Post Subject: Custom Optical Mouse LED Mod
Posted on: May 26, 2008
Introduction Please read our Disclaimer before attempting the following mod. I've seen this mod done by many people and decided I would try it myself. I was surprised by how easy it was and I wanted to write up a guide to detail the process. There is very little experience required, and the overall costs are very low
Directions The first step is to take apart your mouse. This can be one of the easiest steps, or one of the hardest. Manufactures don't usually care how easily a mouse can be reopened after purchase which can make this a pain with some mice. Look under those mice feet. There are usually screws under there. Make sure all of the screws are off before trying to force the top off. Screws can also be hidden under stickers.
Once you take the top of your mouse off, take a look inside. You will probably see something that somewhat resembles the innards of the mouse I modded. Look for where your mouse's IR LED is. This LED is the one that shines out of the bottom of your mouse. you will see where the LED is connected to the circuit board. For this mod, the only wires you need to worry about are those two. All of the others don't matter at all for this mod, so you simply can ignore them.
There will be a clear piece of plastic attached to the IR LED. On most mice, these will slide right off, on other's they are glued on. If you find that the IR LED in your mouse is glued in place, you will have to figure ways to work around this.
Take the clear piece of plastic that holds the IR LED in place and then cut the IR LED off. Keep about a third of the LED legs in tact. This will make the soldering process a bit easier.
Plug your mouse back in and with your new LED, make contact with the old LED legs. Your new LED should light up. After testing the LED, unplug your mouse and remember how your LED was set up when it lit up.
Solder the LED in place. Once your LED is soldered securely to the wires, simply put everything back together. Your done!
Conclusion This mod is very easy to do. It took me about 15 minutes from start to finish. Blue IMO looks much better than the red before. Much easier on my eyes. The skill level to do this mod is pretty low. The only thing you need to know how to do is solder, which is something that anyone can pick. Please try this mod. Its easier than you may think.
well, there is a difference in optical mice and laser mice. the led in Laser mice is almost nonexistant. ive found it in my MS laser mouse 7000, but its tiny, and blinks. its not really visible unless you look for it really hard, unlike the optical mice that is obvious as hell. I just think that some new folks may confuse the 2 types of mice, and try this hack on the wrong type.
FreshWater
Core2 Quad Extreme QX96500-ES @ 3Ghz, 4gb Patriot DDR2-1066Mhz RAM, 4gb Intel Turbo Memory, 3x 500GB WD Blue drives, Samsung DVD-RW, GTX 560ti-1gb Gfx card.
Future Mods: none for Freshwater. Next build will be all new.
