Foot Mouswitch...with (at Last) an Upgrade !

... or how to recicle a dead mouse and make an usefull fott switch from it and discarded pc parts.

the idea borns from a need to turn on and off the soldering iron without the need of being plug and unplugging it from the wall, then i need a switch that can be switched on and off only with the foot. then i look for some parts in the workshop, and i found what i need

i have made a little video about how it works the url is :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKwV-S9Xe94

well i think that the image says more than a lot of words ... first we have a mouse that for any reason doesn't work, we'll use only the chassis. we need also a switch from a 286 pc, the one that turns on and off the pc, please note that this switch is the type that cuts only ONE wire, not both at the same time . as you see, is thiner than the other type. we need also a electrical contact, removed from a wall type. another thing that we need is a electrical cord, you can get it elsewere in the house BUT NOT FROM A WORKING APPLIANCE, OK? as a indicator of a working unit, we need : a led, choose a color that is clearly visible in your workshop or work space, i think is also a better choose to have an opaque type, not the clear lens type. also we need a diode that can be as little as possible, i have choose one from a discarded Mainboard... i think!!. also we need a (104) caramic capacitor, also the littlest the better! and finally a 1k REsistor, 1/8 Watt will be enough for the little disipation of the circuit.

now is time to prepare the mouse case to fit inside all the components. we need to quit all the things that are not useful in the project. you must remove the little component board, the base of the ball if it has some container or anything like that, obviously the mouse cable. also you need to cut a notch in a side of the mouse case to acommodate the contact that will be screwed there. and make a hole to be passed with the lever of the switch , and others for the screws. is so easy to see that to explain so just see the photos

again a circuit saws more than the words and i don't think that it deserves a lot of explanation about the construccion and how it works. the circuit as you see is so simple , the capacitive reactance of the poliester capacitor blocks feeds the circuit to a level safe to the LED, the 1n914 bloks the half cycle of the ac current that we don't use to protect the LED, and the resistor also protect the LED and gives a tiny current to feed it.

well now is time to wire all, and i think that is more easy to understand looking at the circuit than explaining each part of the mouswitch. please read first and understand all the steps before do anything. on the begining we have the current cord, one of it the wires goes to one of the poles of the switch. leave enough wire to work comfortably, if you cout then so close will be difficult to accomodate all inside the case of the mouse. from the other pole of the switch run a wire to a pole of the contact, you have finish that part. the free wire that you have now goes directly to the free pole of the contact, just screw it thereand almost all its done! the indicator led is wired in paralel with the switch . so you can solder it at the same time you solder the cables atached to it.

now time to test all !! .

at little last but finally made how to do it, i have a way to see at a glance if the mouswitch is conected to the line (127 VCA) and a change in this light to see when the aplliance connected to it its being feed with the line voltage

i dont remember from where i found the circuit (if anybody can help me with that i glad so much) but with a little changes on values of the resistors the circuit make exactly what i want.

parts you needed

just some components , all of these came from the junkbox so i have no information about the voltage value of the bicolor led (i think i savage it from a telmex mode but im not shure)

1n4007 diode (x2)

15 KOhm 2watts, wire wound resistor (x2)

a bicolor led , i have a green/red or a green/yellow one i choose the last

how it works

nothing more simple than this : when the switch is open the line voltage goes through the first 15 k resistor , the diode 1n4007 and the green side of the bicolor led, after that goes to the other 15 kohm resistor and the other 1n 4007 diode to ground

wuen you close the switch , tle lazy current now flows to the yellow (or red if you like) part of the bicolor led, and the 15k - in4007 pair in common connection of the led, to the neutral wire of the line, alowwing the current to flow to the charge you use , in muy case the solder iron

as i say, a pair of 1n4007 diode, a pair of 15 k resistors and the bi-color led

see the images for description

being all inside the case of the mousitch and routing the wires to avoid damaging them when you close it, you can see how when you connect the mouswitch to the line the led lit green , indicating that is gentting power, and when you press the switch, the led turns yellow to indicate the "be careful , load powered" state

in the video you can see my old multimeter connected to the output of the mouswitch, indicating when it draws (a negligible 2.7 v ) no power to the load, and when you press the switch, the change indicated by the "beep beep" of the instrument to indicate that you have full line voltage available at the output of the mouswitch

thanks for visit and for watching, if you did it i like to see your version of mouswitch , share it !