Since I got my inspiration from this forum, I decided to give back to you by showing you what I’ve made. Besides, there’s way too much street cred in this to be left offline (^~^). Enjoy my first post!
Highly inspired by the mods of Inf3rn0_44 and tp4tissue I decided to make a retro mouse of my own. What I acquired were two unopened mice from 2000 and 1998, an Intellimouse w/intellieye like Inf3rn0_44 used in his project and an Intellimouse Pro, arguably the most sophisticated ball mouse by Microsoft. Both of these are hardly ever available online, yet in their original boxes. They are also from a time where everything was not made in China. They are, in fact, made in Mexico :V [insert Trump joke here]. Nevertheless, their build quality is outstanding and most likely better than almost any mouse made today. I am also doing a public service for all the geeks out there since there aren’t really many photos of the Pro on the web at all. Without further ado, I’ll start rambling about the project. The text will be long and detailed since I want this to be helpful if someone actually wants to do a similar project or is otherwise interested. For the rest of you, there’s always the pictures :3.
The most important factor for a custom mouse is the shape. You could always buy an Avago or MLT04 mouse off ebay and call it a day and luckily get all the stars aligned correctly. What I have found through my many mice is that there is no such thing as a perfect mouse out there (note that I also own almost every MLT04 mouse ever made ^_^). In some way or another, each mouse lacks something to make it outstanding. For example, a WMO is wonderfully shaped and balanced but lacks in build quality and like all MS mice it has a stiff cord and needs to be overclocked to 500hz. A Zowie EC1-a, on the other hand, works perfectly on any device without further hacking and is definitely most what people look for in a gaming mouse, yet I find its shape great but not exceptional. Also, its scroll wheel is horrendous. I find an original IE3.0 better in terms of shape but its scroll isn’t very pleasing either, at least without modding. The Pro I assume is the father of the 3.0 design-wise. To me it’s the ergo-shape I have been looking for; it wouldn’t be much different if I moulded it myself. It’s much like a 3.0 but higher and with palm support. The w/ie isn’t directly a wmo replacement but a very similar form-factor indeed with added palm support. It’s also similar to a Logitech G9. What these mice do have is exceptional build quality, shiny white vacuum finish, Omron switches and nice scroll wheels. Their buttons are also separated and not an integrated part of the body, which I prefer for lighter and more even clicks. The only downside for these mice is that they need overclocking. I find both, ergonomic and ambidextrous mice great for gaming and I always keep two mice connected, hence modding two mice.
Upon inspecting their internals, it did not come to my surprise that the components and their layouts were pretty much exactly as they are in a wmo and I was able to do the MLT04-conversion with wmos’ pcbs. Unlike in Inf3rn0_44’s mod, I wanted to retain the original bottom of the w/ie and decided to cut and sand the mounting bracket of the wmo off the bottom and dremel away all of the plastic associated with mounting the original pcb of the w/ie. Dremeling and sanding probably took most of the time in this project. The Pro was a lot harder to dremel since it has a lot of plastic housing the ball and its mechanics, and its bottom is way thicker than the w/ie. I had to meticulously dremel the mounting area down to get the lift-off distance correct and I had to pry and re-glue a few times to do that. I also had to re-glue the w/ie because I underestimated the thickness of the wmo’s bottom. I ended up sanding the brackets so that their bottoms were paper-thin and then super-glued them into place. I would highly recommend using superglue because of its thinness, strength and apparent reversibility. As for the pcbs, I cut the w/ie pcb in half with a saw and then dremeled off some copper on the board to prevent unwanted circuits. I also had to grind a corner off the pcb so it wouldn’t intersect with the scroll wheel. On the Pro it was just a matter of de-soldering the two boards from each other and cutting the copper. After that it’s just a matter of soldering wires between the switches and the original front pcb with switches detached. The front pcb also needs to be placed on the back where there is space so it needs to be re-soldered to the main board with longer wires. I spent a good many hours sitting on an uncomfortable stool focusing hard to get the soldering right, but in vain; two wmos were killed in the process. The copper pads were extremely easy to break off and I blame for this mostly my inadequate soldering iron that is either too hot or cold and my skills :V. Luckily I found help from a student (Emil Fihlman) from Aalto University’s department of electrical engineering and got the pieces together. For him, the soldering was naturally not a challenge at all.
For skates, I wanted to get a nice and stable glide for the mice so I went ahead and ordered some large ec1 hyperglides in white to match the mice. For the w/ie it was just a matter of putting them on but with the pro I had to sand down the plastic surrounding the original feet. This has to be done precisely since anything short of a flat surface will affect the contact and wear off the feet. For the w/ie I also drilled a whole in the bottom skate to allow easy disassembly; this doesn’t affect the glide because it’s drilled toward inside the canal. Without the hole, opening the mouse would cost a skate. I will continue adding this hole to the future skates as well because getting the mouse open is essential for a modder like me. Mouse wheel tension and lubrication are fine examples of reasons to get the thing open. Speaking of having the mice open, the construction of the older Microsoft mice seems incrementally better the older you go; this has probably to do with the mice being produced in way smaller batches and with a premium. The Pro is essentially the best ball mouse MS has ever made. The thick plastic, non-fatiguing and seemingly ever-lasting rubber and pretty much no-compromise internal structure are something I haven’t seen in another mouse. The Pro’s scroll wheel tension and notching are arranged via a leaf spring and a standard spring separately compared to the other MS mice whose mousewheel functionality is dependent on a single piece of plastic. This makes the mechanical function of the wheel much more durable and allows changing parts separately when needed. When I first tested the mouse I found out that its 18 year old spring had pretty much given in because it middle mouse clicked very easily when scrolling. The spring is a standard keyboard spring so I went ahead and replaced with a 55g cherry spring and the result in click feel and function are substantial. Also, the Omrons (the older MS mice are always D2F-01F-T omrons which is very nice) had had enough static pressure to become a little mushy. I had them replaced with new ones when at the university.
What I hadn’t noticed when I ran the Pro in its original setup was that the scroll wheel worked only on every second notch. I ended up slicing the shutter part off and glued the matching part from a wmo to it with a few pieces of cut paper clip. I drilled holes in both pieces to fit the metal “rod” between them. I had to shave off some plastic off the new shutter pieces left part to keep the wheel aligned with the uppers and prevent it from scraping against an Omron (the right click). The rod-gluing was necessary since plain super glue couldn’t keep them together. The shutter is a perfect fit for the Pro, however, occasionally the mouse ghost-wheels down. I haven’t deducted a reason for this but it seems an alignment issue for the sensor. Nevertheless it’s nothing major and mainly an issue when playing CS. I ended up unbinding +jump from mwheeldown and kept it only on mwheelup for bunnyhopping
. The w/ie doesn’t do this nor does it ghost scroll like the other MLT04 mice due to loose wheels; Pro isn’t affected by loose notches either, besides the wheels’ tensions are adjustable with pliers.
The thick MS cords aren’t really optimal for gaming or ergonomics so I ordered two of CeeSA’s flexible braided cables. I normally avoid braided cables since they are heavy, bulky and stick to the edge of mousepads, yet CeeSA’s cables outperform even zowie’s cables in every regard. They are made without the outer rubber sleeving so the 4 ultra-thin cords inside the paracord make it very flexible and subtle. I ordered them in the maximum length for a usb1.0 device at just under 3m. I don’t think any mouse cord around there comes that long. You can also get them in any colour. Long story short, they are great!
The result was the best mice I’ve ever had but I had to work a lot to get them done. I estimate waiting for all the materials and mice took a few months and the actual work was around 50h not counting the time spent thinking about solutions, sleepless nights and desperation :S. Having the front pcbs non-functional basically provides indefinite micro-switch swaps and thus extreme longevity; I just have to remember not to smash them in anger >.<. If you just want mice like these don’t bother, but if you really want the whole experience of modding mice, go ahead!
Feel free to comment below (^~^)
Links to threads:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=36924.0https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=80628.0https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=79750.0PS. There's no photos of the slimmed brackets. They look nicer I promise!
