USB Mouse wire breakage
 

I have had a recently had to USB mice gotten intermittent (mouse only works when wire in certain position).
I have found out the are actually quite easy to repair,
all you need is solder, something to solder with, soldering experience, wire stripers and tape:

• Open the mouse
• Cut the wire about 1/2 inch (12mm) from where the wire passes from outside to inside (inside).
• strip both ends of the wire being careful not to break it
• resolder the wires being careful to match the colors
• tape each wire
• reassemble the mouse (this could be fun)

Worked twice and a row.
I find the USB mice have cheap cords.

Well...I suppose if you are very bored you could do that, but since USB mice go for around $5 online anymore, it doesn't seem worth the trouble.

I find just about anything these days comes with cheap cords, crappy plastic parts, etc.. So many products are in need of an 'upgrade' even when they are brand new off the shelf :/

Myself, I tend to repair this stuff rather than toss it and replace it, since I always have loads of soldering equipment and all that.

One thing I'd suggest though for this type of work, is to bift out the tape and switch to heat-shrink tubing. It's really one of the best things ever invented; if it were edible, I'd be eating that instead of sliced bread :p

Sasha

It IS edible. Digestible might be a different story however;)

I agree with that. I never saw a mouse whose cord got disconnected inside, though. If it did, I would definitely rather solder it back than get a new mouse, as I have a soldering iron and can solder pretty well. I have even assembled a few surface-mount boards!

But I had a mouse whose wheel was broken, if you scrolled the page would jitter up and down instead of scrolling. Turns out they used a mechanical encoder instead of a slotted wheel and optical sensors!

But I have had mice whose wheel became hard to turn and would skip, but taking the mouse apart and rubbing down every part of it with rubbing alcohol always fixed it.

I think that's a good idea.

I also think that heat-shrink is much better than electrical tape. Just slip it on and heat it with a hair dryer, and it will never peel off, unravel, and cause a big sticky mess.

Well, i dont have access to heat shrink tubing so i use tape.
I am using that mouse right now.

Sasha feeds damaged mice to her python. :)

You really are a troll LOL.

atrollolololol

She's NOT a PYTHON :mad:

LOL.

Sorry...BOA. :redface: Sasha feeds damaged mice to her BOA CONSTRICTOR.

I feed damaged mice to my cat ... or rather it feeds itself upon them.

j/k, I wouldn't let my cat eat my mouse ... and it has never tried, it's a good cat.

+1 to mouse repair. I have a very nice optical 5 button + scroll wheel Kensington that had the cord break near the front. Best mouse I ever had so I repaired it!

On and added note, never by something with a wind-up cord. They twist and knot the cord inside to reduce the stress of winding the cord. This actually does nothing and the cord will break very quickly.

I am still using my first mouse I ever owned, circa 2003 Logitech optical scroll mouse. It's just great :) and though I have two other mouses (good ones as well as a couple junk spares) I still prefer this Logitech. No reason to replace it; and I've repaired and lengthened the cord at least twice (since rabbits chewed through it -- it has never broken on its own)