We receive an image from the optical sensor of a computer mouse using Arduino. The design of a computer mouse, the principle of operation The principle of operation of a computer mouse

Have you ever wondered how things work, what path they take from idea to implementation, how simple simple things are? How easy is it to make a comb? What about a computer mouse? What about a wooden computer mouse made from a single block of mahogany with an LCD screen, with its own electronic filling and a cable made and braided especially for it? I think you will be interested in my journey that I went through during the 2.5 years of creating my mouse.

Design, construction, modeling

Since I was a complete zero in design, I approached the matter as a complete layman. I bought plasticine and started sculpting the mouse of my dreams.

First, I built a mouse that is ideal for me to use on a desktop. She is big and dark gray in the photo. Then I made a mouse that would suit me as a mobile mouse (small dark gray). And then I took the piece of plasticine I had stolen from the children to work, and my colleagues sculpted a mouse that claimed to be the “folk mouse.” It fit perfectly into the hands of the majority of the male population of our team (multi-colored in the photo). And what? The result is banal and dull forms that we twitch with our hands in every possible way day and night. Apparently, among the three standard mice, any user will find a comfortable one. The triumph of the ideal?

As a result, a mouse was modeled behind the computer, which, from my point of view, pretended to be elegant and beautiful.

At that moment I really liked her. And without thinking twice, I divided the computer model into parts. Elements of fastening and interfacing with electronic filling were thought out. It sounds simple, but in reality hundreds of hours of painstaking work were spent.

After this, the resulting parts were grown on a 3D machine to test assembly.

Material - polyamide. It fits well in the hand, like a glove. All parts fit together, technological assembly also went without problems

The next stage is milling in wood. I probably purchased a dozen different species of mahogany trees, but I started with the sapele tree, the rest of the species are waiting in the wings.

I didn't like the design in real life. The vertical gaps between the buttons and the case looked bad and untidy. Technological “sores” when working with wood are visible - chipping and removal of wood. Well, and most importantly, the keys did not bend, there was no click.

I thought about the design for a long time. Something was confusing, and there was no feeling of satisfaction. Then I realized that the mouse lacks solidity. I decided to return to the original version of the mouse, which I sculpted at the very beginning, only at a professional level and using sculptural plasticine. There are two design options in one mouse. Convenient for comparison and decision making.

After receiving the final version, 3D scanning was done and the surfaces were transferred to SolidWorks.

The second model turned out not much more successful than the first. The buttons were not being pressed and there was no way to fix this in the current model. The model's marriage was laid down at the DNA level. We need a more comprehensive approach with simultaneous control of both design and technology. Otherwise nothing will work. There will be either technological excellence or good design, but not all at once. These characteristics sit on opposite sides of the seesaw. So I throw everything in the trash and start over. Sketch-design-sculpting-testing-growing and so on, but with technological control of critical parameters on the one hand, and design on the other. We are looking for a middle ground.

The third model was made within the framework of the classic product design cycle. I started with a sketch.

Contours are drawn.

And finally, the approved design.

Plasticine model.

3D scanner, surface acquisition.

Computer model.

Then the process of finishing the body began. The body was cut out on a CNC machine, tested, modified, and then cut out again. As a result, only the tenth version of the case turned out to be functional. The biggest problem was making the keys comfortable to press. As a result, in some places the thickness of the wood decreased to 0.7 mm! It took me a year to refine the body.

The wheel and connector were also made of wood.

I laser engraved the wheel with the Clickwood brand.

The eleventh version of the case is coming, to which I will make minor changes. I also started developing a wireless version of the mouse. The wireless module is based on Bluetooth technology, the optosensor is laser. AAA size batteries, 2 pieces, replaceable. When recharging, the mouse will continue to work. All the elements are arranged very tightly, and I had to rack my brains quite a bit when assembling them. A cavity specially cut into the wooden body of the mouse serves as a container for batteries.

Wooden parts

Working with wood begins with the selection of wood. The boards must have the correct geometry, have a minimum of knots and defects, and have the required moisture content.

First, the boards are dried at home. At least six months.

After this, the board is sawn into small bars, which are dried for several weeks at the site of their further processing. At all stages, humidity is controlled by a special device. If the drying process is neglected, the wood loses geometric stability, and the manufacture and operation of the mouse becomes impossible.

The prepared bars are processed on a CNC machine using a specially created program.

From the very beginning of creating a part until the final assembly of the mouse, the parts are rigidly fixed to metal equipment so that at no stage does the part change its shape and geometric dimensions.

The processing of the upper part of the mouse has to be done with pinpoint precision, since its profile is designed for a soft click and is very thin in some places. I control the pressing force with a grammeter. In normal mice it ranges from 50 to 75 GS. I'm trying to achieve 50 GS.

Wood is the biggest challenge in my project. Not only is this the most significant part of the cost, but the percentage of defects here is very high. Wood is an anisotropic material. It may fail, there may be defects, chips may occur, and simply an error in the finishing technology can lead to the mouse body being thrown into the trash. I admit that I am still improving the processing technology, and I am not completely sure that I have found the right one. For statistics: in the first batch of ten cases, only three reached the finished product. Therefore, the part of the technological chain related to wood is critically important for the cost and quality of the finished product. It is constantly being worked on.

In the future I plan to work with bone. In particular, I am already creating a wheel from bone.

Electronic part

I developed the first mouse design myself. The sensor was a top-end optical sensor ADNS-3090 from Avago, the brains were an Atmel controller, and the rest were components from brand companies like Murata, Yageo, Geyer, Omron and Molex.

I paid special attention to the high-quality nutrition of the mouse, here, in my opinion, I reached the absolute level with my perfectionism

The first working breadboard.

In black version, final.

There were also experiments with different buttons. I always tried to choose a quiet mouse among others. Well, since I’m making it myself, I decided to conduct an experiment and make such a mouse and try it out. To do this, I replaced the clicking left and right “micrics” with soft and quiet ones used for the central button (have you noticed that the central button always clicks quieter?). A special version of the board was created, on which all three identical “micrics” were mounted.

I selected and bought a batch of gold-plated connectors for the mouse. As usual, in China. I don’t know about “better contact”, but they harmonize perfectly with the wood.

Screen, firmware

Fascinated by the idea of ​​​​placing a display in a mouse, I began searching for it among hundreds of suppliers. The requirements were simple: strict dimensional restrictions and the ability to at least symbolically display at least eight familiar places. While I was selecting it, I learned almost everything about displays. They differ by type: symbolic and graphic, by technology: TAB, COG, TFT, OLED, LCD, E-Paper and others. Each type or technology has a lot of varieties, sizes, colors, lighting, etc. In general, there was a lot to dig into.

After surfing half the internet, I found out that the size I needed was made by only one company in the whole wide world. All other options are definitely larger in size. And even the display I found barely fit inside the mouse. As an option, a custom display was considered, which could be made for me according to my requirements, but this is a very expensive option for me (about one hundred thousand rubles). For the first model, a graphic display with a resolution of 128 by 64 pixels is quite suitable, which is what I chose.

In order to figure out how the display actually looks and fits with my mouse, I had to order all varieties of this display from the manufacturers. What do these varieties mean? The model name consists of unpronounceable alphanumeric combinations like FP12P629AU12. All of them are assembled from various blocks and are clearly deciphered in the specification. For example, the example given can be assembled from blocks FP.12.P.629A.U12, where the type, size, voltage, controller, operating temperature range and other information about the model are encrypted. And the last block is the trickiest. It can have several dozen values, each of which means one or another combination of such characteristics as the presence and color of the backlight, background color, symbol color, and the range of degrees from which information can be clearly read. These are the parameters that were interesting to me.

As a result, “for testing” I ordered 18 different modifications. The manufacturer agreed, but said that the minimum order was 5 displays for each modification. There was nowhere to go, and I had to agree, knowing that 90% would go into the trash can. And then, one cloudy day, the express delivery service brought me home a huge box in which a homeless person of average build could live. The box contained 18 smaller boxes, each of which comfortably accommodated 5 displays, securely fixed for a long trip to cold Russia. There was so much accompanying packaging that it was enough for my mother-in-law to cover several beds for the winter.

As a result, after thorough tests on a specially assembled stand, two displays turned out to be suitable for the series. They differ only in background: gray and yellow-green. These are the ones I will offer to complete the mouse. By default I plan to set it to yellow-green, but two more options will be available: a display with a gray background and a mouse without a display at all.

But the main intrigue was what information can be shown on the screen? I was offered different ideas: ambient temperature, indication of the arrival of letters, something else that was not very original.

My train of thought followed a different path. Let's start with the fact that there are two significant restrictions on displaying operational information: the presence in front of the user of a huge and high-quality source of any information (monitor) and the need to turn the mouse over to obtain information. In addition, the screen is small, the resolution is low, and the LED interferes with normal reading. Therefore, I came to only one conclusion: the information should be of an entertaining nature only, the practical value of which tends to zero, but at the same time the WOW! effect should be killer.

What kind of information can have such properties in a device of mediocre complexity? There is not much of it: mileage, time of use, speed of movement, number of clicks and scrolling of the wheel. I decided to abandon the last parameter, since it seemed uninteresting to me. All other parameters are tied to the session (the last time the mouse was used from the moment power was supplied to it, i.e. connecting to the computer or turning on the computer itself) and to the entire lifetime of the mouse. For example, the user can find out at any moment how many times he pressed the left mouse button or how many meters his mouse has traveled in meters today or since the time of its purchase. The information is absolutely useless, but it will help those who are especially curious to understand how much he torments the mouse. If other interesting ideas appear, they can be implemented with new firmware.

I also added general information about the mouse (model, mouse and firmware number, month of manufacture) and a settings screen. You can choose the language and system of measures (English or metric). To store all this information, we had to add permanent storage flash memory to the circuit.

To fit this amount of information, I had to break everything down into screens. Each screen displays one type of information and shows session and all-time parameter values. There are six screens in total, which can be changed using the mouse wheel.

The first option was implemented in a purely textual manner, for which several font options were even developed.

I made a firmware to evaluate how the text looks using the created font on the mouse screen. It looks terrible, what can I say.

Now it has become obvious that the screen needs graphics, and not a set of symbolic information. Therefore, I brought a designer into the work, and together we prepared three graphic options; in the end, the second option was recognized as the most successful.

Of course, this design required higher resolution, so it had to be adapted.

But that's not the end of the story. After I selected a screen for the mouse, I ordered a trial batch for breadboards. As a result, screens arrived, but for some reason the number of pins differed from what was indicated in the specification (datasheet). In response to the request, the manufacturer received an answer that everything was fine, this was a minor modification, and it would not affect the performance in any way. Meanwhile, the missing two wires were responsible for the brightness of the displayed graphics.

It was all very suspicious. And just like he was looking into the water. We remade the board for a modified screen, soldered it, and then it turned out that the screen was completely dim. It's as if the device's batteries are dead. And this became clear after a long and painstaking work of searching and selecting screens, purchasing a trial batch of all modifications and testing them. Time, money, and so on.

But the story turned out to have a good ending. After correspondence with the Chinese, it turned out that the screen can now adjust its contrast directly from the firmware. We repaired the firmware, and everything started to show just fine!

Everything is shown as planned: mileage, speed, number of clicks, etc.

Subsequently, the firmware also changed several times: a setting for changing the language appeared. Two languages ​​on one screen are bad - readability deteriorates, Cyrillic abracadabra will only irritate an English-speaking user, and support for other languages ​​may be needed in the future. The difficulties began when I tried to adjust the mouse travel. It seems that there is something complicated: the optical sensor transmits the increment in two coordinates, which must be converted to a system of measures and added modulo to the current value. That's the whole mileage.

But, as it turned out, not everything is so simple. Two people with mice with the same sensor installed can get radically different results! The thing is that the resolution of the sensor (sensitivity) very much depends on the surface on which the mouse is rolling. The best results are obtained when the mouse rolls on white paper. Slightly worse on wood and fabric. It's really bad for laminate and film. The declared sensitivity is achieved only on ideal, from the point of view of the sensor, surfaces.

This makes no difference to the end user. He connects the mouse and, through trial and error, sets the operating system to a comfortable cursor speed. The system remembers this coefficient and uses it to increase or decrease the movement coordinate increment values.

But it’s a completely different matter if you plan to read these parameters directly from the mouse. The mouse on one surface will show the result of running one meter, on the other - one and a half. Speed ​​will also lie. And something needs to be done about this.

To solve this problem, we had to introduce the “Sensitivity” parameter, which allows you to individually select the coefficient for each surface. By default it is equal to one, which corresponds to the surface of white paper. It can be increased or decreased in the settings. You don’t have to touch it at all, everything will work just fine as is. But for true perfectionists, the leaflet included with the mouse will contain a table from which you can select a coefficient for the existing surface and instructions on how you can independently configure the mouse to show the exact mileage.

During the development of the firmware, another side effect of the sensor was discovered. If you take the mouse and simply wave it in the air, the mileage readings will also change. This is due to the fact that the sensor detects the surrounding space as a certain surface and also tries to obtain mouse offset values. Therefore, you can observe the following effect: you turn the mouse over, look at the mileage parameters and are surprised that they change upward right before your eyes. Of course, you can install a tilt angle sensor in the mouse that turns off the sensor while it is turned over, but doing this only for the situation described is unreasonable. Perhaps it will appear in the next version, but not now. After all, the mouse is raised only to look at the indicators, and 99.9% of the time it is on the surface and receives the correct information.

Cable

I decided to make the cable as flexible as possible so that it would not interfere with the movement of the mouse and would be “invisible” for kinematics. Well, I personally don’t like the “spring” cable.

Sometimes it seems that when creating a product, the cable is the most insignificant part of the product. What's easier is to buy the required amount of cable in the store and unsolder it. No big deal. But, alas, not here in Russia. Sometimes it seems that our industry is no longer capable of making anything more complex than cast iron irons. Attempts to find a cable resulted in a three-week search and shaking up the assortment of absolutely all manufacturers of Russian cable products. It turned out that our standards do not describe a cable suitable for modern electronic devices. For example, a four-core microphone cable with a KMM 4x0.12 mm2 braid has an outer diameter of 5 mm. That's a lot. Older mice and keyboards have a seemingly thick cable that is only 3.5mm in outer diameter. The closest analogue on sale was a cable from the German company Lapp Kabel, but its outer diameter was just 3.5 mm. Now imagine the braid on such a cable. Introduced? I'll tell you that I saw a similar cable on power cords for irons

So, it turned out: you can’t buy such a cable in Russia. Dot. Well, we are not used to retreating. I go to production and try to order, fortunately they still make cables in Russia. And to do this, let’s define my requirements. So what do I need:
The cores are copper, made of braided wires (for flexibility).
Number of cores - 4.
Screen - yes.
Flexibility - maximum.
The outer diameter of the cable is strictly no more than 3 mm.
Color - Pantone 4625 C.
Bottom line: I tried to contact probably a dozen possible manufacturers of cable products; no one is interested in messing with my order. They didn’t even ask what mileage I needed. Bottom line: such a cable cannot be purchased or produced in Russia. Sad. But we are not used to retreating.

I go to Alibaba.com. I find the first Chinese manufacturer I come across, write a letter and literally within a few hours I receive an answer: we will make any cable for you! I'm shocked. I send him the specification, money for delivery, and a week later I receive a sample. Wow! And I lost almost three months, trying to patriotically place an order in Russia. It turned out that the Chinese could easily make me a cable with an outer diameter of 2.5 mm.

As a result: I ordered 4 different samples from China. At first I was not satisfied with the scratchability and dullness of the outer shell, then I was not satisfied with the flexibility of the cable, then again I was not satisfied with the flexibility, and in the end I settled on the last sample sent, which I was ready to order. They couldn't be more flexible. The cable has memory. As a result, I accidentally received a cable with memory, although I wanted one that was as flexible as a rope

I ordered a kilometer, two weeks later I had the cable. Total time spent: six months.

Braided my kilometer of cable. There were two options.

Approximately 10% of the cable was rejected. This is the beginning of the bays, where the braid is unraveling and the machine has not yet entered operating mode. And some places where, for some reason, loops and knots of braided threads formed.

If the end of the cable is not sealed with heat shrink, it will fluff up immediately, the threads are synthetic! Therefore, the installation of the cable assembly is complicated by the preventive attachment of heat shrink.

The outer diameter of the braided cable was 3.2 mm, i.e. The braid added 0.7 mm to the cable diameter. It doesn’t seem like much, but a regular mouse usually has a cable with a diameter of 3.5 mm, and in the era of wireless mice it seems thick and heavy. Recently, non-budget mice have begun to be equipped with cables with a diameter of 3 mm, and they no longer interfere so much during work; they are almost invisible. But the keyboard cable can have an outer diameter of 4 mm. And even more. But this doesn't matter for the keyboard.

Plastic parts

No matter how much I would like to make the body parts of the mouse entirely from wood, I cannot do without plastic. You need legs, an axle for the wheel, a support for the axle and a piece of glass for the display.

Therefore, I had to order a mold from the Chinese.

After each test casting, the Chinese sent me a dozen samples, which I tested on my mouse.

As a result, I modified the mold three times until the quality began to satisfy me. The problems were different. For example, after assembly I got a problem with dust that formed between the display and the protective glass. It looks untidy. Moreover, the mouse will scratch on the surface, and dust will gradually accumulate there. I had to convert the glass into a container with sides where the display would be placed, after which the contour would be sealed.

The result is something like this.

Refining a mold is not an easy task at all, and changes can only be made in the direction of making the part larger. Therefore, any inaccuracy or error can ruin the entire work. For reference: each revision means a month and a half of waiting for new samples. And the change itself could be microscopic, but necessary.

I won’t dwell on plastic parts; this technology is now leading, and I can’t tell you anything new or interesting here. I’ll just say about the legs, for which I spent a long time selecting a material with reduced friction, after which I conducted tests and “races” of mice in order to determine the winner with minimal friction.

Processing and coating

First, careful work is carried out with the removal of lint, sanding and polishing of the surface.

I had a difficult task ahead of me. It was necessary to stabilize the wood so that the geometry of the mouse did not change depending on humidity, and to protect the wood from working in an aggressive environment (sweat and grease from the hand).

From the very beginning I refused varnish. Varnish is a surface film that eventually cracks and breaks down, leaving the wood bare. Sweat and fat penetrate the pores, the wood darkens, and the irreversible process of its degradation begins. Therefore, it was decided to use oil as impregnation and protection, and wax to give a commercial look.

To make it clear: the tree is completely saturated with pores, which contain either air or the oil of the tree itself (if the tree is a rubber tree). Our task is to fill the pores as much as possible with our oil, which should then polymerize and protect the wood.

In order not to prolong the story, I will say that I tried a lot of oils: linseed, teak, tung, Vaseline, Danish. Each oil has its own character. For example, wax is very difficult to apply to teak oil, while linseed oil takes a very long time to polymerize. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a catalyst into it - a drier.

I ended up developing two technologies. The first is the technology of vacuum impregnation of wood. It works like this: I create a vacuum in an environment with oil and wood. Air begins to escape from the pores. After removing the vacuum, the pores are filled with oil. As a plus, the tree is well stabilized. The downside is that it gets very dark. Looks good, but not for everyone.

The second technology is surface coating with oil. The oil is applied 1-2 or more times with a non-woven cloth.

Apply carnauba wax.

And rub with a muslin circle.

Then, using a hair dryer, I “dissolve” the dry wax residues in narrow and difficult places. In the case of “insoluble” debris, I pick up a toothbrush with stiff bristles, remove the debris, and then repeat the waxing procedure locally again.

If we evaluate the labor costs of processing, then manual labor for one mouse turns out to be about four hours.

Assembly

Next comes the installation operation, but before it you still need to remove traces of processing from the technological holes. Then, using a special 3M tape, I adjust and glue the legs (the body can move by a fraction of a millimeter, and this will be immediately noticeable: it will wobble like a lame stool). Then I lay the cable, mount the board, support, install the wheel and also, if necessary, adjust the buttons (there should be no chatter) and pressing force. This operation can also take up to four hours.

Computer mouse is a very useful and convenient graphical information input device.

Currently, almost every personal computer is equipped with this device. The Windows operating system and all programs designed to work in its environment are entirely focused on using the mouse. Virtually all actions in Windows, except typing, can be done without using a keyboard, using only one mouse. Moreover, without a mouse, working with Windows becomes significantly more difficult and slower.

Structurally, the mouse is a streamlined plastic box containing:

a massive rubberized ball that rotates when you move the mouse over a smooth surface;

two or three buttons;

mechanism for converting ball rotation into electrical signals;

electronic circuit for receiving and processing data about the state of the mouse (mouse coordinates and button positions).

The mouse is connected to the computer system unit with a flexible cable. Sometimes, instead of a cable, infrared rays are used to connect the computer to the mouse. In this case, there is no mouse wire and does not interfere with work.

The figure shows the internal structure of the mouse manipulator. The figure shows the following required mouse components:

1. Photo emitter

2. Photodetector

3. Ball (usually it is covered with rubber for better grip on the table surface.)

4.Rotating roller

5.Press wheel

6.Button

7.Cable

8.Controller (special chip)

Currently the most common optomechanical mice . Their popularity is primarily due to their low cost. The rotation of the rubberized metal ball when moving such a mouse is transmitted to two rollers. One of them is located along the mouse, and the second - across. This is what “mechanics” consists of. The rotation of the rollers is converted into an electrical signal using optoelectronic sensors consisting of an LED and a receiver, between which there is a disk with slot-like slots mounted on the roller. As the disk rotates, the LED beam either passes through the slits or is interrupted, and pulses are formed at the output of the receiver. The built-in microprocessor counts them and produces a digital code that is sent through an interface to the PC, where it is processed by the driver. An optomechanical mouse has two unreliable elements. First, there is a mechanism that turns the movement of the ball into rotation of the sensor disks. Secondly, the connecting cable, which is constantly subject to bending during operation.

To eliminate the first drawback, instead of a ball, a number of modern mouse models use optical motion sensor . These mice have no moving parts, so they have high positioning accuracy. The first models of such devices were supplied with a special “lined” mat. When moving, the sensor worked like a primitive scanner, converting alternating dark and light areas on the rug into electrical impulses. Modern optical mice can work on almost any surface - the sensor responds to the natural uneven reflectivity of the material. Instead of a ball, a sensitive optical sensor is placed in it, capable of tracking the movement of relatively small textures on the sliding surface (mat, sheet of paper, etc.), invisible to the eye, not to mention scratches and other mechanical and color inhomogeneities. Their movement in the field of view of the sensor is converted by a specialized processor into an increment of linear coordinates corresponding to the movement of the user’s hand. The surface under the mouse is digitized at a frequency of 1500 times per second.

Good afternoon friends!

Today we will talk about one very convenient device, to which we are so accustomed and without which we can no longer imagine working on a computer.

What is a "mouse"?

A “mouse” is a push-button manipulator designed together with a keyboard for entering information into a computer.

Indeed, he looks like a mouse with a tail. A modern computer is already unthinkable without this thing.

The “mouse” is much more convenient to use than, for example, the built-in manipulator of a laptop.

Therefore, users often disconnect this laptop “pad” and connect the “mouse”.

How does this convenient thing work?

The first designs of manipulators

The first manipulators included a ball that touched two disc rollers.

The outer rim of each disc had perforation. The shafts were located perpendicular to each other.

One shaft was responsible for the X coordinate (horizontal movement), the other for the Y coordinate (vertical movement).

When the manipulator moved along the table, the ball rotated, transmitting torque to the shafts.

If the manipulator was moved in the “right-left” direction, then the shaft responsible for the X coordinate rotated predominantly. The cursor on the monitor screen also moved right-left. If the mouse moved in the “toward or away” direction, the shaft responsible for the Y coordinate rotated primarily. The cursor on the monitor screen moved up and down.

If the manipulator moved in an arbitrary direction, both shafts rotated, and the cursor moved accordingly.

Optical sensors in old mice

Such devices contained two optical sensors - optocouplers. The optocoupler includes an emitter (LED emitting in the IR range) and a receiver (photodiode or phototransistor). The emitter and receiver are located at a close distance from each other.

When the manipulator moves, shafts with disks rigidly attached to them rotate. The perforated edge of the disk periodically crosses the radiation flow from the emitter to the receiver. As a result, the output of the receiver produces a series of pulses, which goes to the controller chip. The faster the mouse moves, the faster the shafts will rotate. The pulse frequency will be higher, and the cursor will move faster across the monitor screen.

Buttons and scroll wheel

Any manipulator has at least two buttons.

Double “clicking” (pressing) on ​​one of them (usually the left one) starts execution of a program or file, clicking on the other one launches a context menu for the corresponding situation.

Devices designed for computer games may have 5-8 buttons.

By clicking on one of them you can fire a grenade launcher at the monster, on the other you can launch a rocket, on the third you can unload a good old hard drive at it.

Modern mice also have a scroll wheel, which is very convenient when viewing a large document. You can view such a document only by rotating the wheel and without using buttons. Some models have two wheels scrolling, while you can view text or a graphic image by moving both up and down and left and right.

Below the scroll wheel there is usually another button. If you view a document by rotating the wheel and simultaneously pressing it, the manipulator driver activates such a mode that the document itself begins to move up the screen. The speed of movement depends on how fast the user rotated the wheel before pressing it.

In this mode, the cursor changes its shape. This makes it even more convenient... In short, get it, cook it, chew it, all that's left to do is swallow it. Pressing the wheel again switches from “auto view” to normal mode.

Optical mice

Subsequently, the manipulator was improved.

The so-called optical “mice” appeared.

Such devices contain emitting Light-emitting diode(usually red), a transparent reflective plastic prism, a light sensor and a control controller.

The LED emits rays that, reflected from the surface, are captured by the sensor.

When the manipulator moves, the flow of received radiation changes, which is captured by the sensor and transmitted to the controller, which generates standard signals for a specific interface. Optical mouse more sensitive to movement and does not require a mat for itself, like the old ball manipulator.

An optical mouse has no rubbing parts (with the exception of the potentiometer, the rotation of which is transmitted from the scroll wheel) that wear out or become dirty. This is also an advantage.

Possible problems with manipulators

The mouse, like any equipment, has a limited service life. It's no secret that the bulk of computer equipment is made in China. The goal of any business is profit, so the Chinese comrades even save on cables for mice, making them as thin as possible.

Therefore, the first weak point of manipulators is the cable.

More often internal break one or more cores occurs at the point where the cable enters the mouse.

The cable has 4 wires, two of them are power, the third is clock frequency, and the fourth is information.

If the mouse is not visible to the computer, the first thing you need to do is “ring” the cable.

If a break is detected, you should cut off part of the cable with the connector (behind the point where the cable enters the mouse body, closer to the connector) and the remaining piece to the printed circuit board of the manipulator, naturally observing the color.

PS/2 Mice Can't switch on the fly .

Otherwise, her controller (her tiny “brain”) may fail. And it’s good if the matter is limited to just this. The PS/2 interface controller on the motherboard may also fail, which is much worse.

If the cable is intact, but the mouse is not recognized by the controller, then most likely its controller has failed and it must be replaced. A cable break in optical mice can also be suspected by the lack of light from the LED (which is located near the surface that moves on the table). In other cases, there may be no light due to a faulty LED or controller, but this is rare.

Manipulators with COM or USB interface Can switch on the fly. However, currently devices with a COM interface are practically not found.

You have to “click” the mouse many thousands of times, and the buttons may fail after prolonged use. To replace the button, you need to disassemble the manipulator and solder another one. It is not necessary to use the same one as it was. The main thing here is to maintain the height in order to maintain the length of the key stroke. However, manipulators have long been quite affordable, and most users do not bother with their repair.

Let’s say “thank you” to the good old “mice” with a ball in their bellies - they served us well...

Concluding the article, we note that there are varieties of manipulators with laser emitter instead of LEDs, which provide more accurate and faster cursor positioning. This speed and accuracy are especially in demand in games.

There are also wireless (radio) “mice” in which the exchange of information with the computer is carried out not over a wire, but over a radio channel. Therefore, they contain their own power source - a pair of finger-type galvanic cells of AA or AAA size. Let us remind you once again that the manipulator connector is inserted into one of the ports.

That's all for today.

Victor Geronda was with you.

See you on the blog!

The mouse perceives its movement in the working plane (usually on a section of the table surface) and transmits this information to the computer. A program running on a computer, in response to mouse movement, produces an action on the screen that corresponds to the direction and distance of this movement. In different interfaces (for example, in windowed ones), the user uses the mouse to control a special cursor - pointer - manipulator of interface elements. Sometimes entering commands with the mouse is used without the participation of visible elements of the program interface: by analyzing mouse movements. This method is called "mouse gestures" (eng. mouse gestures).

In addition to the motion sensor, the mouse has one or more buttons, as well as additional control parts (scroll wheels, potentiometers, joysticks, trackballs, keys, etc.), the action of which is usually associated with the current position of the cursor (or components of a specific interface) .

The mouse control components are in many ways the embodiment of the intentions of a chord keyboard (that is, a keyboard for touch operation). The mouse, originally created as a complement to the chord keyboard, actually replaced it.

Some mice have built-in additional independent devices - watches, calculators, phones.

Story

The first computer to include a mouse was the Xerox 8010 Star Information System minicomputer ( English), introduced in 1981. The Xerox mouse had three buttons and cost $400, which corresponds to approximately $930 in 2009 prices adjusted for inflation. In 1983, Apple released its own one-button mouse for the Lisa computer, the cost of which was reduced to $25. The mouse became widely known thanks to its use in Apple Macintosh computers and later in the Windows OS for IBM PC compatible computers.

Motion sensors

During the “evolution” of the computer mouse, the motion sensors have undergone the greatest changes.

Direct drive

The first computer mouse

The original design of the mouse motion sensor, invented by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute in 1963, consisted of two perpendicular wheels protruding from the body of the device. When moving, the mouse wheels rotated, each in its own dimension.

This design had many drawbacks and was soon replaced by a ball-drive mouse.

Ball drive

In a ball drive, the movement of the mouse is transmitted to a rubberized steel ball protruding from the body (its weight and rubber coating provide good grip on the working surface). Two rollers pressed against the ball record its movements along each of the measurements and transmit them to sensors that convert these movements into electrical signals.

The main disadvantage of the ball drive is contamination of the ball and the removal rollers, which leads to the mouse jamming and the need for periodic cleaning (this problem was partly mitigated by metallization of the rollers). Despite its shortcomings, the ball drive has long dominated, successfully competing with alternative sensor designs. Currently, ball mice have been almost completely replaced by second-generation optical mice.

There were two sensor options for the ball drive.

Contact sensors

The contact sensor is a textolite disk with radial metal tracks and three contacts pressed to it. The ball mouse inherited such a sensor from the direct drive.

The main disadvantages of contact sensors are oxidation of contacts, rapid wear and low accuracy. Therefore, over time, all mice switched to non-contact optocoupler sensors.

Optocoupler sensor

Mechanical computer mouse device

The optocoupler sensor consists of a double optocouplers- an LED and two photodiodes (usually infrared) and a disk with holes or ray-shaped slits that block the light flux as it rotates. When you move the mouse, the disk rotates, and a signal is taken from the photodiodes at a frequency corresponding to the speed of the mouse movement.

The second photodiode, shifted by a certain angle or having an offset system of holes/slits on the sensor disk, serves to determine the direction of rotation of the disk (light appears/disappears on it earlier or later than on the first one, depending on the direction of rotation).

First generation optical mice

Optical sensors are designed to directly monitor the movement of the working surface relative to the mouse. The elimination of the mechanical component ensured higher reliability and made it possible to increase the resolution of the detector.

The first generation of optical sensors was represented by various schemes of optocoupler sensors with indirect optical coupling - light-emitting and perceiving reflection from the working surface of photosensitive diodes. Such sensors had one common property - they required special shading (perpendicular or diamond-shaped lines) on the working surface (mouse pad). On some rugs, these shadings were done with paints that were invisible in normal light (such rugs could even have a pattern).

The disadvantages of such sensors are usually called:

• the need to use a special mat and the impossibility of replacing it with another. Among other things, the pads of different optical mice were often not interchangeable and were not produced separately;
• the need for a certain orientation of the mouse relative to the pad, otherwise the mouse would not work correctly;
• sensitivity of the mouse to dirt on the mat (after all, it comes into contact with the user’s hand) - the sensor was uncertain about shading on dirty areas of the mat;
• high cost of the device.

In the USSR, first-generation optical mice, as a rule, were found only in foreign specialized computing systems.

Optical LED Mice

Optical mouse

Second generation optical sensor chip

The second generation of optical mice has a more complex design. A special LED is installed at the bottom of the mouse, which illuminates the surface on which the mouse moves. A miniature camera “photographs” the surface more than a thousand times per second, transmitting this data to the processor, which draws conclusions about changes in coordinates. Second-generation optical mice have a huge advantage over the first: they do not require a special mouse pad and work on almost any surface except mirror or transparent ones; even on fluoroplastic (including black). They also do not require cleaning.

It was assumed that such mice would work on any surface, but it soon became clear that many sold models (especially the first widely sold devices) were not so indifferent to the patterns on the mouse pad. In some areas of the picture, the graphics processor can make significant errors, which leads to chaotic pointer movements that do not correspond to real movement. For mice prone to such failures, it is necessary to choose a rug with a different pattern or even with a single-color coating.

Some models are also prone to detecting small movements when the mouse is at rest, which is manifested by the pointer on the screen shaking, sometimes with a tendency to slide in one direction or another.

Dual sensor mouse

Second-generation sensors are gradually improving, and crash-prone mice are much less common these days. In addition to improving sensors, some models are equipped with two displacement sensors at once, which allows, by analyzing changes in two areas of the surface at once, to eliminate possible errors. These mice are sometimes able to work on glass, plexiglass and mirror surfaces (which other mice do not work on).

There are also mouse pads specifically targeted at optical mice. For example, a rug that has a silicone film on the surface with a suspension of glitter (it is assumed that the optical sensor detects movements on such a surface much more clearly).

The disadvantage of this mouse is the difficulty of its simultaneous operation with graphics tablets; the latter, due to their hardware features, sometimes lose the true direction of the signal when moving the pen and begin to distort the trajectory of the tool when drawing. No such deviations were observed when using mice with a ball drive. To eliminate this problem, it is recommended to use laser manipulators. Also, some people consider the disadvantages of optical mice to be that such mice glow even when the computer is turned off. Since most inexpensive optical mice have a translucent body, it allows red LED light to pass through, which can make it difficult to sleep if the computer is in the bedroom. This happens if the voltage to the PS/2 and USB ports is supplied from the standby voltage line; Most motherboards allow you to change this with a +5V jumper<->+5VSB, but in this case it will not be possible to turn on the computer from the keyboard.

Optical laser mice

Laser sensor

In recent years, a new, more advanced type of optical sensor has been developed that uses a semiconductor laser for illumination.

Little is known about the disadvantages of such sensors, but their advantages are known:

• higher reliability and resolution
• absence of noticeable glow (the sensor only needs weak laser illumination in the visible or, possibly, infrared range)
• low power consumption

Induction mice

Graphics tablet with induction mouse

Induction mice use a special mouse pad that works like a graphics tablet or are actually included with the graphics tablet. Some tablets include a manipulator similar to a mouse with a glass crosshair, working on the same principle, but with a slightly different implementation, which makes it possible to achieve increased positioning accuracy by increasing the diameter of the sensitive coil and moving it out of the device into the user’s line of sight.

Induction mice have good accuracy and do not need to be oriented correctly. An induction mouse can be “wireless” (the tablet on which it operates is connected to the computer), and have induction power, therefore, do not require batteries, like regular wireless mice.

The mouse included with the graphics tablet will save some space on the table (provided that the tablet is always on it).

Induction mice are rare, expensive and not always comfortable. It is almost impossible to change a mouse for a graphics tablet to another one (for example, one that better suits your hand, etc.).

Gyroscopic mice

In addition to vertical and horizontal scrolling, mouse joysticks can be used for alternative pointer movement or adjustments, similar to wheels.

Trackballs

Induction mice

Induction mice most often have induction power from a working platform (“mat”) or graphics tablet. But such mice are only partly wireless - the tablet or pad is still connected with a cable. Thus, the cable does not interfere with moving the mouse, but also does not allow you to work at a distance from the computer, as with a regular wireless mouse.

Additional functions

Some mouse manufacturers add functions to alert the mouse about any events occurring on the computer. In particular, Genius and Logitech produce models that notify you of the presence of unread emails in your mailbox by lighting an LED or playing music through the speaker built into the mouse.

There are known cases of placing a fan inside the mouse case to cool the user's hand while the user's hand is working with air flow through special holes. Some mouse models designed for computer gamers have small eccentrics built into the mouse body, which provide a vibration sensation when shooting in computer games. Examples of such models are the Logitech iFeel Mouse line of mice.

In addition, there are mini mice designed for laptop owners that are small in size and weight.

Some wireless mice have the ability to work as a remote control (for example, Logitech MediaPlay). They have a slightly modified shape to work not only on the table, but also when held in the hand.

Advantages and disadvantages

The mouse has become the main point-and-point input device due to the following features:

• Very low price (compared to other devices like touch screens).
• The mouse is suitable for long-term use. In the early days of multimedia, filmmakers liked to show the computers of the “future” with a touch interface, but in reality this method of input is quite tedious, since you have to hold your hands in the air.
• High accuracy of cursor positioning. With the mouse (with the exception of some “unsuccessful” models) it is easy to hit the desired pixel on the screen.
• The mouse allows many different manipulations - double and triple clicks, dragging, gestures, pressing one button while dragging another, etc. Therefore, you can concentrate a large number of controls in one hand - multi-button mice allow you to control, for example, a browser without using the keyboard at all .

The disadvantages of the mouse are:

• Danger of carpal tunnel syndrome (not supported by clinical studies).
• For work, a flat, smooth surface of sufficient size is required (with the possible exception of gyroscopic mice).
• Instability to vibrations. For this reason, the mouse is practically not used in military devices. The trackball requires less space to operate and does not require moving your hand, cannot get lost, has greater resistance to external influences, and is more reliable.

Ways to grip a mouse

According to the magazine "Home PC".

Players recognize three main ways to grip the mouse.

• With your fingers. The fingers lie flat on the buttons, the top of the palm rests on the “heel” of the mouse. The lower part of the palm is on the table. The advantage is precise mouse movements.
• Claw-shaped. The fingers are bent and only the tips touch the buttons. The “heel” of the mouse is in the center of the palm. The advantage is the convenience of clicks.
• Palm. The entire palm rests on the mouse, the “heel” of the mouse, as in a claw grip, rests against the center of the palm. The grip is more suitable for the sweeping movements of shooters.

Office mice (with the exception of small laptop mice) are usually equally suitable for all grip styles. Gaming mice, as a rule, are optimized for one grip or another - therefore, when buying an expensive mouse, it is recommended to find out your grip method.

Software support

A distinctive feature of mice as a class of devices is the good standardization of hardware

Computer mouse device. Many people can no longer imagine how they can work on a computer without a mouse. But just recently we couldn’t even dream of a computer mouse. But those who worked on the computer knew the keyboard well. And with the arrival of mice, many do not even know how to get out of the situation if... And now there is such a variety of these devices that sometimes you don’t immediately understand that it is a computer mouse. But despite this, the internal structure of such mice is not much different. I don’t think anyone thinks about the internal structure of a computer mouse, but for general development you still need to know this.

A computer mouse is a small box for entering information into a computer, and easily fits in your hand. For manipulation there are at least two buttons and a scroll wheel. Who was the first to call her a mouse is no longer so important.

The important thing is that this name suits this device well and has stuck well with it. Even for young children, the first association with the word “mouse” is primarily associated with a computer.

When reading a fairy tale about a little mouse, a child will most likely imagine a computer “little animal”, and not an ordinary house mouse, which he has never even seen.

Now let's talk about the device of a computer mouse. I don’t think I need to tell you what this device looks like externally.

When you move the mouse across the table, the cursor on the monitor screen also moves. To work, you need to move the cursor over the required object and click on it with one of the mouse buttons, depending on the action selected.

Mouse buttons are intended to give a command to enter information. Each button performs its specific function. They can be programmatically reconfigured for both right-handers and left-handers.

The wheel is located in the middle between the buttons and is mainly used to scroll pages in text editors and Internet browser windows. They can also serve as a third button, because It not only rotates, but also presses.

Previously, along with the mouse there was a mandatory attribute - “ rug", because There was a ball on the bottom of the mouse that slid across the surface of the table. With the arrival of the optical mouse, the mousepad is no longer needed. Mice have become more compact and nimble. Anyone who picks it up for the first time cannot move the cursor to the desired object at first.

IN optical models there is a special miniature optical sensor with a microprocessor, and the mouse is already a video camera. The microprocessor processes the signal coming from the optical sensor, and the pointer on the monitor moves following the movement of the mouse.

Advantages of a computer mouse

• Since the hand is not suspended, unlike a touch input interface, the mouse is suitable for long-term work;
• High accuracy of cursor positioning;
• Allows many different manipulations, so a large number of controls are concentrated in one hand;
• The most important advantage of the mouse is its very low price.

Now in our markets a simple touch model costs no more than 150 rubles.

We will consider the advantages and disadvantages of the most common models of computer mice in the following articles.

As you can see, the design of a computer mouse is not so simple.