Green Mouse

Step 3: METHOD 3

METHOD 3
The reason why I thought up these ideas is beacause of a mouse I bought that is powered by induction, the same technique used to charge electric toothbrushes. As you would've guessed it runs off the power supplied by the USB port. I thought that if its possible to run a mouse on a weak magnetic field produced by alternating current, then it is surely possible to have an array of thin hardrive magnets to produce the field (the mouse would only work when moving but thats okay). For this to work the magnets would have to alternate in polarity. Yeah I know that it is probably a not a good idea to have a super powerful array of magnets sitting on your desk, especially not close to a CRT monitor. Instead of magnets you could still use a coil to produce the magnetic field, but powered by a solar panel. An even better idea would be to integrate the solar panel into the induction pad.

I will try the array of magnets and post it later on

Comments

[Aegian2424]

why not have cord coming out of your mouse but instead od it being connected to you computer it be connected to a solar panel?

[labelreader]

I switched to using a battery-free, uncorded Wacom mouse a while back. The tablet has a cord, of course, but the mouse does not. Most Wacom models come with both a pen and a mouse. Each device behaves differently in terms of the motion of the pointer; the pen positions the pointer in absolute proportion to its position on the pad (if the pen is in the upper left corner of the pad, the pointer is in the upper left corner of the screen), but the mouse moves the pointer relatively, just like a traditional mouse. The smallest model is not any more expensive than a nice Logitech mouse, and once you remove the snap-on clear part designed for artists, it's about the size of a traditional mouse pad.

[gaiatechnician]

I use one too, as is.  It was a little anoying  at first because it does not act exactly like an ordinary mouse but after a while you forget.  I never took the clear part off. It works  automatically in linux and  I installed drivers for it in xp. (Mine must be 4 years old).

[scott!]

Yeah, I use the WACOM Banboo Fun tablet myself, but it's a tad small to use the mouse, so I don't end up using it all the time.

[puffin_juice]

I hadn't heard of this brand before you mentioned it. thanks

[mrnatural]

hey, what about using a mouse-wheel-generator instead of a mouse-ball-generator? i think wheels have much more movement than the mouse itself.

[JazzmanSA80]

I'm not a fan of this type of mouse power because it's not really a "green" mouse like the other methods. If you are going to use a mouse like this, you might as well buy a wireless mouse with internal batteries and a charging dock. You can use that anywhere, not just on the supplied surface, and a 2 hour charge can last you about a week with many of the mice out there. I encourage you to focus on the motion-powered method, because it is the only feasible method that is totally power-independent.

[Kiteman]

the mouse would only work when moving but thats okay

I do a lot of "extra" mouse-movements, so there would be energy to spare to charge a gold-cap or similar.

[puffin_juice]

Yeah thats a great idea, plus there isn't much power loss when using a capacitor compared to batteries

[Erik Lindemann]

Yeah, I'm not sure how much energy you would produce with your magnet-ball idea. You may just render a mouse completely useless.

[puffin_juice]

I realise that it wouldn't be an easy task. I'm sure its possible with a mouse that has low power consumption.