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| Circuit board from a computer mouse. © Eugene Brennan. |
I've
been struggling with the left button on my cordless optical mouse for
the last six weeks or so. The momentary microswitch for the left button
has worn out (they're good for something like 100,000 operations) and a
single click is frequently doing a double click, which is really
frustrating (known as "switch bounce"). I replaced the switch today with
one harvested from a mouse I bought from Dealextreme and which only
lasted a week before breaking down. I have a pack of five microswitches
on order from AliExpress, but the double-click symptoms were getting
worse and I couldn't wait any longer to fix the problem.
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| Eugene Brennan |
To get an idea
of the size of the switches, they're 6 mm square as shown in the photo below.
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| © Eugene Brennan |
This is the second time I've replaced the switch on this
particular mouse due to it wearing out from use. It's a Microsoft
Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 4000 that's very ergonomic and a
"Goldilocks" product: not too big or small, comfortable in the palm and
the scroll wheel has a really smooth movement. The product is no longer
manufactured and the replacement Microsoft mouse hasn't had good
reviews. Also computer mice can't normally be "test driven" in stores
because they're usually blister-packed, hence my decision to keep fixing
this one.
Related reading: My guide to cleaning the scroll wheel on a mouse.