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  1. #1
    Senior Member BuildItYourself's Avatar
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    BuildItYourself's First True Mod...

    Yeah I put some cold cathodes in my case, BIG DEAL. You can probably tell I am kind of excited. I have an old HP mouse (P8131-O) lying around from when I bought my MS Wireless.

    Anyways, I was looking at a web page and saw pics of how someone modded a logitech mouse and changed the LED color. It had the instructions and plenty of pictures. Check it out here. I dug up my old HP mouse and opened 'er up. It was a breeze, just one screw.

    The two mice are pretty similar. (Except the HP is really a "Genius" mouse, one of the chips inside had their logo). I already have a Soldering Iron. This weekend I will drop by the rat shack and pick up some solder and 2 blue LEDs.

    Does anyone have any suggestions for my first time soldering and a good way to practice before I rip the mouse apart? It works fine after opening her, just opened her up. It drives me nuts to use that mouse because I got too used to my new mouse.

    Does anyone know of a good soldering guide and any sites on mouse mods? Sounds dumb, but I really want to do this. Thanks

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member crossedup's Avatar
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    You should try this one.

    http://metku.net/index.html?sect=vie...cryo/index_eng

    I always thought that was neat. Useless, yes, but neat.

  3. #3
    Senior Member BuildItYourself's Avatar
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    looks cool, but the HP mouse is too low-profiles for something like that. It never got any cheese, so it's a slim mouse.

    I just finished tearing the mouse apart and the two solder points for the LED are a little too close for my liking. I have never soldered before. is it easy? Do I need to re-apply solder when I put the new LED in or do I just heat up the old one?

  4. #4
    Senior Member mcool61's Avatar
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    Keep everything clean, tin the connections on the led before you try to put it in, in other words heat the wires on the led & put solder on before trying to put it in the mouse. Don't burn yourself. use needle nose pliars & as with all electronics, control your heat or you will damage the component. Be sure to use rosin core solder which is for electrical connections, as opposed to acid core which is better for repairing radiators on cars. Good luck. If you are successful & don't kill the poor mouse, give it some cheese.

  5. #5
    Senior Member BuildItYourself's Avatar
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    thanks for the feedback guys. I will get the LEDs tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes, with before/after pics. It's a pain testing the mouse again after dissasembling since it's PS/2 and I have to shut down to plug it in.

    The LED's at the Rat Shack are more expensive than I thought. Will the mouse work fine with one or are two absolutely necessary? I wish there was another store I could get them from but the Shack is the only place.

  6. #6
    Senior Member BuildItYourself's Avatar
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    Success

    Soldering is so incredibly easy! I got some rosin-core solder and an LED from RadioShack. I was going to get two LED's, as the page says you should, but they were too expensive for something that probably wouldn't even work. I got one and left. I heated the connections for the old LED and it popped right out. I put the new one in, bent the wires, and applied some solder. Went back inside and plugged it in. The result:
    Attached Images
    Last edited by BuildItYourself; 11-11-2004 at 05:27 PM.

  7. #7
    Senior Member BuildItYourself's Avatar
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    Sorry for the blurry pics, the flash on my camera ruins the effect of the LEDs, and pictures in the dark without flash are not easy to take.

    Here's the mouse opened up and on, after putting the LED in:
    Attached Images

  8. #8
    Banned dell8200's Avatar
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    looks cool, you must have alot of time on you hands you change you red to blue led, to me it doe snot not make a a different aslong as the mouse is comforable and works great i don't care just my thought

  9. #9
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    Originally posted by dell8200
    looks cool, you must have alot of time on you hands you change you red to blue led, to me it doe snot not make a a different aslong as the mouse is comforable and works great i don't care just my thought
    It doesn't take that much time

  10. #10
    Senior Member BuildItYourself's Avatar
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    it took 5 minutes, and yes, I have WAY too much free time on my hands (for the first time in 8 months). I just thought it looked neat, but more than that, I wanted to learn how to solder.

  11. #11
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    Originally posted by dell8200
    looks cool, you must have alot of time on you hands you change you red to blue led, to me it doe snot not make a a different aslong as the mouse is comforable and works great i don't care just my thought
    No party poopers, this is a mod just for the sake of it!

  12. #12
    Senior Member BuildItYourself's Avatar
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    Yup, that's pretty much all it was for. It has been running for a few weeks now and everything is fine. At first, flipping the mouse upside down would make the LED go out but re-soldering fixed that. No problems ever since.

    Also, can two mice be hooked up to one PC without any IRQ conflicts?

  13. #13
    Ultimate Member crossedup's Avatar
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    Also, can two mice be hooked up to one PC without any IRQ conflicts?
    Can hook up more than that if you can use them all.

    My laptop always has at least two hooked up to it, no problems.

  14. #14
    Member sell2ucheap's Avatar
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    those mice are cracking me up

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