Assistive Foot Mouse (Laser Cut)

thingiverse

Due to injury, some people are not able to use a computer mouse with their hand. If you have a Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, using the mouse with your feet could allow you to use a computer with less pain. I personally, have struggled with trigger finger in both of my hands and it got to the point where mouse clicking became excruciatingly painful. I had surgery in both hands but it didn't work. When I realized that I may have to change careers, I got creative and came up with this floor mouse. I have used variations of this mouse for 10+ years and I can tell you it has made a huge impact on my career and my life. My injury is much less painful now. *Note: using a mouse with your feet is not sexy. It won't make you faster at using the computer, in fact, it will slow you down. This is meant to be an assistive device for those with upper extremity disabilities.* This design is very simple. Mouse movement is done with the right foot and clicking is done with the left foot by pressing switches against a board. You will have a sort of “slipper” for each foot. Each foot will slide the slipper around just like you slide the mouse around with your hand on a mouse pad. In fact, you will still use a mouse pad -- just a much bigger one and instead of the mouse sitting on your desk, it will be sitting on the floor in front of your chair. # Project Description You will not be "making" a mouse in this project but instead you will modifying an existing mouse. In order to click with the left foot, you will need to re-wire the switches and move them to the left slipper. If you are unfamiliar with a "switch", think of an arcade game button that you push. That is exactly what we will be using although I prefer a slightly smaller switch that isn't as noisy. You will have a switch for the left mouse button, and another for the right mouse button. Instead of pushing down on the left mouse button with your finger, you will slide the foot pad to the left and press the switch against a small board. You will hear a nice satisfying "click" sound when you slide the foot pad into the board. Performing a double-click might take some practice but you will get used to sliding the foot pad and clicking the board twice in succession. "Click, click", you just double-clicked with your foot! Now, to do a right-click, you will slide your left foot forward and press the right-click switch into the upper portion of the board. The right-foot is for mouse movement. The reason why I picked the right-foot is because I am right-handed and moving the mouse around with my right-foot feels natural for me. If you want to reverse the design to make it work better for a left-handed user, you may do this by changing the layout in the design files. The design files are provided in both Adobe Illustrator and SVG formats so you can modify them yourself. The overall functionality of the mouse after completion is simple, however, building it is not. This project is very hands on and it will take several hours to complete. There are supplies and tools you will need to buy if you don’t already have them. These are listed in the Supplies section. In addition to the laser cutter work, you will take apart a mouse, remove the left and right switches, and solder extension wires in their place. Next you will take the laser cut pieces of wood and glue them according to the instructions. You will solder the switches to the wires you attached in place of the previous switches on the mouse. Finally, there will be more gluing and after it’s all dry you will have your very own floor mouse. # Supplies you need to buy: 1 Logitech M510 Mouse (this model exactly) https://amz.run/67er 2 Philmore push button switches https://tinyurl.com/mr42ce4n Solder (lead is easier to work with) https://amz.run/67nL Wire https://amz.run/67f4 Super Sliders https://amz.run/69AY XXL Mouse Pad https://amz.run/67mz Wood Glue Hot Glue Sticks 1/8" thick birch plywood about 17" x 17" # Tools you will need: Small phillips screw driver https://amz.run/67eq Large flat head screw driver for taking the mouse apart Sharp cutting pliers for the wires https://amz.run/67ep Desoldering Iron https://amz.run/69sn Soldering Iron https://amz.run/67f1 Helping Hands (not required) https://amz.run/67fA Wire Strippers https://amz.run/67lJ, https://amz.run/67lK, or generic Hot Glue Gun # Items to 3D Print https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:456900 by enef. Download and print flexbatterAAx2.stl https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5648145 print 2 copies # Instructions ### Disassemble Logitech M510 Mouse There are only 2 screws that hold this mouse together and they are in the battery compartment. After unscrewing them, use a flathead screwdriver to remove the shell of the mouse until you are looking at the circuit board. Throw the scroll wheel away. Save the usb dongle. Unplug the power cable and remove the battery compartment. We are going to desolder the two black switches towards the front of the mouse. Those are the right and left-click switches. ### Remove Switches and Rewire Take your wire and solder it in place of the missing black switches. Wire color doesn’t matter. Just make sure to solder the wires onto the first two slots. The third one will be left empty. ### Solder Wires to Switch and Screw into 3D Printed Nut You should have 3D printed two copies of thing:5648145, which is kind of like a long nut that the switch will screw into. You need to solder each wire-pair to a switch but before doing that, thread the two wires through the long nut (thing:5648145). ### Glue Like You’ve Never Glued Before You should have laser cut a bunch of pieces for the foot pads. The laser cuttings should include an outline of each mouse. You need to glue 5 pieces together with wood glue. This will give enough height so there will be enough height clearance for the battery. Each foot pad should have 4 sections. Once you are done gluing each 5-piece section, you will glue those in their respective spots on the foot pad. Note, there should be a gap in the front of the longer foot pad to allow the switch cables to pass into the foot pad. ### Final Assembly Glue the left-click switch on the left side of the left foot pad and the right-click switch to the top of the foot pad. Make sure to test it out before you glue to make sure which button does what.