Slashdot Mirror
"Red is Dead" Optical Mice LED Change
A reader sent us the
HOWTO for changing that red LED on your fancy-pants new optical mouse to blue - or, I suppose any other color. I think I'm fine with what I've got - although, the glass tops on tables does make using optical mice a pain there.
From the article: With the LED's now exposed, gently heat each side of the LED's carefully pulling on them until they are removed from the PCB. Take your time. This is actually the hardest part of the whole mod.
This shouldn't be the hardest part of the mod. Solder-removal braiding and suction solder removers are cheaply available and highly recommended. Once you remove the solder, removing the LEDs is much easier and safer. (No flying hot solder!)
Red LEDs are the cheapest per mcd of brightness. That's it. Highly technical, I know.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Blue has a shorter wavelength than red.
The reason red LEDs are used is because they are the cheapest, as longer wavelength bandgap devices are easier to make.
The exception to this logic is infrared, since LEDs are typically used for visual indication. Infrared LEDs are useless for this purpose so manufacturers don't make nearly as many of them...
I did this on an older style Microsoft Intellimouse, using a light blue LED from Radio Shack. And they're not kidding about losing responsiveness. I couldn't play Counter-Strike anymore or any other games which required me to move the mouse quickly. The mouse would just lose tracking and the cursor would freeze on the screen. I swapped the original red LED back in, and what do you know, it works fine again.
I don't recall the URL, but about a year ago someone did a comparison of about 10 different LED colors they tried in an optical mouse, and found that red is the best. (Duhh)
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
UV LED light output sucks right now. There are severe materials limitations in their construction. However, if you had a bright enough UV LED, it should be possible. Just don't use IR. Si is transparent to IR, and this is most likely what the detector is made out of.
Works fine for me
Excerpt from the article:
The reason for this is because the red light increases the contrast of the surface it is lighting up. The tiny camera used to take pictures in the mouse is able to see changes in the surface better, offering excellent responsiveness.
So, I guess the red color wasn't choosen for nothing... :-P Indeed, the article says that the mod will only work fine if you use high-intensity blue LED's.
... like there's no tomorrow.
I have two Logitech wireless mice: one at work, one at home. I spend comparable amounts of time logged in both places (*sigh*). The one at home is a mechanical mouse, the one at work is an optical mouse.
My optical mouse has been through five sets of AA batteries in the amount of time it took my mechanical mouse to finish off one set of AAAs.
And you can't use rechargables, because these bad boys need the full 1.7 volts from those Alkaline cells -- the 1.3 from NiCd just won't cut it.
That's just nasty.
Red + Blue = ....Purple? :) Hmm... don't know about that.
My sig sucks.
That's what I use, two spare pieces of 8 x 12 inch grey matrix arborite, glued back to back to prevent warping and the edges rounded with a router. A very thin and flat mouse pad with a fine, random pattern which makes a perfect surface for opticals. Will never wear out and cleans with Windex.
Here's a link for the same mod with a Logitech Mouse.
www.skybusiness.com/ntanner
I've done this, and it works fine. Note that there are two Radio shack LED's that are blue, one that outputs 2600 MCD's at 4.5 volts, the other 300 at 6 volts. I used the brighter one, and have no skipping problems at all.
Radio Shack
www.christopherlewis.com
Here's a link to Google's cached version of the page so people can actually see it.
: www.extrememhz.com/mouseled1.shtml+mouseled1.shtml &hl=en&ie=UTF-8
http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:pYdsFS2ayMgJ
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
The site is still up for me but just in case, here's a mirror:
http://home.attbi.com/~bernhard36/mouseled1.html
http://home.attbi.com/~bernhard36/mouseled2.html
http://home.attbi.com/~bernhard36/mouseled3.html
though page one links to two and two to three fine on the mirror
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
Well, I've never bought LEDs from them, but I know they have a pretty good selection of VERY bright LEDs of practically any color.
http://hosfelt.com/en-us/dept_54.html
interesting story here.
Water is not blue. It is clear and transparent.
Read this.
Hello,
Yes, the hosting company shut down the site temporarily. Crippled their server. Sorry guys...I tried to keep it up.
About the LED's used in this mod...
They are from superbrightleds.com (go figure huh?) hehe
You need them that bright in order for them to work properly. Hope this helps!
Please stop being lazy and Google for it yourself. The original poster is quite correct. The human eye is most sensitive to green light. Going from red (632 nm) to green (532 nm) there is an approximately fourfold increase in sensitivity. That's why green laser pointers are starting to appear, despite their cost. Novelty value, certainly, but also because a laser pointer limited to a safe power is four times more visible in green than in red.
My guess is that it is because green does not re-transmit as far in distance as red does. Red has a longer wavelength and so can travel further without absorption. You don't want your enemy to be able to see you as well, right?
The eye can resolve finer variations in contrast and brightness in green than in red, as well--hence the use of green displays in night vision scopes. Incidentally, it doesn't matter at all what colour your night vision scopes' display is from the enemy's point of view. Night vision devices are almost always passive devices that collect existing light. As long as they are properly fitted, they aren't directing any radiation--red, green, visible, invisible--outward, so there's nothing to see.
There was a study done about what would be better to use for star watching: green or red.
For amateur astronomers, red LED flashlights are available. They are used because even a fairly bright red LED is perceived as relatively dim by the eye, so your eyes don't lose their dark adaptation every time you check your star charts.
As an aside to anyone here who works with near-IR lasers...you know that a 200 mW diode laser at 670 nm (very red) looks no brighter than a 5 mW HeNe (red, 632 nm)--indeed, it looks quite a bit dimmer after all those burn spots start occluding your vision. Wavelength matters just as much as power when talking about perceived brightness.
~Idarubicin
Since the site is slashdotted, here's an alternative article on the topic. Note the date: Dec 2000!
I guess this isn't _that_ new of a hack.
Actually, duck tape is a rather popular brand of duct tape.