Rapid Fire Mod For A Wireless Mouse

Rapid Fire Wireless Mouse

Sometimes changing your computer mouse can be uncomfortable for a while until you get used to the replacement. It may also take some time to get used to new features or the lack of features the new mouse has. [Jon] bought an awesome wireless mouse that he really likes but it is missing one critical feature: rapid fire for gaming. He previously modded his old wired mouse to have a rapid fire button using a 555 timer. That worked fine as the mouse ran off the USB’s 5 volts, and that’s the voltage the 555 timer needed. The new wireless mouse has a 1.5 volt battery and can not support the 555 timer. What’s a gamer to do?

[Jon] searched around the ‘net but could not find any wireless rapid fire mods. Eventually, he did find a low-voltage variation called the LMC555 and ordered a few for his project. The new wireless mouse was taken apart in order to find out how the mouse buttons work. In this case, the signal pin is pulled low when the mouse button is pushed. Now that it is known how the mouse button works, just a couple of resistors, a capacitor, an NPN transistor and a push button switch are all that are necessary to finish up this mod. When the push button is pressed, the LMC555 timer activates the transistor in order to ground the mouse button signal pin. This happens to the tune of 1236 times a minute! That is a lot of rapid firing.

The few components were soldered up neatly and packed into the limited spare area inside the mouse. A hole drilled in the side of the mouse’s housing holds the new rapid fire push button in an ergonomically pleasing location.

Earlier, we mentioned [Jon] has done this mod before on a wired mouse. He learned about that project here on Hackaday. Check it out if your wired mouse is craving a rapid fire button.

Video after the break…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfyascZjakI

18 thoughts on “Rapid Fire Mod For A Wireless Mouse

      1. I disagree, rapid fire is probably the least important thing in any game… that won’t get him experience on the game and map, improve reaction time, strategy or precision which are all more important than your ability to press the button fast…

        Generally the better you are the more you get called cheater regardless of whether you are using such aid.
        If he need help like that rapid fire button then he’s probably not good enough to get called cheater by other player.

  1. Cool hack and all, but what’s the point?

    Nearly every game worth its salt restricts the input/fire rate anyway, which is highly evident in the test video. This only increases your chances of getting banned, being called out as a cheater and making you unable to use anything but your special-snowflake pro gaming mouse.

    1. Convenience. Not everyone has fast fingers. In fact, the video explains how games have rate controls, but that it is easier on the fingers.

      Anyway, it wouldn’t be too hard to add a noise source to the 555 to modulate the period a bit. Hackers will always be one step ahead of the fuzz. :)

      1. I once encountered an application that required you to press “Ok’ about 2000 times.

        Locked down system so no scripting, and the app writers couldn’t be arsed fixing it.

        Like the hack here, I stuck a 555 in the mouse. I used a toggle switch rather than a button, speed could be adjusted via a trimpot and when active it disabled the movement sensor so bumping the mouse meant it wouldn’t create havoc by clicking in the wrong spot. Even had an LED to show it was active.

        That’s possibly a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ thing, so I don’t think I’ll need to do it again.

        Shame I no longer have access it, otherwise I’d post it so HAD can make quota.

    2. Well, I wouldn’t use this to have click rates faster than a human could possibly click. Rather, as a macro so that I can focus targeting than spamming the click (since spamming the click can cause your targeting to go all over the place), so that semi-auto weapons would feel like you’re using a fully-auto weapon. In my case using a mouse-made-by-some-company-with-a-three-headed-snake-logo while playing Left 4 Dead, a double pistol would feel like I’m using an Uzi (using a macro with left clicks that are 0.040ms between clicks, clicks faster than that are ignored)

  2. I saw really similar upgrade of joystick on atari 800xl in one old magazine(TTL). But ok, it was not used with 1,5 Volt, yeah. Also it is more than 20 years… Why not call it classical?

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