If you’ve got an old mouse sitting around that has that perfect retro look why not start using it again? We’d bet there’s just enough room in there to turn the input device wireless.
The hack does away with everything but the case. The guts from a brand new wireless laser mouse are used as replacements. For the most part this is a simple process of making room for the new board and laying it in place. It involves cutting off a few plastic case nubs, enlarging the hole on the bottom so that the laser has a clear line of sight to the desktop, and hot gluing the thing in place. The button cover had a bit of plastic glued in place so that it lines up correctly with the replacement mouse’s switch.
The only thing that didn’t work out well is the battery situation. The AA cell that the mouse needs was too big for the retrofit so it was swapped with an AAA. These have a lower capacity which means more frequent replacement.
[via Make]
With a little more dremeling he could have put the mouse button on a pivot so he could have left and right clicking, just saying.
I was lamenting the lone button, but that could be a great solution.
don’t you people know how to press ctrl and click? there’s no such thing as right click.
@DudeGuy: PC mouse would disagree ;P
All the new Apple mice let you pivot-to-right-click (i.e. push on the right side of the mouse button).
He could have also added the scroll wheel by cutting a hole in the side if the guts he has are small enough. But saying someone could make an improvement and doing them your self is a different story. Cool work, personally I doubt its comfortable to us though.
What about implementing good scroll wheel tech without changing the original exterior skin?
I wonder if an invisible scroll wheel could be implemented via capacitance or similar touch technology? Via some sort of sensor array under the plastic.
using a small touchpad ripped out of a netbook(one of these which supports gesture stuff) + rechargable batteries + mc to convert gestures to mouseclicks -> cool otherwise lame
Yeah, turn a 3button&wheel mouse into a crappy 1key mouse and ruining a original macintosh mouse.
Invovative, well done
Ruin, as the mouse was perfectly usable and not obsolete by decades of advancement in computing power and modern standards at all.
yeah i don’t see how hanging on to these old uncomfortable mice is beneficial to anyone. it’s not like he tore apart a working NES to stick his RaspberryPi in and install XBMC.
Except that is what he’s doing — hanging on to an uncomfortable mouse — to keep using it — it’ll probably give him CTS or some other “wrist hurt disease”. Put it in a museum.
retro stuff is cool and all, but this is… just NO. ok? NO.
those mouses are an aberration. There’s nothing good about them.
agreed
+1
Maybe he could implement a rechargeable cell – same himself time & money on replacement batteries… or maybe a lithium cell for better capacity?
I’m thinking supercaps, and a loading dock that can deliver some serious current: more but quicker charging.
inductance coil mousepad built into the table so you can charge other stuff too?
Like this: http://www.afrotechmods.com/fuxx0red/mouse/mouse.htm?
(Hey look, AfroTech is still around!)
One Button Arrgghhh! Cool Hack!
Well I just finished (literally 5 minutes ago) turning a Apple Extended II keyboard into a USB version, including a USB hub internally and two USB ports where the right ADB socket was, and as I was just sitting here contemplating what to do with the Apple mouse that came with it I thought “let’s take a break and look at what’s new on HAD…”.
The mouse has evolved since the primitive one button form the the 3 button scroll wheel. Just because you can do things doesn’t always mean that you should.