Question Anyone ever dissect a mouse to remove rgb led?

[Rocketman122]

Anyone ever dissect a mouse to remove rgb led?

Not everyone is under 30 who needs bling. Ive taken apart my gpu but my main mouse bit the dust so not too brave atm without a backup just in case. Is it a connector or do i have to just break the led bulbs?

And no.. Pressing the middle button doesn't disable it and besides... I dont want a toggle. I just want off completely. The mouse doesn't have software. Not willing to install oje either. Simply curious if others have done it

 

[mindless1]

What mouse? Most don't have an rgb led. Pictures and links would help.

It is very unlikely that there is a connector, but not impossible, especially if at the outer extremes of how far an LED's leads will reach.

Why have you not even opened the mouse to see what there is before this topic? I mean that would have gotten you one step closer, and generally, taking the mouse casing screws out to pop the shell off is a relatively low labor, low risk, a quick 'n easy thing to do... once you cut a slit in the stickers if any are covering the screw hole(s). Once it is open, pictures of that would be most helpful to you.

Odds are that it is either sitting flush, or on long leads, soldered to the PCB.

If it is on long leads, you have a fair chance of easily clipping the leads off at the PCB with nail clippers if not proper tool(s).

If it is sitting flush on the PCB, "break the LED bulbs" is potentially damaging either from ripping the pads it connects to, or even shorting the LED anode and cathode together if you don't check for that before applying power. You can have a reasonable check made visually, but the best is using a multimeter.

If it end up shorting leads from destructive removal, odds are it would do no more harm than to the LED driving subcircuit of the mouse, but i would not assume it on someone else's property.

The obvious solution to me, having a soldering iron... would be use it. Desolder the LED. If you lack a soldering iron, how about a pair of pliers to hold a large nail heated on a stove burner? I am serious, it seems crude using a nail but using standard soldering principles and considering it's only an LED, seems quite do-able.

If it is going to be a hardship w/o a mouse, you might go ahead and get a replacement... even some cheap piece of junk beats nothing, or just use paint or a sharpie marker to block the light? Depends on the design, again pics might help.

 

[Paperdoc]

WAIT! You call it an "RGB LED". But EVERY OPTICAL mouse has a single red LED in it to provide the light it uses to track movement over a surface. It is aimed out of a port on the bottom, but often the light also shows through the upper parts. If the disable that LED, mouse will NOT work!

 

[mindless1]

^ Since it is not red or a wavelength invisible to human sight (like IR), I assume this is for decoration or illumination of buttons, not the optical sensor illumination.

If it is for button illumination and too bright for use in a dark room, then I might consider changing an RGB LED to red (lower glare to human vision) and possibly also putting a break in the circuit trace and adding a low ohm resistor to decrease the current and light it produces... or again paint it with a sharpie marker, the lacquer type of sharpie meant for (fabric? I just remember it has red print on it instead of black (on a black marker)) tends to wear away much slower, as long as the surface is very clean when applied, but if you have to go and buy something, there are thicker paints that would do the job better if you wish to completely block the light rather than dim it.

 

[Paperdoc]

OP never specified what colour LED his mouse has.

 

[mindless1]

^ I assumed rgb meant red green blue, a multicolor LED only suitable for purposes other than optical tracking. This would have been easier if we had more info such as make model links etc.