Ring With Mouse Buttons & Wheel

by rafgaj78

29K29649

Intro: Ring With Mouse Buttons & Wheel

The device is HID mouse controller with 4 buttons. There are: left mouse click, right mouse click, wheel up and wheel down as buttons. Connected to PC by Bluetooth. The controller is working as a ring on the hand. Is designed as left and right execution. 

The device is based on the Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 microcontroller, it has its own battery power supply. The battery is of course charged when the USB cable is connected. Charging is indicated by a green LED. Magnetic cable can be used.

In my case, the device was created to improve immersion in VR during virtual flights in DCS World. Used together with Leap Motion (a VR hand tracker) and The Fingers software, it eliminates the need for a mouse in the cockpit and allows hands/fingers to operate the buttons.

You need basic soldering skills, microcontroller programming (limited to copying files), and 3D printing to make it.

STEP 1: Ring and Buttons Assembly

Assemble the buttons first. It is better to straighten the legs of tactile switches before folding them. Solder in the marked places. Use the wires to prepare the connections to the microcontroller. It is enough to lead the wires outside the Ring without insulation, for ~4mm. The exception is the GND cable for Right Ring, which must be ~25mm.

STEP 2: Microcontroller, Battery and Slider Switch Soldering

Solder the components according to the diagram before assembly with Ring.

STEP 3: Ring and Microcontroller Assemby

Solder microcontroller with Ring in marked places. Slider switch can be assembled by pushing in to the holes 3 legs. The holes in the Ring are tight enough for the Slider to hold steady.

STEP 4: Microcontroller Programming

Programming according to the GitHub instruction.

It's a matter to copy files to the microcontroller drive. There is no need to use any specific software or write code.

STEP 5: Connect to PC

Device is visible for Bluetooth connection.

24 Comments

ewgeniy 2 months ago

Do you know what could be the reason for the cursor shaking? and how to reduce it? I use HTC with oculus quest 2


ewgeniy 3 months ago

Hi!
Please tell me how to monitor the battery charge level ?

rafgaj78 3 months ago

Battery charge level monitor note exist on my implementation. Battery with 3 wires is need and software implementation. But you can monitor charging proces by blinking green LED. When is not blinking means full charged.

toddroles 8 months ago

This is great!. I just bought the components, except I bought the seeed xiao nrf52840 "sense" board (same size, but also has a built in gyro and accelerometer). I want to use it as a regular computer mouse. I have built a few plug in macropads on arduino, and even an esp32 bluetooth macropad. Two questions/comments: 1) I have never done circuitpython (only arduino), has anyone converted this to arduino code? I would love to see/share that code and even collaberate on it (I am not great with arduino, but can do some projects). 2) Has anyone tried this instructable with the xiao nrf52840 "sense" and used the gyro to move the mouse pointer? there are similiar projects out there using gyros and mpu6050 gyro boards, but not with the built in xiao nfr52840 "sense" board. I am trying to do it with arduino but having trouble with the xiao and libraries, etc. Anyone? And thanks @rafgaj78, super project!

themasterofstanley 11 months ago

For those wondering, this works great but take a CAREFUL look at the wiring diagram and solder points that were provided. The buttons can NOT all be placed in the same position in the ring prior to soldering. The two middle/outer buttons for Left/Right need to be turn 90 degrees for the Positive/negative terminals to correlate correctly. If you put the tactile switches in the wrong way, your buttons may or may not work as they won't be grounded correctly.
Side note: It's also possible to use the Ground terminal used for the button grounds for the battery. I damaged the solder pad on the negative terminal on the bottom of the Seed board, so had to find an alternate ground. I was REALLY learning how to solder PCB boards again as it had been well over 20 years since I last had lol

andrewbrown1120 1 year ago

It seems that it will take a long time to get the specific battery from ali-express.
Would there happen to be a replacement that I can order from amazon?

themasterofstanley 1 year ago

Check out Digikey.com . They have everything you need. You aren't going to find that EXACT battery, but you'll find something in 40-100mah range that has similar measurements. They also have the Seeed boards for 11$

themasterofstanley 1 year ago

For those in the US, Digikey.com has everything you need at much cheaper pricing than Amazon. The Seeed board is 25$ on Amazon and 11$ on Digikey.

rvcoops 1 year ago

Such a great little project rafgaj78! Compact, neat and useful. Parts on order, rings already printed - will be making this. Leap motion will be new for me though! 😬. Thanks for posting and doing all the hard work.

SD1 1 year ago

Sorry, I am new to this. On the left ring, what do I solder the ground wire to? Thanks!

rafgaj78 1 year ago

One side of all the buttons is connected to the GND

pascalb 1 year ago

Bravo !
Really good Idea and convenient.

Icelandian 1 year ago

Been looking for this exact thing for years. But is it limited to basic mouse functionality? Can the buttons be programmed to keystrokes or combinations? For example, I need shift+middle click and ctrl+middle click for CAD software.
Thanks

rafgaj78 1 year ago

The buttons can be programmed to keystrokes or combinations. I'm just not sure how the combination of keystrokes and mouse buttons will work.
If you are interested in making the Ring, let me know and I will try to convert the software for you.

danfraser69 1 year ago

Looks very familiar to the pointCTRL

rafgaj78 1 year ago

Yes, the working principle for DCS in VR is very similar. The important difference to reproduce PointCTRL is that you need Leap Motion and the Fingers program to work.

hurjohn 1 year ago

I have all the parts for the ring you designed. how do you snake the battery wires around? there are no holes in the ring for it.
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