Make a KitKat mouse work again

Official Hackaday Prize Entry

Description

The kids returned from a Children's day festival with a bag of more or less worthless trinkets, among them a lovely KitKat promotional ball mouse. Its fatal handicap is the connector - the last time I had a PS/2 in my machine was a decade ago.

The kids were very sad when they heard the mouse won't work so I had to do something.

Fortunately there was an old USB laser optical mouse lying in my drawer, so I decided to combine the USB electronics with the KitKat case.

I had to move the button switches a bit to fit the KitKat layout.
Were I doing it again, I'd keep the switches part of the KitKat PCB as it'd save me some time I spend adjusting it to match the mouse buttons.

I submitted this to TheHackadayPrize hoping to get some Hackaday stickers :-)

Discussions

Tachyon wrote 07/11/2014 at 22:16

$2.85 at DX - http://www.dx.com/p/slim-usb-2-0-to-ps-2-adapter-dongle-1440

Are you sure? yes | no

tropikhajma wrote 07/12/2014 at 20:35

surely something that might arrive in a month and would fall apart in a few days (as confirmed by most reviewers there) would fit my needs ...

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Tachyon wrote 07/11/2014 at 15:20

I have a drawer full of dongles that convert PS/2 to USB, they came with every mouse we bought at work for years. Much simpler to replicate the dongle than Frankenstein the mouse.

Are you sure? yes | no

tropikhajma wrote 07/11/2014 at 17:14

these are USB to PS/2, as the USB mice can switch to the PS/2 protocol.
My mouse is so old it has no clue about USB, so a simple dongle like yours wouldn't work, even if it had the connectors the other way round.
True PS/2 to USB adaptors cost something like $20

Are you sure? yes | no

Blue Ice wrote 06/24/2014 at 15:10

No, the protocols are completely different. You could use an adapter, though.

Are you sure? yes | no

[ E C C 0 ] wrote 06/20/2014 at 17:51

I think you can just cut the PS/2 wire and solder a usb one...

Are you sure? yes | no

Make a KitKat mouse work again

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