Truly Ambidextrous Mouse

by rutcorn

4.8K4014

Intro: Truly Ambidextrous Mouse

My sister is left-handed and she shares a computer (and the mouse) with her husband who's right-handed. There are so-called ambidextrous mice, but they are just symmetrical and don't have the back and forward buttons on the side. Switching between left- and right-handed operation has to be done by changing the mouse settings in the operating system. I haven't found any mouse that can switch on a hardware level.

This gave me the idea to modify a mouse to allow for hardware level switching between left- and right-handed operation.

This is a pretty simple project that takes about an hour to finish. It does however involve soldering of tiny connections, what can be tricky for inexperienced solderers (like me).

Materials needed:

  • 1 mouse
  • 1 dpdt sliding switch (double on-on switch)
  • some electric wire
  • solder
  • hot glue (or regular glue)

Tools needed:

  • soldering iron
  • screwdriver
  • dremel (or saw, knife, file)
  • hot glue gun (optional)
  • scissors and wire cutter (or any other tools for cutting and stripping wire)

STEP 1: Get a Mouse

If you don't already have a mouse that you would like to risk ruining, go get a mouse. I bought mine off AliExpress for $5,20, so it wouldn't give me a headache if the modification would fail. When choosing a mouse it's wise to take a large one, so it's easier to fit the button in it. Also make sure it's symmetrical and doesn't have buttons on the side.

STEP 2: Open Up the Mouse and Make a Plan

Before opening up the mouse check if it's working, you never know. If the mouse is working alright, open it up. Usually there are some screws hidden under plastic pads that are stuck to the bottom of the mouse. Remove the pads ad unscrew the screws.

When the mouse is opened, decide where would be the best place to put the switch. Mine has a lot of space in the back part, so there it will go. Smaller mice usually don't have this luxury of space, so you could put the switch in the hole that is used to store the wireless receiver (if any).

STEP 3: Make a Hole for the Switch

Cut a hole for the switch. I did it with a dremel, but you could also do it with a saw, knife, file,...

STEP 4: Adjust Mouse PCB

Take the PCB out of the mouse and locate the leads for the left and right button. They should be easy to find; each button has two leads. One is ground you can recognize it by the fact that it's shared by the left and right button, we won't touch that lead. The other lead should be the +, each button has one that ends up to a pin of a chip on the PCB. For clarity I have marked those leads with a marker. Cut those leads somewhere where you have good access to them, using a dremel or a file.

STEP 5: Prepare the Switch

The outmost pins of the switch should be cross connected (see illustration) and two wires will later be connected to the buttons. Two wires from the middle pins will be connected to the chip on the PCB. I put a piece of plastic between the two rows of pins to avoid short circuits. Keep the wires that will be soldered to the PCB long enough! I had to resolder one wire, because it was to short.

STEP 6: Solder Wires to PCB

Solder the wires to the PCB. First solder the wires that come from the outer pins of the switch to the pins of the buttons. It doesn't matter which wire goes to which button.

After that solder the wires that come from the middle pins of the switch to the chip. Mind the colors of the wires, matching colors should be on the same (cut through) lead. I was so lucky that the chip was on a separate board, so I could solder the wires to the connectors of that board. I've also seen mice where the leads go directly into the chip (black blob). In that case you should clean a piece of the lead, so the copper is bare and solder the wire onto that.

As always when soldering, check for short-circuits and fix it if you have any. For small short circuits I usually just file the excess solder away. For bigger ones it could be necessary to desolder the joint and resolder it.

STEP 7: Put It Back Together

First put the PCB back into the mouse and connect the power wire (if any). Rough up the plastic on the inside of the mouse body on the spot where the button will be placed (scratching with a screw driver). After that use a royal amount of hot glue to fix the switch in its place. My switch had holes in the side, so I closed them with tape, so the glue wouldn't get in and get it stuck. The wires going to the buttons should be on the right side, so the mouse will function right-handed when the slider is to the right and left-handed when the slider is to the left.

Arrange your wires so they aren't in the way of any constructional parts on the top part of the mouse, put on the top, refasten the screws and put back the sticky plastic pads.

Test your mouse. If you didn't connect any wires the wrong way, you should now have a true ambidextrous mouse.

13 Comments

vilutt 2 years ago

After having intermittent (and at times severe) pain in my right shoulder, I thought of sharing the workload with the left arm. I bought a mass-market simple, straight mouse with identical left-right buttons. Before switching from one arm to another, I change the main button action in windows control (devices-mouse-left/right) as desired. No interference with mouse mechanism, and no soldering. Works perfectly.
Another choice is Kinesis DXT2 Ergonomic Vertical Mouse that can be converted from right hand to left hand use (and vice versa) via a switch in its base. Costs around $90 at Amazon.

JohannesN9 8 years ago

Hi

Are these for sale they look very excellent

rutcorn 8 years ago

I''m not selling them and I haven't found anything similar on the internet, but you can fairly easily make your own using this instructable :)

If you would like to have the exact same mouse (without the left-right switch of course, you can order it were I did: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Onfine-Leo-Brand-N...

Just one note; the scroll wheel on this mouse isn't the best, but it's working.

kimtyson 8 years ago

Nice - Mice with left/right switches were common in the 1980s but for some reason the software won out over time and the physical switches disappeared. Sadly the software is sometimes not able to make the "switch". Also, layers of software - VMs and remote access to machines confuse the issue and you sometimes have to reverse buttons depending on where you are on your screen. Same and even worse with game controllers. The physical switch is the best way to go. I have made a few of these in the past but some mice are difficult to convert with buttons directly on the circuit board. Kudos to bringing it back. And yes, I'm left handed too.

Projecteer 8 years ago

That is a really neat idea I hadn't thought of using a DPDT switch like that. Good work! :-)

not_the_one 8 years ago

This is a great idea! I'm left-handed too, but because I always need to use different computers I use my mouse right-handed. I never thought of this easy solution for sharing a mouse. People should be able to buy these.

rutcorn 8 years ago

Maybe it's commercially unattractive to manufacture this type of mouse, although it's not a very big added expense since the switch costs as little as $0,10 on AliExpress. Maybe nobody in the mouse industry has thought of it.

not_the_one 8 years ago

Your probably right when you say it's not commercially attractive. A good thing this site exists so people can learn how to make it for themselves.

rutcorn 8 years ago

Thanks! I've been thinking about making a mouse that can swap the buttons for some time already, but I didn't know how to do it until I accidentally stumbled upon these dpdt switches.

rutcorn 8 years ago

I got mine from the local electronics shop. Probably every shop that sells electronic components has them. You can also order them from Ebay or AliExpress, just search for dpdt sliding switch.