Custom Wooden Mouse

Functional ambidextrous mouse constructed out of wood with a Teensy 3.1 and a laser sensor.

Jeremy Cook
3 years ago

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.

Jeremy Cook
Engineer, maker of random contraptions, love learning about tech. Write for various publications, including Hackster!
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