Mr Wiggly, the Mouse Jiggler

Intro: Mr Wiggly, the Mouse Jiggler

This will show you how to make a Mr Wiggly mouse jiggler. By default, most windows installations are set to put your computer to sleep after 10 or 15 minutes of inactivity. This can usually be disabled easily in the control panel, but there are some times when this simply isn't an option. For instance, if your company has policies in place to enable this feature. For me, i am a PC tech, i had a computer come into the shop that had apparently started upgrading from windows 8.1 to windows 10, and then went to sleep in the middle. When i powered it on, it continued the installation, but kept going to sleep if i didn't wiggle the mouse every few minutes. This device can be used to prevent a computer from going to sleep.

STEP 1: Items Needed:

USB optical mouse

small pc fan

wire cutters/strippers

screw driver

soldering iron

drill or something else to make a hole (I used the awl on my swiss army knife)

STEP 2: Attach Fan

Line up your fan so that the center label on the fan is positioned directly under the optical sensor of the mouse. Using a few screws, attach it to the mouse. I used small washers to add just a little space so that there was no friction. Use short screws so that you don't screw them into the circuit board of the mouse.

Drill a small hole in the bottom of the mouse for the wires to go through. I used the awl on my swiss army knife to do this.

STEP 3: Connect Power and Ground Wires

Cut off the plug from the fan and strip the red and black wires, tin the tips with solder

solder the red and black wires from the fan to the red and black wires on the usb plug that connects to the mouse circuit board.

STEP 4: Reassemble

Put your mouse back together. Once completed, plug it into your PC. the fan should start spinning and your mouse cursor should start wiggling all over the place. Now if you need to walk away from your pc, you can plug this in and it will prevent it from sleeping.

Comments

[lime3D]

For all those that say you can just use a software solution.... not everyone has privileges to install software on company computers. A physical solution is sometimes the only way.

I'm just waiting for someone to create an optical mouse with a built in jiggler option.

[ScottM6]

A great idea, however I did notice one big drawback to your method. In your pics you're using a 12v fan and soldering it to a 5v source. This Will make the fan spin (at a much slower rate) but this will but a very high strain on the USB port. You could very well blow the USB fuse and those are a Pain to replace. A software solution Would be the best way to go. For the purpose of OS installations it might be safer to check the OS power settings for the Sleep and Hibernate settings. This Would be safer in the pc as well.

[severdhed]

I agree that a software solution is the way to go. This was not made for frequent use to bypass power management settings. In any normal situation, i would simply change the power settings to not go to sleep. This was made because someone brought a computer into our shop that was in the middle of a windows installation when i woke it up from sleep mode. I had no way of accessing the power management settings, so this was born. I keep it around just in case i run into a situation like that in the future.

[JohnL78]

i'm guessing they were originally upgrading from within windows?in any case, there must have been something else weird going on, because this isn't supposed to happen during an install. Also the other posters are correct. It's just going to spin slower, although I don't know if I would try to power a fan at any speed from a usb port rated at 500ma. Mine won't even let my daisy chain my keyboard and mouse.

[JohnC430]

connecting a 12 V fan to the 5 volts will take less current not more.

[DanielL431]

Please do NOT listen to this comment, dc fans do not work like this. You basically have to short out a usb port to kill the fuse with this.

[Ortzinator]

This is completely untrue.

[JohnL78]

I just sit my mouse upside down. It keeps searching for surface and that prevents screen lock.

[extrem]

Another solution is to start windows media player, and the PC don't sleep any more

[doctaven]

during M$ W1nd0w$ installation that would be difficult... (^^,)
........but, Pressing shift-F10 pops up a Dos Prompt which is useful.

[JohnL78]

is it really? that stops screen timeouts?

[kirklewis]

This is what I do, even have a shortcut on the desktop. I just use one of the animated media files windows install to run. If you plug in a USB device will just need to restart it. Used Mouse Jiggler beore, but new laptop and new policies now.

[dialup_prisoner]

A student of mine used a Digispark [ http://digistump.com/products/1 ]

with the following code:

"#include "DigiMouse.h"

void setup() {

DigiMouse.begin();

}

void loop() {

DigiMouse.moveX(1);

DigiMouse.delay(500);

DigiMouse.moveX(-1);

DigiMouse.delay(500);

}

Windows recognizes it as a mouse, and the code above is so subtle the mouse pointer doesn't move (it's less than one pixel!) but the screen lock doesn't kick in. Generic Digisparks can be found for about 5 USD.

[bobmiddleton001]

great idea. I work for a company that has machines locked down, so no software apps. Being lazy I tried the watch suggestion first, didn't work. So I used an old travel clock with a large second hand. Removed the plastic front and stuck a circle of paper to it, about 1" dia, with lots of random lines squiggled all over. That worked. Thanks for the team effort :-)

[rochaibm]

You sir, are awesome

[LukášB59]

This is cool punk solution I like it...

I am using software script for AutoIt to move my mouse every 9 minutes.

* I am using it only when I work on home-office so nobody has access to my computer and I don't need to enter my super magic policy password everytime....

While True

Local $pos = MouseGetPos()

MouseMove($pos[0]-1, $pos[1]-1, 0)

MouseMove($pos[0], $pos[1], 0)

Sleep(540000)

WEnd

[jimdkc]

Careful! Where I work, anybody caught using such a device would be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination, for circumventing security policy!

[severdhed]

sounds like it might be time for a new job then.

[jimdkc]

Just saying... Anybody who works for a company with more than 50 employees is likely to be subject to a corporate security policy. In a world where chief executives get personally sued over security breaches, this sort of thing is taken very seriously. You had a legitimate use for this device... circumventing security so you can leave your computer unattended without securing it is not a legitimate use and could get the person who does that in deep trouble!

[go.zira.1]

I much prefer the software version of this. You can run a script to press the F13 key every 5 minutes like the script does below. It will even run in the background so you don't have to look at it. Just open a command prompt (cmd.exe) and paste the below command in.

powershell -windowstyle hidden -command "while($true){(New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell).SendKeys('{F13}');sleep 300}"