Bend/hack an Old Ball Mouse to Make It Do Lots of Sounds As You Move It.
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Bend/hack an Old Ball Mouse to Make It Do Lots of Sounds As You Move It.
The name of this gadget "SinteMouse" in spanish, as Im from Uruguay, in America.
"MouseSinth" in english, or as you wish!
If someone simply plug the sensors of the movement encoder of an old mouse to a speaker he/she will get a "Gestual square wave -_-_-_- synthesizer" so to say.
The faster you move the mouse, higher the pitch of the sound.
Here you have a Mp3 record I made of one of my Sintemouses.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/14/2441655/Mousedosejes.mp3
Listen to it!
Shopping List:
* 1 x Old ball encoder mouse (the ones that have a ball in a hole instead of a red light against the mousepad)
* Thin colored cables from inside the mouse usb cable, or from inside a parallel printer cable.
* 2 x phototransitors (the most common ones, that look like transparent leds) (PHT1 in the circuit drawing)
* 2 x Presets 500 KOhms (PST1,PST2)
* Some mono audio cable
* 1 x Audio Jack of the kind that fits you best :P
* 2 x 330 Ohms resistors
* 1 x 9V Battery or a switching DC converter of between 5 and 12 Volts.
A cheap (not switching) converter will imput 50hz noise into the audio signal. A 9V battery will be just fine.
Tools:
Pliers
Wire cutters
Some cable stripping tool
Soldering iron & tin
Hot glue gun
Multimeter
Screwdrivers
"MouseSinth" in english, or as you wish!
If someone simply plug the sensors of the movement encoder of an old mouse to a speaker he/she will get a "Gestual square wave -_-_-_- synthesizer" so to say.
The faster you move the mouse, higher the pitch of the sound.
Here you have a Mp3 record I made of one of my Sintemouses.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/14/2441655/Mousedosejes.mp3
Listen to it!
Shopping List:
* 1 x Old ball encoder mouse (the ones that have a ball in a hole instead of a red light against the mousepad)
* Thin colored cables from inside the mouse usb cable, or from inside a parallel printer cable.
* 2 x phototransitors (the most common ones, that look like transparent leds) (PHT1 in the circuit drawing)
* 2 x Presets 500 KOhms (PST1,PST2)
* Some mono audio cable
* 1 x Audio Jack of the kind that fits you best :P
* 2 x 330 Ohms resistors
* 1 x 9V Battery or a switching DC converter of between 5 and 12 Volts.
A cheap (not switching) converter will imput 50hz noise into the audio signal. A 9V battery will be just fine.
Tools:
Pliers
Wire cutters
Some cable stripping tool
Soldering iron & tin
Hot glue gun
Multimeter
Screwdrivers
Previous Considerations and Choosing the Best Mouse to Use.
Previous Considerations
If you want to fully undestand how a old mouse works, see how stuff works:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/mouse2.htm
They casually used the same mouse as I.
So, starting from the base you understand basics.
I took out the original phototransistors and glued common Led-shaped ones.
The signal from the original sensors was weak, the new sensors give me more amplitude in the signal.
You could just weld thin cables to the original sensors if you have a good amplification system.
If you do so, you need to distiguish the infrared LED from the phototransistor, one at each side of the encoder disk.
But which is which?
Ways to know:
The LED may have LD printed on the board.
The LED will shine if the mouse plugged to a PC and viewed with a cellphone camera (you cant see infrared light with naked eye, a digital camera can)
The LED may be the transparent one, and the sensor typicaly red, or dark red transparent.
So if you want to hack the 3 pins of the sensor know that pins usually are: sensor1+ / common - / sensor2+
Just weld cables to the center pin and any of the other two.
Plug the mouse to a PC, so that it powers the led and sensor.
You may hear something this way.
If not, keep reading for the complete hacking that no longer involves any computer or the original mouse circuitry.
Choosing of the mouse to bend/hack:
Ive been opening the case of many.
The more complex encodeing systems are inside Logitech old mouses.
Epson did some great encoders too.
The one I like most is the one of the pics of this instructables.
If you compare it to any "normal" mouse its awsomely complex.
Thanks, Logitech ingeneers and designers!
You did great things in the 80s and 90s and keep rocking.
Anyway the hacking is the same for any mouse.
- give DC to the original infrared LED.
- glue a new sensor in place of the old.
- reassamble everything in place.
- hotglue internal cables and weld the external cables.
So when you find a mouse you like, this step is done.
If you want to fully undestand how a old mouse works, see how stuff works:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/mouse2.htm
They casually used the same mouse as I.
So, starting from the base you understand basics.
I took out the original phototransistors and glued common Led-shaped ones.
The signal from the original sensors was weak, the new sensors give me more amplitude in the signal.
You could just weld thin cables to the original sensors if you have a good amplification system.
If you do so, you need to distiguish the infrared LED from the phototransistor, one at each side of the encoder disk.
But which is which?
Ways to know:
The LED may have LD printed on the board.
The LED will shine if the mouse plugged to a PC and viewed with a cellphone camera (you cant see infrared light with naked eye, a digital camera can)
The LED may be the transparent one, and the sensor typicaly red, or dark red transparent.
So if you want to hack the 3 pins of the sensor know that pins usually are: sensor1+ / common - / sensor2+
Just weld cables to the center pin and any of the other two.
Plug the mouse to a PC, so that it powers the led and sensor.
You may hear something this way.
If not, keep reading for the complete hacking that no longer involves any computer or the original mouse circuitry.
Choosing of the mouse to bend/hack:
Ive been opening the case of many.
The more complex encodeing systems are inside Logitech old mouses.
Epson did some great encoders too.
The one I like most is the one of the pics of this instructables.
If you compare it to any "normal" mouse its awsomely complex.
Thanks, Logitech ingeneers and designers!
You did great things in the 80s and 90s and keep rocking.
Anyway the hacking is the same for any mouse.
- give DC to the original infrared LED.
- glue a new sensor in place of the old.
- reassamble everything in place.
- hotglue internal cables and weld the external cables.
So when you find a mouse you like, this step is done.
Give DC to the Encoder LED
Cut the copper tracks to the led pins on the board.
The positive pin of the LED is the one with the "large" metal plate, inside the milimetric transparent plastic case.
The other way to know is because it wont work if you give it DC backwards :P
Then weld the positive pin of the mouse board LED to thin cable and the other end to the 330 Ohms resistor.
Dont plug the infrared LED directly to the battery or you will burn it out and will never know, because our eyes cant se infrared light.
You wont see light even if the LED is on!
You will need a cellphone camera to see the infrared light and know that the LED is turned on.
Weld a cable to the negative pin of the LED.
You can now plug everything to a battery and see if the LEDs are on, using the phone camera.
If this is OK, go on.
The positive pin of the LED is the one with the "large" metal plate, inside the milimetric transparent plastic case.
The other way to know is because it wont work if you give it DC backwards :P
Then weld the positive pin of the mouse board LED to thin cable and the other end to the 330 Ohms resistor.
Dont plug the infrared LED directly to the battery or you will burn it out and will never know, because our eyes cant se infrared light.
You wont see light even if the LED is on!
You will need a cellphone camera to see the infrared light and know that the LED is turned on.
Weld a cable to the negative pin of the LED.
You can now plug everything to a battery and see if the LEDs are on, using the phone camera.
If this is OK, go on.
Replacing Original Sensors.
Take out the original sensors of the board heating the tin of the pins.
You can just cut the sensor and take the pins one by one.
Prepare the sensors. Weld thin cables to both pins and cut the excess pins.
Here comes the tricky crafty part.
Very carefully and holding it until the hotglue is cool for sure.
Hotglue each sensor so that they are aligned with the LED hot spot. Normal to the disk.
As in the pic.
You can just cut the sensor and take the pins one by one.
Prepare the sensors. Weld thin cables to both pins and cut the excess pins.
Here comes the tricky crafty part.
Very carefully and holding it until the hotglue is cool for sure.
Hotglue each sensor so that they are aligned with the LED hot spot. Normal to the disk.
As in the pic.
Finishing Touches.
Weld the presets to the negative pin of both sensors before sending the signal out to set amplitude of the signals.
Check that everything is as the veery simple circuit drawing.
Glue the presets on the board where you want. Out of the mechanical way of the disk, ball, etc.
Now just weld the + and - of the signal to the external audio cable.
Glue everything in place. The LEDS cables under the board, the board and any cable that is loose.
For the last, weld the audio jack at the end of the audio cable.
If you use the 9v battery, weld a plug for it and glue the battery on the mouse.
If you you use a switching DC converter, weld + and - to the thin cables.
Reassamble and its done!
Plug and Play!
Check that everything is as the veery simple circuit drawing.
Glue the presets on the board where you want. Out of the mechanical way of the disk, ball, etc.
Now just weld the + and - of the signal to the external audio cable.
Glue everything in place. The LEDS cables under the board, the board and any cable that is loose.
For the last, weld the audio jack at the end of the audio cable.
If you use the 9v battery, weld a plug for it and glue the battery on the mouse.
If you you use a switching DC converter, weld + and - to the thin cables.
Reassamble and its done!
Plug and Play!