Filed under: Peripherals, Hacks
Hack: Optical Mouse in a Classic Mac Mouse
A friend of mine sent me this cute little hack: how to build a modern optical mouse into a classic ADB mouse's housing. Simply solder the button to the left button of a new mouse, route out the old mouse's shell to accomodate the electronics of the new mouse, and solder on a USB cable to the new mouse's board. I like the fact that they found a USB cable in the same beige color as the original mouse. So bust out your soldering iron and get to work! Bonus points if you integrate a touch sensitive scroll "wheel" under the large button.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
the flash said 7:43PM on 11-18-2005
I have made a opctical version of the first apple mouse!
some pictures on my website:
http://www.cerealbox.com.br/mouse
this is a cool device ever! :D
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Matt Burns said 7:09PM on 11-18-2005
Best yet. Put an iBook touchpad as the square click button so you can do the "two fingure scroll."
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Collin said 3:56AM on 11-20-2005
This was just a weekend hack that turned out quite well, and apparently inspired an even older mouse hack (see the earlier comment). The fact that the cable matched was pure luck - it had it laying around from a previous hack..possibly from a BIOS-flashing device I built...
I'm a regular reader of TUAW, by the way :-P Love the site.
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