Poor Mans Graphics "tablet"

by natman3400

24K239

Intro: Poor Mans Graphics "tablet"

 Once upon a time I was hard at work editing some images for some clients. Then out of the blue my graphics tablet quits working. And while I was waiting for the replacement to arrive, I cooked up a temporary replacement Thus this hack-sawed mod of a regular 2d-wheel mouse was born. Basically, its a mouse with a pen/pencil grip. I plan on later making a true pen-form version from an optical mouse.

STEP 1: What You Need

 You will need:
-A usb or ps2 2d-wheel mouse
-duct tape
-a pen/pencil
- something to cut the plastic of the mouse with

STEP 2: Cut Up the Mouse

 Just cut off the top of the mouse. Now remove the board carefully and put it in a safe place, same thing with the ball. You should be left with the empty bottom half. Cut it so it looks like the picture.

STEP 3: Assemble the Mouse Portion of the "tablet"

 Duct tape the circuit board to the piece from the bottom half of the mouse as shown, being careful not to interfere with where the ball goes, or with the gears/axles. Then plop the ball in place. You should now have a small-form mouse.

STEP 4: Adding the Pen/pencil Grip

 To add the grip, just duct tape the pen/pencil across the buttons as shown. Now plug it in and use it.
Tip: apply slight pressure to the mouse portion behind the ball with your finger if it doesn't work right.

In the future, i plan to make a version in a true pen-form out of an optical mouse.

8 Comments

tecneeq 13 years ago

This should work nicely with a wireless, tiny laptop mouse. Cool idea ;).

natman3400 13 years ago

 Only problem is that the tiny wireless ones insides are almost entirely circuitry, and there is no way to reduce the size without soldering. I am actively working on an optical version, but there are problems. I'll update this once i get the optical one down right. If only the opticals didn't use an 8-pin motion detecter thing.

BharatS54 6 years ago

Have you created it?

It's really cool to have such kind of thing.:)

hintzhamlet 13 years ago

Great Idea! Mine worked great! Please let me know when you do the optical mouse pen. Mine was horrible. It would only go up!! I'd love to see your fixes.

SebiD 13 years ago

I postproned this project alittle because i am curently working on a reprap 3d printer and i think i will be able to make some nice plastic hndle for the mouse with it;)

SebiD 13 years ago

Your instructable inspired me to make one of these using a optical wireless laptop mouse and I am curently working on it. Right now I made a wood model of the thing and I am making some molds with it to cast some plastic to make the handle. As for the electronics I thought of making a separate board for the sensor and led + lens and another separate board for the scroll whell and buttons and another one for the rest of the components all linked with wires. For the power I am thinking of using two small 1.5V batteries. If I will find the time and founds to pull this off I will surely post an instructable on how to make something like this.