Custom Wooden Mouse
Functional ambidextrous mouse constructed out of wood with a Teensy 3.1 and a laser sensor.
Off-the-shelf keyboard/mouse input devices work well in most situations, for most people. Of course, no two people are the same, and there’s a burgeoning array of custom input devices, both as products and DIY pursuits. In Pepijn de Vos’s case, he has fairly large hands, and wanted a comfortable mouse for his particular grip dimensions. More uniquely, he wanted his mouse to be made out of wood.
The build process for his new device is outlined here in a series of images. First he created a clay model to get the shape he wanted, then made a wooden mock-up, before putting the final mouse design together. The device is made to be ambidextrous, and the buttons are cleverly formed by splitting a piece of wood down the middle, angled downward toward the front. These wooden button straddle a scroll wheel (also made out of wood), and flex to input right and left clicks as required.
The mouse uses a Teensy 3.1 for overall HID control, along with an ADNS-9800 laser motion sensor to track the mouse’s movements. A pair of small switches sense clisks, and an encoder tracks scrolling. Components are soldered into place on a piece of cut perfboard.
It’s quite an inspirational build, both in terms of what can be done with wood/glue/experimentation, and per its fairly straightforward electronics setup. Code for the project is available on GitHub.
