Introduction: DIY One Finger Controlled Mouse

The concept behind this mice was to create a device that can be controlled with only one finger: scrolling, left\right click and cursor movement. It's wireless and perfect for mobile computing. And you can wear it on any finger of any hand you own.

Warning!

I wasn't intended to write this instructable, so some steps are partly covered and some information may be mising. Moreover i am bad on writing this kind of stuff, so, please, sorry, but on the other side i think that idea is interesting and should be shared, even so badly documented.

Step 1: Tools and Materials.

Tools:

- Soldering iron and Solder

- wire cutters

- a small screwdriver

- foam tape or hot glue.

Materials:

- 1x pen mouse

- 2x small momentary microswitches(will be exctracted from pen mouse)

- 1x light detector with led(will be exctracted from pen mouse)

- 1x AAA battery holder(can be cutted out from pen mouse case)

- holding strap

- 14x thin wires, at least 15cm long each.

- 1x round tube(finger mouse housing will be better)

Step 2: Pen Mouse

I chose this mouse as the guts of my project because it was cheap and had a compact form factor. And i already had multiple in my own. Remove screws and pry the case apart. This reveals its mainboard and buttons with light detector. Now we need carefully to unsolder both buttons(left\right click), scroller and light detector, except DPI button that is on top(but you can remove it too). It's a good idea to make a photo of intact board before unsoldering, so that it would be easier to solder wires later. And, please, don't fry it up while doing that.

Step 3: Prepare New Housing Tube

We are going to place one micro switch for right click and mount light detector into it. Optionally, we can place button for left click and scroller onto it. But, before doing that we need to decide how to properly mount light detector with button. Here you would experiment by yourself as i used finger mouse housing that perfectly fits for this purposes.

Step 4: Prepare the Wires


We are going to eventually have multiple switches on mouse, and the circuit board which can be mounted on the back on the hand. To connect them we will need some wires. I had 0.3mm thick wires with hard housing. They perfectly fits for this purposes as wires with such housing wouldn't brake so easily. For switches we need 4 wires, for scroller 3 wires and for light detector 7 ones, totally 14. Each wire should be at least 15 cm long. Prepare them for soldering – clean the ends and tip with solder.

Step 5: AAA Battery Holder

There are multiple choiches how to create one:
- cut out from pen mouse case,
- cut out from any other case that holds AAA batteries,
- and we can create one from matches box,
- or use magnets.
Another option is to use Li-ion battery.

Step 6: Preparing Buttons

To trigger button placed in finger mouse housing you need to attach long lever. The same you can do for second one or you can place push button into neilon cord, so that it activates on finger bending. Tips on how to do that you can find here.

Step 7: Soldering Back Everything

Now we are ready to solder everything back on place using previously made photo as a tip. Before hiding wires it's a good idea to check if curcuit is working as intented and if everything is ok then we are ready to assemble our mice. Fix wires to the circuit or housing to minimize possibility of breaking wires.

Step 8: Final Thoughs

Presented mouse is easy to operate with one finger on any hand, however it have some drawbacks. If you use finger mouse housing, then it's hard to perfectly fit any finger(especially big one). I was thinking about silicon housing, but never tryed one. If you chose to use cord bending push button, then you'll notice that it's hard to adjust proper tension. Finally, it makes your finger longer and thicker and it's strange to type using that finger. Imagine that accidentally you have smashed your finger and now you are trying to type with it.

To conclude, this project is good to sharpen one's skills, and gives you a new and interesting variation of mouse. After awhile i have found this project and now i using modified version of it, which combines wearable mouse easiness(airMouse) and Measy functionality(gamepad, left\right mouse clicks). Instructable on this is cooming soon.