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Found in PC Extreme
Issue #27

By: Josh “Modfatha” Barlup

We show you how to quickly swap out your optical mouse’s LED for an alternate color one and never break a sweat.

Parts Needed:
• Correct voltage LED in preferred color

Tools Needed
• Soldering Iron
• Screwdriver(s)
• Desoldering Iron (Optional)
• Voltmeter (Optional)

Intro:
To become a pro at everything you need to first learn the small nuances of all the little things. Swapping out LEDs and wiring up small micro electronic controls help you to better gain an understanding of what you’re dealing with when custom modifying your rig. The better you get at these small things the more fluid you become at the bigger things on a whole. In this guide we take one of our favorite mouse models; the Logitech MX500 (later followed by the MX510 and now the MX518) and give it a teeny makeover.

In the spirit of our blue CCFLs and LEDs we have decided to go all out with our peripherals and add a blue laser LED to our MX500. The mod is by no means difficult, and with the correct tools, can be slapped back together in about 20 minutes with minimal frustration. The most important thing to note when performing any LED swap, not just this one, is to use the correct voltage LED for a replacement and also to wire up the LED correctly. LEDs are polar directional and must be hooked up positive to positive and negative to negative. If you decide to use the wrong voltage LED for this mod you will either have an underpowered LED that will not allow the optical mouse’s camera to work properly or else you will have an LED that will overheat and melt surrounding plastic or even pop and explode. The only proper way to know the LEDs voltage that currently resides your mouse is with a voltmeter, like the one we show you below. Make sure your voltmeter is setup to use DC volts not AC when testing.

During this mod, we opted to leave our existing red LED intact and just wire up a second blue LED to the USBs 5v incoming lead. This allowed for more LED lighting coming from the bottom of the mouse in addition to being able to swap back and forth between blue and red if we later desired a change.

Make sure you to use a decent 40+ watt soldering iron for all your welds. Also take careful not to not lose any of the mouse’s small components as you are pulling it apart. A spring came out from our MX500 and it took us several minutes to find out where it came from.

All in all, this is a pretty straight forward mod, but essential for the detailed perfectionist in all of us. Performing small mods like this helps us to perfect our modding skills for future, larger projects. All that plus they just look cool! For more mods of this sort head to www.modfatha.com

Guide:

Step 1: (photo / Step1_LEDandMouse)
Here you can plainly see our donor MX500 mouse. The Logitech MX500 (and now the MX510 and 518) is a great optical mouse that we highly recommend. When opening up the mouse’s casing be sure the gently remove the Teflon feet with a razor blade if necessary and set them aside for reassembly.

Step 2: (photo / Step2_Crackopen)
Set the screws to the side with any other parts you’ve pulled from the mouse and locate the LED pointing forward and downward on your optical mouse. The LED’s job is to shine light downward at and angle for the mouse’s miniature camera, so it can take accurate images of its coordinates and compare them to give you precise movements.

Step 3: (photo / Step3_ 5volt)
We decided to leave the existing 3volt red LED in tack from the MX500 and add an additional blue LED from the USB connector’s leading 5volt rail. We pulled the stock red LED from its socket and mounted it to the backing plate of the mouse to make room for the 5volt laser blue LED that would takes its place. Its imperative to first know the voltage of the power supply feeding the LED; too low and you risk having and poorly tracking mouse that cant see, too high and the LED will overheat and burn or melt. See here our 5 volt line secured by a digital voltmeter.

Step 4: (photo / Step4_Solder)
Before we installed the laser blue LED we had to solder on some wires to its legs. Be sure to assign the positive lead to the anode (longer of the two legs) of the LED. Make sure your soldered joints are strong by using a piping hot 40+ watt iron for best results.

Step 5: (photo / Step5_Heatshrink)
So our LED both looks cool and does not short itself on surrounding electronics we housed both wires completely in heatshrink tubing. The LED pictured here is awaiting a solder job to the 5 volt USB input rail.

Step 6: (photo / Step6_Blue)
We unhooked the mouse from the computer and then soldered it to the USB 5 volt lead securely. After making sure that there was no short, we then plugged it back in to test our circuit. All that’s left is securing both the red and blue LEDs to their final positions and reassembling the mouse at this point.

Step 7: (photo / Step7_Finish)
Here you can view the final result of the laser blue LED shining bright. The red from the rear section of the mouse is the existing red 3volt LED still intact. Game ON!

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Hartford, Kentucky 42347
Phone: 270-256-1583
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Jerry Waters, Owner
Email:
Info@BeaverDam-ElecSales.com
Sales@BeaverDam-ElecSales.com
Jlwat@BeaverDam-ElecSales.com

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