Hijacking mouse buttons

[Ticien]

I am still doing research but, It seems as though i will have little trouble fitting the electronics in Gunmouse...the only problem is that I have never soldered anything in my life and I need to re-wire the mouse buttons. I know how the process works, I just don't know what sort of wires I am supposed to use. I want to hijack the left and right click and hook them to small buttons, and I am gonig to attempt to move the scroll wheel of the mouse off the board. This mouse is really strange and has 2 boards inside of it. One is for the gyroscope, the other is for the optical part. The Power contacts from where you would put the battery are going to be nowhere near the battery itself now. I am wondering if there is any way to wire it up that way? Would this be easier to understand with a picture?

EDIT: http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ead.php?t=7405 Here's a link to the thread I am trying to work out.

[DaveW]

Would this be easier to understand with a picture?

Very much so: I don't get what you're trying to do at all.

-Dave

[Ticien]

Ill post a picture when I get home and can illustrate it better.

[Redundant]

I think the scroll wheel and sensor for it is wider than the gun but it's hard to tell.
Rewiring the mouse buttons shouldn't be too hard. Getting the trigger to press the button may be. To rewire them, unsolder the buttons, solder wires to the buttons and solder the other ends of the wires to the contacts the buttons were on. Pick a board placement and make a general plan first though so you have an idea of wire lengths and button placement.

[Ticien]

Right. Thank you for that advice, I wasn't able to take a picture lastnight. For the trigger, I left the assembly inside intact. I am going to try to use it still, the trigger pulls on an arm that I can use to click a button. as for the scroll wheel, it is the right width (the wheel itself) but the shaft it is on may be too wide. It is just plastic though and longer on one side than the other so i can shorten it if need be. Do you know what gague wire I should be using for this project?

[Maz]

Is the trigger a button itself or a variable pot? It's only 5V and not so many amps so you should be able to get away with cat5~or any other cheap networking cable. even phone-line stuff.

[Ticien]

the trigger of the gun is a variable lever since I took out all of the guts of the gun and attaches to a lever with a spring to keep tension on it. The plan was to make the trigger hit a button, that I would install, when it is pulled, and hold down the button as long as the trigger is pulled, as you would hold down a mouse button. Trigger is left click. I planned on wiring the right click to a small button i would install under the trigger guard where my middle finger would go, and wiring the scroll wheel seperate from the board so it can be placed somewhere else. so for the button on the trigger:

Here is a little diagram I made up in paint. The board will hopefully be installed in the end of the barrel, so I need wires running from the original buttons to the new ones you see I have placed in the picture. But if I was going to take a small button, maybe even the ones already on the board if i can get them off and attach wires to connect the new button to the contacts on the board, would I be using the smallest wires I could find? I am confused about how I would go about using a network cable for this, but then again I dont know much about soldering or buttons.

[Redundant]

Cat5 networking cable has 6 small (plastic-coated) bundled together with some shielding. You don't need the shielding for short wires so you can cut a piece of the cable and take the 6 wires out of it. Phone cables work too but may be in really smooth plastic which is harder to cut off without cutting the wire.

The buttons that most mice use will work but it may be hard having the (yellow) arm hit them. You could use a spring loaded toggle switch for the trigger (or, if it's small enough, hollow out the trigger and put it in it.) This eliminates the arm and is less prone to breakage. If it's possible, you could _slightly_ bend the toggle switch (the flat kind) to make it more "triggerish".

This reminds me of the Wii controller.

[Ticien]

AH I got ya...for some reason I was thinking I was supposed to use the entire cable

I got a million spare CAT-5 cables lying around I can dissect though.

good idea with those switches, ill have to go take another look at the gun and see exactly what I can do with it. Gotta run to the shop and look at the kinds of switches I can get my hands on too.

The idea is something similar to the Wii controller, only it will work for my PC and wont need the Sensor Bar.

[CanaBalistic]

If you're worried about your soldiering skill's, use flux. It will suck the soldier into the wire and make a much better connection.