It’s no secret that wireless mice can eat through batteries pretty quickly. Rather than keep a fresh supply of AAs on hand at all times, [Phil] decided he would convert his mouse to use a rechargeable lithium polymer battery instead.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a cell phone battery crammed into a mouse to increase capacity, but we think this one has been done quite nicely. [Phil] managed to fit a 2.7 – 4.2v Li-Poly battery in the mouse’s palm rest, where there was a little extra empty space. The battery can be charged from any USB port via a custom-built charging module, which he constructed using a MAX1555 charge controller. Another custom-built circuit resides in the space previously occupied by the AA batteries, which uses an MC340063 DC to DC converter to drop the battery’s voltage down to the 1.25v required by the mouse.
The only part of the build that [Phil] is not pleased with is the power switch on the bottom, but since you rarely see that, we could care less. We think it is quite well done, and with a second version already in the works, we anticipate that it will get even better.
Be sure to check out [Phil’s] video tour of the hack, which you can see below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpf-XYT0LFE&w=470]
“could care less” is common, and acceptable (for US English), usage.
There are plenty of other nonsense idioms in everyday use. It’s pointless to complain about them.
Nice Hack BTW!
@octel, I couldn’t care less.
take a wireless mouse and put a usb cable on it to charge it?
“I thought this mouse was wireless?”
“Oh, it only communicates wireless. The power comes through the USB.”
nice.
It is a nicely done piece of work, but I always thought the point of wireless is to not have to plug it in. What if we made an optical mouse that had a ball in it so when you roll the ball, you charge the circuitry, so moving it provided the power…
just a thought.
Been wanting to do this for a long time, being able to charge a wireless mouse while not in use.
_matt: there are commercial mice available that do this, primarily from Logitech. This DIY hack looks more fun than buying one though, even if the battery life won’t be all that great with 360mAh
Or how about this, take a wireless charging pad and then convert the mouse to continuously charge from the pad. Better yet build the pad into the ultimate computer desk. Sweet.
@dude: What are you on about? Did you not understand that there is a battery in there? You know, those little magic boxes that makes gadgets go without cords? Now, them little magic boxes occasionally run out of magic and then you need to put more magic into them to make them work again. One way to do that is via a USB cable.
@dude: Okay, let’s see you make a mouse that charges without wires ;]
@Ubel
actually it should be simple with a bit of shielding and a mousepad that will transmit wireless power to the mouse. but you’re still stuck with a cord. i suppose using the heat generated from your hand could run it if it were ultra low voltage.
@Sariel- I actually thought about using the mousepad as I was writing that, probably based off of one of those wireless charging mats that were so popular around Christmas time.
Or, you could install the charger from one of those shake flashlights, so that the faster you use it, the more it charges!
I think dude is onto something there… modify an old ball mouse to generate electricity from the rolling.
Lithium primaries (non-rechargeable) have a much higher energy density than rechargeable lithium cells.
Also, I use a Logitech wireless USB mouse at my work that accepts 2 rechargeable AA batteries and has a docking station.
he is probably better off using a different converter than the popular 34063… This one just wastes a lot of power comparing to the mouse consumption.
correction: there is nothing (yet) as MC340063, it is the MC34063. A better option would be to use a 1.2v GP recyco plus and charge it directly from USB using a large current limiting resistor. would last for ages. A good concept though.
Surely it’d be easier to just get a better wireless mouse? I’ve had this Logitec wireless laser mouse for about a year and I’ve had to change the batteries once.
Still, cool hack if you don’t want to fork out thirty or so dollars for a new mouse I guess.
@Andy: that actually very much exists already (a friend of mine is using one), and it is in my opinion the only kind of wireless mouse worthy of use. As long as you keep it on it’s pad, you never need to worry.
@Nels
Sure it would be easier, but easy is not a factor here is it.
Nice use of the MC34063 and MAX1555…
I have looked into using the ‘34063 before to run laser modulators, seems feasible by shorting the bottom resistor through a JFET in order to reduce Vdiode below the lasing threshold.
Only change I would make is a fuse on the input side just in case “Something goes wrong” and the USB feeds more power than it should or the pinout is frelled up etc.
there are such things as AA or AAA size lithium Ion batteries, that would only need to make the usual series connection into a parallel one. That needs a lot less hacking that this one.
As awesome as this project is it would be pretty cool if they would have added the two circuit diagrams to take some of the legwork out. But nice idea.
Personally I would just have used a 14500 battery with a single circuit board.
nice hack, surely make this one to my A4tech G9, a lot of comments here that doesn’t understand your concept, maybe they are filthy rich or they don’t use A4tech mouse.
maybe batteries in your country is cheap, but not where i live.
Not a good hack . Coz a cell phone battery can either explode or leak or even blot up if over charged and I assume this hack doesn’t have anyway to control the power flow needed to charge the battery , just get a pair of 1000 mah rechargable aaa or aa sony or camillion cells , it lasts forever and can take up to 3 years of recharging if handled correctly. But by the way not a bad effort !