Flashing a LED with Mouse

[Gayan Soyza]

Don’t throw your old mouse do a fun project with it. This is the simplest project I have ever made. Some may have done a similar like this before but this is my own idea & I want to share the idea with you.

See Pic - 1

This is designed under a PS2 ordinary two button mouse. The cable is replaced by a 3mm blue LED bulb. So when any of the button is been pressed the LED bulb goes ON. That’s it.

By Replacing the LED with an IR bulb, LASER, any other BULB or a SENSOR can make it use in a different way. So it can have plenty names according to your output.
Even you can use as a Morse code.

Circuit

The circuit is very simple as you can see in the fig - 2.The batteries (+) terminal is going through the two switches in the mouse. (The two switches must be connect according to the diagram below. Most mouse switches having 3pins you have to find the common pin & the push on contacting pin. The other copper tracks need to be disconnected.)
It’s leading to the LED’s (+) terminal via the R resistor. You can calculate the value of the R, it’s depending on the supply voltage & the LED voltage. Here I have used a 220ohm resistor to a 9V battery. [(9V- 2.5V) / (30/1000)] = 216.66 ohms.

See Fig – 2

Placing the components.

See Pic - 3

Placing is very simple. The battery is the only bigger part inside. For adequate room for battery the circuit board & the roller balls have to be cut & adjusted. If there is no such a room then you can alter the 9V battery to the AAA sizes as you wish. But make sure to adjust the R.I have replaced the R also inside the circuit board. All the copper tracks which were there in the board I have disconnected. Only taking the switch joints to connect the circuit wires.
The diameter of the mouse wire hole is ideal for 3mm LED bulb. You can attach a LED holder to that cut piece to hold the LED if necessary. And also I have added a battery clip for the 9V battery.

So it takes few minutes to complete this project. You can use this simple circuit for various things.

Try & workout.

Good luck

 

[Hero999]

Sounds quite a good idea, I suppose you could use a Joul Thief and run it off a single AA cell. The only thing is I've got so many LED torches around I don't need it.

 

[MonkeysAteMe]

This sounds like a great project for a beginner (me).

Out of curiousity if I were to switch the battery terminals, have the negative running to the switches, and then switch the led around, would it still work?

Does it matter that the positive is the polarity running through the switches?

 

[Andy1845c]

As long as you flip the LED too, it will work.

 

[bananasiong]

Sounds quite a good idea, I suppose you could use a Joul Thief and run it off a single AA cell. The only thing is I've got so many LED torches around I don't need it.

A Joul Thief requires more components than this right? But the advantage is the single AA cell

 

[bananasiong]

Long time ago I found a circuit that use only a single NPN, a huge capacitor and a LED to do flashing. I think these are the only components, but I've forgotten to save the url as well as the image, couldn't find it anymore.

Has anyone seen this kind of schematic?

 

[bananasiong]

I found this, accidentally
http://cappels.org/dproj/simplest_LED_flasher/Simplest_LED_Flasher_Circuit.html

 

[Gayan Soyza]

Hi bananasiong thats also a good circuit.But we have plenty automatic ON/OFF LED's in my place just need to give directly 3V.Also having 5 colour LED's (colour changing ones). Price : 5 SLR that is 0.045 US$.Anyway thanks for sharing.

 

[bananasiong]

but this is the simplest LED flashing circuit I've ever seen. But I haven't tried it yet.

 

[Hero999]

A Joul Thief requires more components than this right? But the advantage is the single AA cell

True, but the price of an AA cell plus all the components for a Joul thief still works out cheaper than an expensive 9V battery; it will also last longer too.

 

[bananasiong]

True, but the price of an AA cell plus all the components for a Joul thief still works out cheaper than an expensive 9V battery; it will also last longer too.

Agree, a 9 V battery is expensive and crappy. Over here, for Energizer, a 9 V rechargeable battery (150 mAh ) is almost the same price as four AA rechargeable batteries (2500 mAh).

 

[Hero999]

but this is the simplest LED flashing circuit I've ever seen. But I haven't tried it yet.

It has the advantage of being frequency adjustable and makes a nice buzzer too.
**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**

 

[enahmadbs]

nice idea >>>>

 

[mahanthi]

hai i want clear details

 

[Techie7]

I fount this one useful for MORSE CODE IR!

 

[mdanh2002]

Any hopes for a USB or serial mouse? I don't have a PS2 mouse anymore, but I do have a lot of USB mice and 1 serial mouse which is mechanically damaged - the mouse is still detected by the computer but the ball which senses the movement (sorry I don't know the proper term for it ) does not work, thus making the mouse useless.

 

[Menticol]

I don't understand, what do you want to do?

 

[mdanh2002]

I don't understand, what do you want to do?

Well at first I never noted that this thread was 2 years back (2007)

It mentioned that you can build a LED flasher from a PS2 mouse. I don't have any PS2 mouse anymore. Can I do this with a serial/USB mouse?

 

[Menticol]

Why you don't just scrap the LED from the mouse and use a 555 or a couple of transistors and capacitors? Is a lot cheaper

edit: !!! never realized it was an old thread, I'm reading the other messages right now to get the context

edit: you can use any kind of mouse, just wire a 9V battery in series with a resistor and any of the mouse's switches

 

[mdanh2002]

Why you don't just scrap the LED from the mouse and use a 555 or a couple of transistors and capacitors? Is a lot cheaper

edit: !!! never realized it was an old thread, I'm reading the other messages right now to get the context

edit: you can use any kind of mouse, just wire a 9V battery in series with a resistor and any of the mouse's switches

Thanks, it works fine on first try