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Building the mouse Logitech won't make

samwilkinson.io

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Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#211

Post by throw-qqqqq »

alnwlsn wrote: post #151
throw-qqqqq wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer a regular soldering iron for SMD. Below 0603 I tend to blow off unrelated components if I’m not very very careful! So for me, a loupe/microscope and a fine SMD iron is the best option. I have some China-model that uses Hakko tips.

Nobody believes me when I say that soldering SMD with an iron is easier than through hole. You don't have to keep flipping the board over!

To be fair, it takes a little practice IMO and until you learn how to use flux correctly etc., it can seem very unattainable to ever learn well.

I got a huge confidence boost from one of the old engineers with rubbish eyesight. Thinking “If HE can see well enough to do 0603 and smaller, then so can I!” :D

A few hours practice on scrapped electronics made a big difference for me.

Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#212

Post by calfuris »

system2 wrote: post #194
calfuris wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I want to worry about a battery even every other month when I could just not worry about it ever?

It takes 20 minutes to charge fully. Technically, you will use the mouse in "wired" mode for 20 minutes every two months. Instead of using it in 20 minutes wired mode and 2 months free of wires, you prefer to go fully wired. That doesn't make sense.

I don't see wires as a problem. Wireless accessories are slightly more convenient when you're moving the computer around, which is why my work laptop has a wired keyboard plugged into the dock and a wireless mouse with the receiver plugged into the laptop directly, but that's not a concern with my desktop so I go wired there.

Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#213

Post by qrsbrrr »

stn8188 wrote: post #2

"Balking at the $50+ charge for turnkey assembly, I opted to take the financially responsible route and pay $200+ for a hot-air rework station to solder it myself." Yeah, I feel this :)

working class kid here.

I feel this too.

Card board. Recovered cables. Recovered entire circuits of formerly used boards that fit inside my palm (#jewishConstraints) #Undisclosed parts of my how~yo (how drunk are you willing to get (to train yourself) (while raising a now 23 years old .... "kid" #PGurNOTeventrying #sry4urKId that is already "there"

Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#214

Post by vasco »

bluGill wrote: post #202
jimmies wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternative way to see it: The author had either a $50 solution, or a $50 solution that comes with a discounted hotair rework station for $150… I learned it from Superfastmatt. He needed a piece of plastic that retails for $1500 for his van, so he said: “either I have a $1500 solution or I have a $1500 solution but I get a free fancy 3D printer in the end…” that stuck with me.

When doing any diy I assume I will spend more on tools the first time than I save, but the next time I have the tools and so costs are much less.

There's never a next time though because you just want to do new stuff

Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#215

Post by rwmj »

hotsauceror wrote: post #180
rwmj wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that wired trackballs with scrollwheels no longer seem to exist. I bought a wired trackball without a scrollwheel and absolutely hate it.

https://www.kensington.com/p/products/featured-products/orbi...

Yeah, that's the one I bought. It's nothing like a scroll wheel.

Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#216

Post by swiftcoder »

mmh0000 wrote: post #167
swiftcoder wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too was surprised by this view when I started at Oculus, where the game controller folks who had come over from Xbox were adamant that players would rather swap in a fresh pair of AAs than plug into a charging cable. Personally I've never come around to their side of things, although I do recognise the inconvenience of charging cables while you are using a peripheral (Apple Mouse charging port location especially :…

For me, I'll always choose a device with standard, user-replaceable batteries over a built-in battery. 1) If the device battery is dead, I can swap it out in seconds and be up and running immediately. 2) Built-in batteries fail, and replacing them ranges from difficult to near-impossible and often involves damaging the device's casing to get the built-in battery out. When I'm spending $100 on a computer mouse, I'd re…

Yeah. Though to be fair, the alternative in the controller space in that era was hot-swappable rechargeable battery packs - a ton of 3rd parties provided them for Xbox 360 controllers.

Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#217

Post by basscomm »

hotsauceror wrote: post #66
basscomm wrote: post #18

I still haven't figured out why they no longer make wired trackballs. The thing never moves, why do I need it to be wireless?

When you say "they", do you mean Logitech or Big Mouse in general? Because I have wired trackballs from both Logitech and Kensington, and have for many years. You can pry my Kensington Orbit from my cold, dead hand.

Logitech specifically. They haven't made a wired trackball in some time, as far as I can tell. Their only options are AA battery or rechargeable. I'd rather not have to futz with batteries at all on my desktop computer

Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#218

Post by jdietrich »

throw-qqqqq wrote: post #208
junon wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kapton tape is your friend for hot air. It's cheap and you can get by with scissors. Tape out anything that you're not reworking, use tweezers and push down the edges against the board to seal as best you can, and then flux it and blow. It'll hold things in place and wick away the heat from anything you're not trying to rework. I went from a near 0% success rate to near 100% with it.

Wow, thanks for the tip! I never heard that one before. I have a hot air station that I haven’t used much because I found it difficult to control. I will give it another try but with the Kapton!

To protect larger areas, you can use aluminium foil. It's usually best to hold the hot air pencil at a right-angle to the board; if you angle it like a soldering iron, the excess heat all goes in one direction and you're much more likely to blow off small adjacent components.

Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#219

Post by toss1 »

Excellent work here, on exactly the nits with this great mouse.

I came to the MX Ergo when having shoulder surgery and found it worked perfectly only 1-2 days post-op, just putting it in the sling, but it is so much more efficient to use, particularly for CAD work than any regular mouse in the previous decades. Also great for use on airplanes where there's no real space to run a regular mouse.

Will definitely check out SteerMouse, as the Logi software is often so marginal I just uninstall it and run the mouse bare.

Thank you for posting and HN for getting this to the front page!

Re: Building the mouse Logitech won't make

#220

Post by stn8188 »

jimmies wrote: post #166
stn8188 wrote: post #2

"Balking at the $50+ charge for turnkey assembly, I opted to take the financially responsible route and pay $200+ for a hot-air rework station to solder it myself." Yeah, I feel this :)

Alternative way to see it: The author had either a $50 solution, or a $50 solution that comes with a discounted hotair rework station for $150… I learned it from Superfastmatt. He needed a piece of plastic that retails for $1500 for his van, so he said: “either I have a $1500 solution or I have a $1500 solution but I get a free fancy 3D printer in the end…” that stuck with me.

Haha yeah, last year I replaced my wheel bearings in my van. I ended up with a frustrating ABS code (long story short: faulty magnetic encoders on both of the new bearings). I ended up spending about the same as the job would have cost at a shop, but with a slew of new tools.

I also did a USB switch project for fun, and ended up spending probably $250 for something I could have just bought for $15, but it was a great experience. (Here if anyone is interested: https://shielddigitaldesign.com/posts/2021/susb/ )

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