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.
However, upon pluggin my mouse into the computer, the logitech logo and mouse in general glowed blue!!! I was happy. Although the LED on the bottom was red, they had an *extra* LED that was blue for the logo and the *glowing* plastic. That made my day and it involved NO soldering.
although, the glass tops on tables does make using optical mice a pain there.
Rub some sandpaper over the part of the glass where the mouse will be. Problem solved!
I do have to say that a blue LED mouse looks about 10X cooler than a red one. But it looks like this type of project will only interest serious modders who have some cash to spend.
Cool! I myself wanted to write a long FAQ about how to do an analogous thing for traditional mice. i.e. how to use a whiteboard marker to change the ball to match your decor.....but got bogged down by technical details...perhaps someone can help me...
The law of excluded middle : Either I'm foo or I'm foobar
I think I'm fine with what I've got - although, the glass tops on tables does make using optical mice a pain there.
I thought I was fine with what I had too, until I got a glass tabletop... and started working without pants. Now I just cry every time I look down.
Best Windows Freeware
The problem is that this can seriously degrade performance.
What I want to know is: Would it be possible to come up with a mod design in which it switches between red and blue? (Red when it's moving, Blue when it's idle)
I noticed the light turns off when the mouse is Idle with my intellimouse, maybe this could be switched around a bit.
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!)
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...
How many Slashdot'ers does it take to change an LED?
Answer: The ISP hosting the site is about to find out....
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
The faint glow of a red light while looking at pr0n just seems natural.
Trolling is a art,
Yeah, that would be smart. All over the world geeks would be getting major sunburns on their right palms.
Trolling is a art,
Yes, red LED's are cheaper, but there is another reason, too.. They also want to use the cheapest CCD available. That's going to be a monochrome CCD that's sensitive to larger wavelengths. A red LED is going to work better on that.
With that in mind, an Infrared LED would probably work great with optical mice and their cheap CCD's.. maybe even better than red. You might have to remove an IR filter from in front of the CCD, and be wary of using them in a room with flourescent lighting, but it'd be good to try. How cool is an optical mouse with apparently NO light?!?!
If you want the "cool" blue look for whatever twisted ass reason, just use a blue LED and an IR LED in paralell. You might have to play with different led's/led voltages to get the right balance between a responsive mouse and the cool blue glow your riceboy heart desires, but again, it should work.
~GoRK
Yeah, that would be smart. All over the world geeks would be getting major sunburns on their right palms. :P
Thereby ruining their sex lives.
That is a sooo very typical White Trash solution. Good god, howtacky can you be? Hope you were just kiddin, otherwise I pity you and the trailer park from where you hail.
Of course I was kidding, but you just gave me an idea. I can put the red LED's in the eyes of the pink flamingos out in my front yard...
Every time I see one of these articles, this one in particular, it reminds me of the blokes who spend thousands of pounds to put UV tubes under their cars
However, the main difference I can see between the two is that when the car modders have finished, they drive around town and OCCASIONALLY some girl stops, thinks its cool, and gets in with them, while mouse modders can only use their accomplishment to click on "sign me up" for yet another porn site
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
Serously, why do you need to ask why? Present a geek with a gadget, and he will find some pointless way to modify it, just for the sake of modifying it.
Me? I think it'd be cool as hell to have a blue LED light under my mouse.
A blue LED doesn't help me get any work done. Sure, it may look cool and impress chicks, but even cooler would be an ALL KNOWING, ALL SEEING MOUSE, that wouldn't rely on me to push it around the mouse pad to get work done. It would do all the work for me because it would be that smart. And I would fall asleep during working hours.
It would be pretty damn good at playing quake as well, much better than me.
If I could find a mouse like that, well heck, then it could have a blue LED. Until then though, only red for it, until it gets smarter and starts doing some damn work for a change instead of just sitting there until I push it.
Easy guys, I put my pants on one leg at a time. The difference is after I put on my pants I make gold records!
Sith (evil programmers) use the red ones. Blue, green and now purple are used by the good guys :)
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
In other words, this article is: Slashdot - How to Change a Lightbulb!
Photos of bits of the past hiding in the present: afiler.com
Matters not, whether you can see it.
Red, it is.
Feel it, you can.
Blue, it must become.
The force is not strong with you... Much to learn you have.
I do have to say that a blue LED mouse looks about 10X cooler than a red one.
Here's Why
After reading this article yesterday, I pondered changing the LED in my mouse. Has slashdot implmented some sort of psychic cookies or something?
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
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
Hah. That's nothing. I overclocked my mouse sensor to 10x. Of course, my palm is occasionally injured by the blades of the cooling fan, but I found the extra precision is useful for negotiating a bloody mousepad...