Modding Is it ok changing LED'S in logitech optical mouse

thinking of doing this to my MX500, one 5mm white LED for the tracking, and some 3mm blues for those clear buttons up top.

 

The graph is from Agilent Technologies. They make pretty much all the sensor chips that go into optical mice (and just about every other IC in there). I actually went looking around for specs and came back and resetter had just beat me to it.
Now I'm tempted to throw an IR LED and replace one of my blue LEDs (so I'll still have one blue LED in there to make it perty).

 

IF my understanding is correct then no, Leds are just a diode. with a maximum rated forward current, the mouse supplies a steady and constant current no matter type of led is hooked up. The only real difference woudl be the resistanc of the different leds and I think that would affect led mcd more than battery life.

 

Hiya,

thanks 2 all u wonderfull ppl, i decided to go ahead and give it a go.

and...............................SUCCESS

BUT... there is 1 side effect, the mouse will no longer work on my black mouse mat. O well. what i am going to do is buy a brigher Bloo LED and see if that cures it, i am sure it will. I will post pics when i can

THANKS TO EVERYONE AGAIN

 

Then it seems to me that a very mild Infra-Red L.E.D. would be the best choice.

 

Um not to be rude but I already posted the answer to your question in post #10 of this thread. Look below for what I posted.

 

And now for the science bit

Sorry, that also isn't true. the reason a surface appears red, say, is because the blue and green components of the inbound light are absorbed whilst the red component is reflected. Black corresponds to all three components absorbed and white or silver to none absorbed (all reflected).

Of course this is a simplification - actually there's an infinite number of slightly different colours, each absorbed a different amount i.e. it's a continuous reflection function across the spectrum. The same style as in Resetter's graph, only with a different y-axis.

So anyway there's two things you need to think about when working out whether your mouse mod will work on your desk (given that optical mice rely on reflection, as we all know).

1. What is the top surface like? I.e., how rough and transparent is the clear top coat usually present?

If it's sufficiently opaque the light will bounce straight off into the mouse sensor and the colour underneath is irrelevant. Therefore you can forget Q2 and your concern is the following. Is the surface rough enough for there to be a noticable change in signal as the mouse moves, so that the mouse knows it's moving? You can't use an optical mouse on a mirror because the glass, not to mention the silvered surface beneath, is too uniform.

In fact I've taken a look at my m$ intellimouse and realised that the led points at 30 degrees to the horizontal and the sensor looks straight down, rather than also at 30 degrees to the horizontal. So if you your mousing surface is a perfect reflector you have a big problem (your sensor's looking at the wrong angle).

If it's transparent then:

2. What is the coloured layer like?

Firstly: does the coloured surface reflect enough light of the wavelengths emitted by the mouse led to get a useable signal? That is, do the surface and mouse colours overlap enough? Also you have to consider that LED and sensor also won't match entirely but we hope the mouse manufacturers have tried their best to do so.

Secondly: as above - is the coloured surface rough enough to give a non-uniform signal?

Answers:
To find the answers to these questions I guess you'd need to light your new LED and compare the reflections (n.b. shining and looking at the angles used in your mouse). if you see lots of light you have a fighting chance. Then find a datasheet (as shown in earlier posts) for the kind of LED you have, and hopefully for the sensor also. Certainly if you bought the led from somewhere like RS they have them readily available, thought you may need to register to view them. you can then compare the wavelength distributions and get a vague idea how much success you're likely to have.

Of course, the brighter the LED the more success you'll have anyway, as suggested in previous posts, but as commented you may not have enough juice to run a bright one.


Hope this helps guys; I didnt intend for this to be so long. damn i spend too long on Bit...