I finally bought a 3D printer and thought I would make my own custom mouse. There has been a lot of development with different 3D-printed mice these past few years. Most seem to focus on shaving off weight, which is nice, and a few are even trying some odd shapes and techniques. I have made a simple mouse, a kind of quick and dirty attempt, but now I'm currently working on a more advanced shape that is my ideal candidate for mastering the lg%.
Most hobbyist 3D-printed mods available are based around Razer hardware, a brand I've sworn to never support again. So while I like to follow what's going on, I won't try any of those. Plus, it's much more fun to try making stuff yourself, right?
A month ago, I pulled the trigger on a 3D printer, the Bambu Lab A1 Mini. Inexpensive and decent quality, it's a smaller size but still produces nice quality prints. It won't do all the materials in the world, but for my purposes, it seems to be just perfect. And it has been co-operating well with me.
I don't have a lot of experience in 3D software, but enough to power through and get stuff done at least. I have gone through 1kg of plastic by now, trying to explore what shapes might be interesting and attempting to dial in the perfect one for me.
For me, a small and light mouse is ideal. My current favorite after trying A LOT of different mice is the HSK Pro 4K. I use a claw grip and prefer small and light mice, and it's a nice mouse for that. But I have always thought about placing buttons more vertically on a mouse, where you push less downward and more towards yourself. This kind of fits in with the claw grip style, I imagine.
For internals, there really isn't a good option to design and order your own PCBs, since the best sensors require a minimum order quantity that turns something fun into something really expensive quickly. I don't want a thousand PAW3395 sensors to make one mouse. So I have settled with butchering mice and transferring the internals to my 3D-printed prototypes.
I made some early attempts at doing a "simple" mouse that is more in line with what others have tried, so I took the internals from a Darmoshark M5 and just made a ton of different prototypes. This works, and I've played some hours on it; it's lighter (~20-25g) than the HSK Pro 4K and moves really well. It was a fun attempt, but not really the dream mouse I want to make. Just something to pass the time while figuring out the more odd and advanced mouse. Anyway, here are some pics of that, a simple one to just try stuff.
For the second mouse, my more crazy idea of a mouse, the internals from the Keychron M4 mouse seemed to be the best fit, since the PCB is split into two parts. One part for mouse1/2/3+scroll and a separate part for the sensor and battery. This means I can try my idea with angled buttons more "easily" (nothing is easy, but yeah).
Those two PCBs are connected by 10 pins that overlap; you push down one PCB on top of the other kind of. Not really sure why they did that, since their layout doesn't seem to require it. But maybe they reuse a PCB design from another mouse or something. I'm happy anyhow, since I can use it for my stupid idea. The only problem is connecting the two PCBs, but after ordering half of AliExpress, I managed to create my own little cable that connects the two boards with a larger distance between them.
So I've made a ton of different shapes just trying to feel what works best. Right now, I think I have something I want to try and make into a working prototype. Some pics of that process are below. The idea is to have a grip that feels very relaxed; if I just lay my hand on the mouse pad, I want something close to that. Making a "sled" for the PCBs, fitting nice buttons, and getting the scroll wheel to feel natural is probably going to be a bit tricky. Just getting buttons to be at the perfect spot, where they rest on the switches without pushing on them, is going to take a few tries. And trying to play EQL with Link at the same time. Anyway, I will keep at it and try to post an update in a few weeks hopefully.
Most hobbyist 3D-printed mods available are based around Razer hardware, a brand I've sworn to never support again. So while I like to follow what's going on, I won't try any of those. Plus, it's much more fun to try making stuff yourself, right?
A month ago, I pulled the trigger on a 3D printer, the Bambu Lab A1 Mini. Inexpensive and decent quality, it's a smaller size but still produces nice quality prints. It won't do all the materials in the world, but for my purposes, it seems to be just perfect. And it has been co-operating well with me.
I don't have a lot of experience in 3D software, but enough to power through and get stuff done at least. I have gone through 1kg of plastic by now, trying to explore what shapes might be interesting and attempting to dial in the perfect one for me.
For me, a small and light mouse is ideal. My current favorite after trying A LOT of different mice is the HSK Pro 4K. I use a claw grip and prefer small and light mice, and it's a nice mouse for that. But I have always thought about placing buttons more vertically on a mouse, where you push less downward and more towards yourself. This kind of fits in with the claw grip style, I imagine.
For internals, there really isn't a good option to design and order your own PCBs, since the best sensors require a minimum order quantity that turns something fun into something really expensive quickly. I don't want a thousand PAW3395 sensors to make one mouse. So I have settled with butchering mice and transferring the internals to my 3D-printed prototypes.
I made some early attempts at doing a "simple" mouse that is more in line with what others have tried, so I took the internals from a Darmoshark M5 and just made a ton of different prototypes. This works, and I've played some hours on it; it's lighter (~20-25g) than the HSK Pro 4K and moves really well. It was a fun attempt, but not really the dream mouse I want to make. Just something to pass the time while figuring out the more odd and advanced mouse. Anyway, here are some pics of that, a simple one to just try stuff.
 |  | |
 | ||
 |  |
For the second mouse, my more crazy idea of a mouse, the internals from the Keychron M4 mouse seemed to be the best fit, since the PCB is split into two parts. One part for mouse1/2/3+scroll and a separate part for the sensor and battery. This means I can try my idea with angled buttons more "easily" (nothing is easy, but yeah).
Those two PCBs are connected by 10 pins that overlap; you push down one PCB on top of the other kind of. Not really sure why they did that, since their layout doesn't seem to require it. But maybe they reuse a PCB design from another mouse or something. I'm happy anyhow, since I can use it for my stupid idea. The only problem is connecting the two PCBs, but after ordering half of AliExpress, I managed to create my own little cable that connects the two boards with a larger distance between them.
So I've made a ton of different shapes just trying to feel what works best. Right now, I think I have something I want to try and make into a working prototype. Some pics of that process are below. The idea is to have a grip that feels very relaxed; if I just lay my hand on the mouse pad, I want something close to that. Making a "sled" for the PCBs, fitting nice buttons, and getting the scroll wheel to feel natural is probably going to be a bit tricky. Just getting buttons to be at the perfect spot, where they rest on the switches without pushing on them, is going to take a few tries. And trying to play EQL with Link at the same time. Anyway, I will keep at it and try to post an update in a few weeks hopefully.
| | |
 | ||
| |
News