larryh@techbook.com (Larry Hutchinson) (06/22/91)
Yesterday I got feed up with my jerky mouse and decided to take the damn
thing apart and find out what the problem was. I came to the conclusion
that minute flecks of gunk contaminate one or both of two rotating contact
wheels and/or the sliding contact fingers. (Early Apple mice used an
optical wheel.)
The solution then is to somehow clean the wheel &/or fingers. One way that
comes to mind is to spritz the wheel with contact cleaner while spinning the
shaft. Not having any contact cleaner, I simply tried to blow as much dust
away as I could with my mouth. Now, I also removed the back covers from the
wheels, lifted the contacts and then let them snap back in place so I don't
know if just blowing at the dust away works by itself. At any rate my mouse
works fine now. Of course if your mouse is still under warranty, just get
a new mouse.
If you decide to take your mouse apart, be aware that some gizmos will fall
out if you hold it upside down with the top shell off.
IMHO, Apple could fix the problem by enclosing the wheels in a dust tight
housing.
Larry Hutchinson
WaveMetrics@AppleLink.Apple.COM
or...
--
larryh@techbook.COM ...!{tektronix!nosun,uunet}techbook!larryh
Public Access UNIX at (503) 644-8135 (1200/2400) Voice: +1 503 646-8257
Public Access User --- Not affiliated with TECHbookslarryh@techbook.com (Larry Hutchinson) (06/23/91)
In article <1991Jun22.163648.12548@techbook.com> larryh@techbook.com (Larry Hutchinson) writes: > >shaft. Not having any contact cleaner, I simply tried to blow as much dust >away as I could with my mouth. Now, I also removed the back covers from the Directly after posting the above, the mouse on may machine at home started giving me problems so I tried the blowing technique. Guess what? The mouse horizontal motions stopped entirely. Even after diddling with the contacts I got very little motion. I then took out my handy-dandy voltmeter and found that one of the two sliding contacts was acting like it was nearly grounded while the other merrily went between 4 volts and ground as I rotated the shaft. After a while, it magically began to work properly. I suspect that I managed to spit all over the damn thing a probably shorted the contact to ground with a droplet of spit. Moral is: "If you blow your mouse be sure to use spit free air." :-) -- larryh@techbook.COM ...!{tektronix!nosun,uunet}techbook!larryh Public Access UNIX at (503) 644-8135 (1200/2400) Voice: +1 503 646-8257 Public Access User --- Not affiliated with TECHbooks
philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) (06/23/91)
In article <1991Jun22.174710.13192@techbook.com>, larryh@techbook.com (Larry Hutchinson) writes: |> Moral is: "If you blow your mouse be sure to use spit free air." :-) Even better idea: use a mouse pad. My Mac mouse hasn't needed cleaning in 3 months. (Is this a aprticular feature of Apple mice? My DECstation mouse is quite happy to operate on an unadorned desktop.) -- Philip Machanick philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
gile@quads.uchicago.edu (Aaron Giles) (06/23/91)
In article <1991Jun23.013534.18689@neon.Stanford.EDU> philip@pescadero.stanford.edu writes: >(Is this a aprticular feature of Apple mice? My DECstation >mouse is quite happy to operate on an unadorned desktop.) Yes, but if you look at your DECstation mouse, you'll see that it operates quite differently from an Apple mouse -- no rolling ball to collect all that dust! :-) ============================================================================= Aaron Giles | "You can't have everything -- gile@midway.uchicago.edu | where would you put it?" (Steven Wright) =============================================================================
philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) (06/24/91)
In article <1991Jun23.144653.7803@midway.uchicago.edu>, gile@quads.uchicago.edu (Aaron Giles) writes: |> Yes, but if you look at your DECstation mouse, you'll see that it operates |> quite differently from an Apple mouse -- no rolling ball to collect all that |> dust! :-) No, the DECstation does not use an optical mouse. It _does_ have a rolling ball - it just seems to be a better design (from the point of view of not picking up dirt). -- Philip Machanick philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
stanger@otago.ac.nz (Nigel Stanger) (06/24/91)
In article <1991Jun23.201958.12639@neon.Stanford.EDU>, philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) writes: > In article <1991Jun23.144653.7803@midway.uchicago.edu>, gile@quads.uchicago.edu (Aaron Giles) writes: > |> Yes, but if you look at your DECstation mouse, you'll see that it operates > |> quite differently from an Apple mouse -- no rolling ball to collect all that > |> dust! :-) > No, the DECstation does not use an optical mouse. It _does_ have > a rolling ball - it just seems to be a better design (from the > point of view of not picking up dirt). Interesting - what sort of DECStation mice do you have? Ours don't have a ball at all - they have a rather intriguing setup with two shafts (mybe the ball's *inside* the mouse??), one for the horizontal, one for vertical. They have these funny sort of angled "feet" on them which spin when moved across the desktop. Rather neat really. -- See ya Nigel. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Nigel Stanger, Internet: stanger@otago.ac.nz c/o University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Phone: +64 3 479-8179 Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND. Fax: +64 3 479-8311 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "If I had a quote, I'd be wearing it." -- Bob Dylan ----------------------------------------------------------------------
edgar@function.mps.ohio-state.edu (Gerald Edgar) (06/24/91)
The System 7 manual (at least) has instructions for cleaning a mouse. -- Gerald A. Edgar Internet: edgar@mps.ohio-state.edu Department of Mathematics Bitnet: EDGAR@OHSTPY The Ohio State University telephone: 614-292-0395 (Office) Columbus, OH 43210 -292-4975 (Math. Dept.) -292-1479 (Dept. Fax)
reynhout@cs.uri.edu (Andrew Reynhout) (06/25/91)
In article <1991Jun22.163648.12548@techbook.com> larryh@techbook.com (Larry Hutchinson) writes: >Yesterday I got feed up with my jerky mouse and decided to take the damn >thing apart and find out what the problem was. I came to the conclusion >that minute flecks of gunk contaminate one or both of two rotating contact >wheels and/or the sliding contact fingers. > >The solution then is to somehow clean the wheel &/or fingers. For what it's worth, and if you haven't seen it elsewhere: Apple is recalling some mouses, serial numbers AP038xxxxxx - AP103xxxxxx, bearing the marking "Made in USA." Apparently you can just take them to an authorized Apple reseller, and they'll replace them at no charge. The same holds for another item, the power supply for the portable(?), bearing "Made in Japan." I forget the numbers, and I didn't write them down, since I don't have a portable and I don't have any users that have portables. I had a similar problem with a mouse on an SE...My problem turned out to be that the fingers were lifted away from the rotating board, only making inter- mittent contact. My solution was to gut an IBM mouse and take the roller assembly from there. (I don't remember who the OEM on the IBM mouse was, but I did notice that the insides of the two mouses were made by the same company.) I was worried that the contact spacings might be different (causing the mouse to track at different speeds for each axis,) but it's working perfectly. I will say, though, that soldering onto Saran Wrap is a bit of a challenge if you're stuck without solder wick... :-) Andrew PS: recall information gleaned from the latest issue of MacWeek. Yes, I *do* get *that* bored at work... -- <reynhout@cs.uri.edu>
pvo@cactus.org (Peter Van Overen) (06/26/91)
The first time I took a look at the inside of the "new" Apple mouse (the one characterized as low power), I was horrified at the cheapness of the mechanism. These turkeys are doomed to fail after a relatively short time, compared to the optical mice Apple used to make. What a piece of garbage! I dread to think what a replacement will cost when the one year warranty timer in the mechanical mouse times out... Anybody have an idea? Apple must be buying these things for no more than $10, judging from the components within. Oh well, with the advent of the upcoming pen based interface, I'm sure that by the time our cheesy mechanical mice wear out we'll be fixed up with new pens and tablets (aspirin, probably!) :-).