DIY Optical mouse repair
Today I wanted to post something different, since many days there was no post on DIY topic so decided to give you all a nice tip on repairing your old optical mouse and make it like new once again. My friend Waseem had a Logitech Optical USB mouse which was about 5 years old and its left click button was not responding. This is mostly the problem will all mouse that after some time the button inside the mouse fail to work effectively. What we did here that we took a cheap mouse lying around in junk and took out two buttons (left and right click) from it.
You can easily do it using a soldering iron. I used a traditional 35W soldering iron which I am having since my school days. Here I want to point out that it’s not necessary that all brands will have same type of switch, so make sure you find an identical one. It will also be a good idea to wash the plastic parts of the mouse with soap and water and give it a shiny new and clean the PCB using pure petrol after you have completed the soldering job. Clean only the soldering side of the PCB using a paint brush.
After soldering the new buttons to Logitech mouse, assemble the PCB with wheel mechanism back to the mouse and put the cover back. Connect the mouse and it should work now!
October 6th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
It might have been possible to repair the actual microswitch itself, it can be safely opened and possibly repaired:
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1200/
My microswitch is of the ultra small variety (Microsoft wireless intellimouse explorer):http://tinyurl.com/266gnc
Opening it was not as simple, since I had to cut away the melted tops of the four corner ‘nipples’, inside there was some eroded metal dust between the contact surfaces (the metal clicky disk and the contact in the centre), after a little clean and test I was happy to put the cover back on. To seal it shut I just used a light and a little screwdriver to remelt the ‘nipples’ to the cover.
A shame really I was looking forward to buying a new mouse (a razer copperhead!).
Anyway, just share my thoughts incase anyone wanted to opt for a different path.
October 6th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Ross you are are mistaken that those micro switch can ever be repaired, well not fully. After millions of cycle, the thin copper plate which bends also loses its elasticity and if you do manage to make that work again, it would work only for some days and again cause problem. So its wise to replace those switches with a new one / working (from an old mouse) and these switches doesn’t cost a lot.
October 7th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Hi Mohammed or Mohammad (please correct me), I did forget to mention that I think your post is great!
If one assumes that the switch has indeed completed 1M cycles or its life span (whichever is greater) then yes they would be correct to say that the materials have had it.
But since there will be parts that will fail prematurely (poor QC, operating conditions blah blah…) then don’t you think it is worth it to try and squeeze even a little more life into it?
(I bought mine just over a year ago)
I was happy to hack a temporary fix for mine even if it is for an extra week or even day. It at least gives me time to order in a new mouse (or microswitch :p).
Given the choice I wouldn’t risk my clumsy soldering ’skills’ and I’m not fortunate enough to have spare mice/mouses lying around to salvage parts from, I’m probably not alone.
My microswitch has a different structure, the ‘reflexing-conductive-bridge’ part was a metal disk much like the clicky part on a jar lid, there was some dust (probably corroded metal from the bashed contacts) which was causing bounces and missed clicks, all I had to do was clean it.
Anyway I think what’s really important is to find out how long that mouse in that link has/had lasted and also how long mine lasts.
blabber blabber, in the grand scheme of things, what does it matter?
October 7th, 2007 at 2:19 am
Not the most difficult Turing test, a bot could answer this from source.
October 7th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Before doing the above job of replacing the switch, I did tried to repair the micro switch and it started working! However the switch after repairing always do not perform well and it becomes ‘too sensitive’. You do one click and there will be two
After sometime it will stop responding to clicks at all. You can get these micro switch at any electronics repair shops (like audio - video devices repair shops) easily.