Introduction: Turn a Normal Mouse to a Complete Gaming Mouse

By
About: I am interested in anything plasma/electricity/tesla related don't know why maybe its because i got shocked by a baseboard heater when i was but a pcb board. since then I've always had a keen need/fascination …

I CAN NOT STRESS HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO READ THE ENTIRE INSTRUCTABLE BEFORE ATTEMPTING

ALSO I AM NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE DONE TO YOUR COMPUTER OR MOUSE OR KEYBOARD

now with that out of the way

I am a major gamer, and would love a really good mouse to game with but I am also a cheap someb**** so buying one is completely out of the question, but I still want a good mouse one with a recoil function led's hot key's and all of the the fixing's including a modified grip to fit my hand. Well i haven't lived 17 years as a gamer with outdated pc's and no graphics card without becoming a little resourceful,(yes my pc's always lag like hell, you get used to it) so I started thinking, and thinking, and thinking, I finally thunk up a good idea I could just mod the crap out of a regular logitech mouse to become a gaming mouse, at there very core the differences between a Razer Naga and my little chincy logitech are quite minimal they are both optical mice that have a left and right click and a scrolling wheel. the real major difference's are obvious, they include grip type, hotkey buttons, led's, and that's it well i propose that a normal logitech can be just as good as a US$129.99 razer naga, and it can here's how.

materials)

  1. logitech mouse(the one i'm using has a cord because these have more room inside the mouse casing, if yours is a wireless one you might want to 3d print your own casing)
  2. Logitech keyboard anyone should do as long as it's not mechanical but to make it real easy on you get the logitech K 120 because I have done the hard part and mapped the pins that the # buttons will be soldered to
  3. broken cell phone
  4. hot glue ( glows beautifully under a uv light)
  5. uv led's
  6. sugru
  7. pcb buttons
  8. misc. small wires
  9. solder
  10. momentary toggle switch

Tools)

  1. # 2 philips head screwdriver
  2. soldering iron
  3. paintbrush
  4. hot glue gun
  5. emery paper

a lot of these are pretty explanatory but the broken cell phone is a little out there it will be used to make a "recoil" option on the mouse otherwise let's get started.

Step 1: Broken Cell Phone

well the cell phone as i have already stated will be used to make the mouse vibrate when you "shoot" it's a little annoying if you're using it to search the web so this must have an on/off option we are going to scavenge the vibrating motor from the cell phone. I used a flip phone and it resided in the upper part where the screen was, and looked like a small flat battery with two wires coming out of it, a red and a blue one there is a wonderful instructable on how to add this entire setup, WAIT TO DO THIS STEP TILL YOU READ THE REST OF THE INSTRUCTABLE thank you, to a logitech mouse here although I routed my wires through a hole in the pcb of the mouse and put the motor on top so as to put more vibrations into your hand and act more like real recoil. you may skip this step if you're not a big gamer or just don't like the feeling of a vibrating phone all of the mods are completely self reliant of each other, meaning you may skip any of the mods you don't like.

Step 2: LED Mod,

you can use any led you like but i like the look of hot glue under a uv light it provides a nice creepy light blue green color. the first part of this step includes taking a chunk out of the mouse casing, literally, i did this with a drill and a broken hacksaw blade.

First. mark the design

the design is completely up to you, i chose a nice long flowing symmetrical tribal like pattern shown above i will provide a template of my design for those that like it and aren't very good at art.

second cut out the glowy bits

I used the drill bit to make the original hole to put the hacksaw blade into and finish the design. the drill bit must be the same width of the line you wish to make, if it's any smaller it becomes very difficult to make the line thicker

third replace empty space

i chose to replace the empty space of the glowy bits with hot glue because it gives a nice blue green glow with a uv light and acts like a fiber optic with uv light, if you don't want this color just replace the empty space of the design we just made with an epoxy and clear acrylic you can bend the acrylic with a little heat, if the heat is too much and makes the acrylic cloudy you can go about the whole buffing process to make it clear again.

choose an LED

i chose a uv led so that the entire clear substance would be lit up the color i wanted but you can use any other LED i also chose to make mine slowly pulse this made it look amazing. you should get anywhere from 1 to 6 led's of your color so that there is an even spread of light to your design but because of the led i chose and because i made it pulse I used the fading in my design and it is very cool.

soldering the led's

this is pretty simple you can use the red and black wires of the usb cord to do this this will give 5 Volts to the LED unless you put a resistor onto it which you should, HERE is a good website to calculate the amount of resistance you should put in between the positive and each separate led the red wire is the positive, the LED's should be wired in parallel so that the voltage doesn't drop in between each led and counteract the anti fading preparations we've made.

Mount the LED's

this part should wait till after you add the hot key buttons.

I used an epoxy to mount my led because if it was encased in hot glue the uv rays wouldn't get through and epoxy is strong enough to hold the led on one side of the LED, if you aren't using an UV LED then you can just use hot glue, make sure to put the LED's in a place that won't interfere with the casing of the mouse. I put mine as far back in the hand rest as i could to make the fading effect more pronounced.

Step 3: Modifying the Grip Type

this step should be completely done before LED mod

the grip type of your mouse should fit YOU I can't tell you what is comfortable for your hand there are three type of mouse grip that come standard on gaming mice that although you with this mod you can make you're own grip type i used sugru to modify the grip type i use a claw type grip because of the ability to move the mouse around better it is hard to modify a long mouse casing to a claw type so I modified the grip to something that resembled a palm grip but slightly raised the palm a little bit to make the fingers a bit more arched like I like this should be done after you settle on the final led mod design so that the new grip can be cut away where necessary I used a PoPsicle stick and a piece of wood to get nice sharp edges to the sugru. near the edge's you may also want to 3d print an extension of the mouse casing this would make the next step much easier to fit the extra chip into, then you could cut out the section beneath the grip mod and stick it right on adding a little extra space inside the mouse casing I would do this but it requires a 3d scanner which I have still yet to make, ( i will make another instructable on this at a later time), so until then sugru is the way to go.

Step 4: Adding Hot Key Buttons

this part of the complete overhaul of the mouse is by far the most convoluted and confusing part it includes the Logitech USB keyboard the reason for it being a usb type keyboard is that it needs to be able to to be powered by the same cord as the mouse and the reason for it being logitech is because their cheap keyboards have a very small chip, small enough to put in the mouse, (with a little elbow grease), if you need to cut the but end of the mouse where you put the sugru and make a little more room but this should be done AFTER you take the keyboard chip and modify it here is the solder points for the numbers 1-9 meaning you will have 9 hotkey buttons

count the pins on the chip from left to right

  1. 3 20
  2. 10 23
  3. 6 21
  4. 13 17
  5. 12 23
  6. 14 19
  7. 12 24
  8. 15 18
  9. 2 23

the buttons corresponding to hotkey slots 1-9 need to be soldered on the chip to the two #'s above you should color code the wires to the # they are soldered to this is very important. the chart above is only good for the Logitech model K 120 there are pictures above about how to count the circuit tabs. the buttons can be put in any configuration on either side of the mouse depending on weather you are right or left handed cut usb wire about 3 inches or about 7.5 ish centimeters away from the chip expose the wires and connect via same color to the wires of the usb wires for the mouse i will try like hell to put up pictures that will help clarify this

IF you DO NOT have the Logitech K120 then what you are going to need to do is take it apart get the plastic sheets with the maze of lines on it and track the num pad on both plastic sheets with lines on it back to where they connect to the chip

Step 5: And There You Have It

this new gaming mouse you have just created is a 100% customized to you and should greatly improve your gaming ability and experience I hope you enjoy your "new" mouse and at much less expensive than the 130$ versions hope you enjoyed and sorry if you tried to do the steps in order I am making this instructable completely from a design that i am putting together in my head before i build it myself but by the time this is up I will have made this mouse and will have a working version myself this instructable is made up of a lot of research and a total combination of about 12 other how to's/instructables and youtube video's these mods are pretty simple, alone but together they are very difficult to shove into a mouse room will be the biggest issue, if you are having trouble fitting everything into the small body of the mouse you chose then take and remove all of the excess plastic fortifications inside the mouse. Don't forget to insulate all of the soldered points with the hot glue HF and GL, (for those of you just starting in pc gaming that means have fun (HL) and Good Luck (GL)) enjoy. and don't forget to ask any questions that may arise during the build. even if the last comment was 10 years to go I have a bit of ocd and always remember the last number of comments so I always notice if someone commented so please don't be discouraged. have fun.