help me find a way to change my optical mouse light color!

[LongCoolMother]

i have a logitech optical mouseman. im gettin tired of its boring RED color. i know there must be a way to change its color to BLUE! wouldnt that be cool!!! i havent opened it yet though. i might later to see if its possible. i know u smart ppl can prolly figure some way out! let me know!

 

[htmlmasterdave]

I have a feeling it won't work. Each colour of light is associated with a wavelength, if you change the LED, which to a blue one, the wavelength will be changed, and the light will be refracted differently. That's just my opinion though

 

[Cancer12]

Theoretically you could change the prism so that the colors subtracted from the laser are different, realistically you can't. I'm not an expert on lasers, but I know enough that this would be pretty impossible.

 

[RSMemphis]

The wavelength won't play a huge role, but the photodetector in there may have a hard time with blue.
Green would be easier, also because the driving voltage would be similar. Blue still has higher power requirements.

It's tough to say what would work, if you can spare a mouse, try getting to the LED and replacing it with a green or yellow one. Again, I have a feeling that blue won't work so well.

 

[LongCoolMother]

nooo!! i wanna do it!!! :'(

 

[FelixDeCat]

Im not sure what the logitech looks like, but if its like a MS optical, just put some clear blue tape over it. Walla! You will have green !

 

[Czar]

I read some page where a guy showed how to do it, he changed the red light to blue, the only problem is that the blue light is "weaker" or something so that the mouse becomes less accurate.

 

[CStroman]

I've always wanted to put an infrared LED in an optical mouse.

 

[Heisenberg]

Are you talking about the LED it uses to track the movement or just a decorative one like on the back of the Microsoft ones? If you're talking about changing the one that does the movement I wouldn't try it. The electronics in those things are most likely designed to work with the characteristics of a certain frequency of light. Change it and it won't work very well if at all.

 

[Viper GTS]

There are how-to's around showing how to switch to a blue LED. I believe performance was degraded, though.

I personally wouldn't do it, but if you want to go for it.

Here's one such article

Viper GTS

 

[Frosty3799]

i got a logitech optical mouse, not sure what kind... but the light that shows though on hte front is blue, and the underside light is red.. you cant even see the underside ligh, so the blue looks cool

heres a pic of it, sorry its a little blurry


EDIT: ok so its a lot blurry (i had taken it the other night while participating in the ATOT treasure hunt)

that little thing you can barely make out that says logitech on the back glows blue, and the left side also glows blue... cant see the red anywhere fro mthe top.
Josh

 

[LongCoolMother]

wow, im gonna try it. i just opened my mouse and looked at it. LED design looks simple, i think i can install a blue LED easily. but something happen. when i removed the scroll weel, this spring thing popped out. i oput my moust together again because i cant find where it came from. now my mouse doesnt work when i scroll up using the wheel. it works when scrolling down, but now up. so i think thats what happen. ill try to fix it later when i install my blue LED this week. thanks for the guide! ill let you all know how it turns out. if its bad, ill switch it back to red!

 

[Nefrodite]

just buy an mouseman or mouseman ifeel kewl blue led built in on the back, things bright and looks kewl i have the ifeel, finaly some sh*t supports it, like mohaa

 

[LongCoolMother]

im gonna do it! im gonna pick up a 2600 mcd LED soon! wish me luck!

 

[oLLie]

<< i have the ifeel, finaly some sh*t supports it, like mohaa >>


what does it do?

 

[Nefrodite]

ifeels just the vibration feedback tech from immersion(they designed the new feedback interface for the mercedes ) Its sorta like rumble feedback on gamepads, but more refined and detailed. serious sam2 has it too, havn't fiddled with that game much though. medal of honor allied assult seems to have the best implimentation so far once u get used to it, playing the game with a normal mouse kinda feels wrong

and being shallow, the iridescnet scarab blue of the mouse is pretty i had to have it

 

[b0mbrman]

<< I have a feeling it won't work. Each colour of light is associated with a wavelength, if you change the LED, which to a blue one, the wavelength will be changed, and the light will be refracted differently. That's just my opinion though >>


Mmm..very interesting thought...

 

[LongCoolMother]

<<

<< I have a feeling it won't work. Each colour of light is associated with a wavelength, if you change the LED, which to a blue one, the wavelength will be changed, and the light will be refracted differently. That's just my opinion though >>


Mmm..very interesting thought... >>



is that true?

 

[Kelvrick]

<<

<<

<< I have a feeling it won't work. Each colour of light is associated with a wavelength, if you change the LED, which to a blue one, the wavelength will be changed, and the light will be refracted differently. That's just my opinion though >>


Mmm..very interesting thought... >>



is that true? >>



Well... Yes. Thats why when you put white light through a prism, you see a rainbow. Different colors of light are at different wave lengths and refract/reflect differently.

 

[LongCoolMother]

will that affect my mouse?! i found a couple reviews doing it, but a couple aint gonna cut it. i need a straight direct answer from someone!

 

[rgwalt]

For those of you who say it can't be done, it can, and I did. You can change the color to whatever you want, but different colors perform better or worse depending on the intensity of the LED you use. If you want to change the color to blue, you will have to get a very intense blue LED, and the mouse may not be able to suppy enough power to it for it to function properly. I changed the color to orange without a problem, but big deal...

Ryan

 

[LongCoolMother]

<< For those of you who say it can't be done, it can, and I did. You can change the color to whatever you want, but different colors perform better or worse depending on the intensity of the LED you use. If you want to change the color to blue, you will have to get a very intense blue LED, and the mouse may not be able to suppy enough power to it for it to function properly. I changed the color to orange without a problem, but big deal...

Ryan >>



thnx thats what i needed

 

[Spike]

dude, thats awesome. When I get a new intelli-mouse optical I will have to try that on my old one.

 

[rgwalt]

Your welcome, and good luck. After removing the old LED, I configured the two wires to accept a sort of quick connector that I found at radio shack. Go to the shack, get a soldering iron and acid-core solder, some LEDs, battery clips (for heat sinks), a small wire cutter, and find something that will allow you to swap out LEDs with a minimum of soldering. Then go home and go nuts. Put the battery clips on both wires that you are soldering together. It will help prevent you from frying other components. The best thing you can do is do this to a second mouse attacted to a powered USB hub (assuming the mouse is USB). I wouldn't do any of this while the mouse is connected to the computer.

Also, the mouse I did this to went on the fritz a year later. It was probably unrelated, but I'm just giving you fair warning. Good luck, and either post or PM me with the results.

Ryan

 

[Kanalua]

how do you change the LED in the Back fo the MS opitcal mouse?