With the arrival of a rechargeable single cell AA battery, with a charger and protection circuit built in, I was able to convert the magic mouse, in a simple way, to version 2. Anybody can make this conversion without even touching the electronic circuit. Although the Li-ion battery has a voltage of 3.6V instead of 3V, it has been shown that the magic mouse electronics can handle this voltage difference very well.

Features:

- Modification within the battery compartment; no change of the internal circuit.

- The conversion time is, depending on tools and skills, about one hour.

- Material cost are $10 for for this upgrade.

- Most important, the modification is safe and does not damage the mouse.

- After the modification I found no difference in performance.

- The only downside is that the battery level is incorrectly indicated on the computerscreen.

- The Li-ion battery replaces, with more than 500 charge-discharge cycles, 500 disposable batteries, which is cost effective and environmentally friendly.

Supplies

- Buy a Li-ion rechargeable 3.7V AA battery with a micro-usb charger and protection circuit build-in. Most of this types of batteries have a capacity between 600 and 800mAh.

- Make a 5cm long, 5mm diameter pin or tube from copper, aluminium or iron. This pin/tube comes in place of the other AA disposable battery. It connects the minus and plus pole.

Step 1: Video of the Upgrade

Step 2: Modification

Open the battery compartment and take out the 2 disposable batteries. Place the Li-ion AA battery in; wich has a build-in charger and an under- and an over protection circuit.

The Li-ion 3.7V battery will replace the 2 batteries of 3V in total. My experience is that 3.7V works well in practice. This kind of li-ion AA batteries have a capacity between 600 and 800mAh. The type number is 14500.

In place of the other disposal battery you have to make or to find a 5cm long pin or tube with a diameter of 5mm. This aluminium or copper rod has to connect the minus and plus pole in a reliable way.

Drill a hole in the battery compartment lid at the place of the micro-usb connector of the battery; see foto. Now you can stick the micro-usb from a 5V adapter through the hole in the Li-ion battery and charge this full automaticaly and save. A red charging LED is build-in. When you start charging, switch off the mouse power.

Step 3: Conclusion

Like many of us, I have an Imac with a small keyboard and magic mouse. From the beginning I was disappointed in the high battery consumption of the Apple mouse, just like that of the keyboard. For a long time I continued to work wired. Not long ago I started this magic mouse upgrade, to come up with a simple and cheap solution.

With this rechargeable Li-ion AA battery the upgrade will cost about 10 dollar and an hour work. A pin and a hole in the battery compartment lid are quickly made. Any 5 Volt adapter with micro-usb is now usable for charging.

I hope that more people will stop using disposable batteries, that is cheaper and good for the environment. Next part is the upgrade to Magic Mouse V3. I can't wait. Success!