ideas

External and internal parts from the old device will come in handy for creating the following original things.

Robot

An unnecessary ball mouse will turn into a light-sensitive robot. For this, the parts are disassembled, switches and an infrared emitter are left for operation. The body must be freed from unnecessary parts and protrusions, the wheels must be attached, wrapped with a rubber band in three layers. Next, you need a relay, which must be installed inside the case, connect necessary contacts and solder the wiring. To operate, the robot will also need a small microcircuit, which must be placed inside the case. It remains to make two holes for the eyes and one for led lamp in the front and one hole for a toggle switch in the back. Contacts are connected to the right and left motors, eyes and battery are connected. The robot is turned on using a tumblr.

Flashlight

By inserting an LED inside the case, you can get a small lantern. A small table stand or lamp is made in the same way. A stand is attached at the wire connection point, and the lighting lamp can be installed in the place of the ball.

Important! Do not use incandescent lamps as a backlight. When heated, they can spoil the plastic from which the mouse case is made.

Tachometer

Using the board from the old mouse, you get a tachometer. Transistors and the LED element of the board will come in handy. A resistor is soldered into the free hole of the controller, and a contact from the phototransistor is connected to the board connector. It remains to connect the tachometer through the connector to the computer. The resulting device counts rotation impulses per second and outputs the data to the monitor.

Winder

A hole is drilled in the upper part of the body, into which an adapter with a convenient nozzle is placed. Such a reel will turn out to be mechanical and will rotate due to the movement of the adapter.

What can be done from a variety of computer mice

If a lot of mice have accumulated from the computer, you can use them by making:

Loudspeakers

Having disassembled plastic case and by placing a small speaker there, you can get audio speakers. To do this, unscrew the screw with a screwdriver, divide the device into two parts. Place a matching speaker inside. The wiring must be stripped, the contacts and their compatibility with the wire color must be checked with a tester. Then use hot melt glue to firmly fix the speaker disc inside and connect both parts of the cabinet. Such portable speaker suitable for a phone, tablet, player and even a computer.

Advice! If you make a hole in the front of the mouse, the sound will be more powerful.

Robocop Robot

This idea will succeed if a lot of broken computer mice have accumulated at home. They can be used to assemble the body and limbs of a composite robot. The role of such a craft can only be decorative, but if you equip the robot with an electrical mechanism, you can get an interesting toy that can move and emit light.

What can you do with an old mouse? and got the best answer

Reply from User deleted [guru]
Only it is better to make the lamp LED, since incandescent lamps are very hot, and the plastic of the mouse will probably melt.
P.S. Very good LEDs can be taken from lighters with flashlights. Lighters withstand only 2-3 refills, and the LED is practically eternal.
Source: We don't throw anything away, we don't sell, and we try not to buy. But we give and select, fix and do it ourselves!

Answer from Yashpa[guru]
take a three-liter jar, a mound of sawdust, cut an apple, a carrot and plant your mouse there - let it live on

Answer from Dimon XXX[expert]
You can make an interesting table lamp: attach a stand at the point of attachment of the wire (you can ready-made from an unnecessary lamp), instead of a ball - a light bulb. The switch can be made from the filling of the mouse itself by pressing a button. You can make and change the incandescence of the lamp with a scroller and much more.
In this matter, everything depends on the imagination and knowledge of electrical engineering.

Answer from Linza[guru]
Look what kind of company she is. Go to their website and offer them to buy a rarity from you! Will there be money !?

Answer from Nikolay Davydov[guru]
hang on the wall (crack, glue the glass bead - let your imagination run wild)

Answer from Deathwatch[active]
leave of course .... I have a row of mouse, I take out the good old ball mouse and go ...

Answer from SHP! ON[guru]
draw eyes with a marker, cut the wire shorter and you can put it on the shelf
and you will be happy!

Answer from Filth[guru]
throw it out and buy a new one where is your logic?

Answer from Owl[guru]
Blimey! RARITY is real. Since 1999, so many mice have died a natural death, and here - a long-liver right. It is imperative to find a worthy use for such a veteran.

Answer from Above me[master]
Disassemble to find out what's inside, I've already disassembled 3 pieces

Answer from Copperhead[guru]
Don't throw it away! She can still survive three new ones!

Answer from Neohuman[guru]
You can, for example, paint in a folk or other style - make it exclusive.
You can then cover it with varnish so that the paint does not rub off (this is how they do)

Answer from Mark slavin[active]
give it to the old cat

Answer from User deleted[active]
Throw it out !!

Answer from User deleted[guru]
fit her cat

Answer from Elena Starky[guru]
Hang in the fridge 🙂 And show the guests "My mouse has hung up" 🙂
I have long dreamed of doing this, all hands do not reach 🙂

Answer from 2 answers[guru]

For a long time I had an idea to draw on a PC, and to indulge in Photoshop and illustrator.
Yes, there are tablets for this, but I consider buying, ala, “try and forget” to be an inappropriate decision))

Therefore, it was decided to make from what is at hand ... And what do we have? That's right - mouse)

And we also have a marker in which you can try to shove her insides.

As it turned out, not everything is so simple, there are usually more details in mice than fits into the marker.
However, if you look, then you can find the ONE-PIECE mouse, inside the kit - 2 electrolytes of 47 microfarads / 10V (one on the power supply, and the second on the button) + a ceramic capacitor for 100nf.
It connects directly from the PC, all buttons also go directly.
This chip already carries a sensor + controller.
By size - DIP chip.

1) How does the mouse work?

It is a CAMERA that “photographs” the surface. The information enters the chip, it compares this “snapshot” with the previous one and determines the movement.

She just shoots at high speed.
In order for the “camera” to see what it is filming - it is illuminated by an LED (usually red), you CAN put any (of a different color / size). And power from anything.
Light-emitting diode not synchronized, and the change in brightness is done to save energy, protect the matrix (camera) and aesthetics.
An important point is optics... The meaning is simple - you need the “picture” of the surface to be sharp (otherwise you cannot compare), in general, as in your favorite soap dish.

2) What do we need in order to repeat?

Mouse with one chip(which one is above). The price is $ 3. From it we will take a chip, a body kit and a lens.
Marker (also above). It's for 50 cents))
Hot melt glue.
3mm LED (any color)
Momentary button (there is a photo below). It will be analogous to the left mouse button.
Anything for decoration (the handle for the design should be with the design;))

3) Let's get started:

Disassemble the mouse (you can even break the case, we don't need it). Suitable for us so, it is cheap and single-chip!

Draw the pinout of the microcircuit ( the picture below is an example). The pinout can be drawn from the board.

Cut off the unnecessary part of the optics and glue the rest with hot melt glue to the sensor:

Parse the marker. We will not need the upper part of it.
Make a hole for the button

Pull the wire through the marker.

You can take the following buttons, for example:

Mount the MK + wires + for the button + the hanger by hinged soldering. Should fit in marker.
Fill with hot melt glue (it is better to check how it works first)

It will turn out something like that)) No drivers are needed, the mouse is still: