Mouse hack - 4 legged sensor?!?

[jerryjanis]

Hello,

I ordered a pile of USB ball mice for hacking, and it hasn't gone as smoothly as I might have hoped.

[SirPeale]

Can you get a better picture of the top and bottom?  Use the close-up setting on your camera, it's usually denoted with what looks like a small flower.

[quarterback]

What are each of the 4 legs (x1, x2, +5v, G or something else entirely)?

looks like one of them (the top left) isn't connected to anything

[SirPeale]

What are each of the 4 legs (x1, x2, +5v, G or something else entirely)?

looks like one of them (the top left) isn't connected to anything

It may be on the top.  Thru hole soldering is a pain.  That's why I wanted clearer pics.

[jerryjanis]

That's right - all of the legs a connected.  Some on the top surface of the circuit board and some on the bottom.  I will post more pictures tonight. 

[SirPoonga]

My original mouse hack was like this.  Ground is usually obvious.  Then I just trial and errors the others until it worked.

BTW, in that second pic you are highlighting the emitter pins.  You want the other set of pins
It is odd the emitter is 4 pin, usually those are just a led.

Looking at the right pins at initial top and bottom pics you provided I;d say the right pins (when looking at the bottom side pic) are power (?) and ground.  the other two are data.

Though, you don't need to know this at all.  Find the IC at http://www.datasheetarchive.com/ and figure out which pins are x+, x-, y+, and x-.   The rest should be obvious.

[SirPoonga]

Jerry, checkout the datasheetarchive (http://www.datasheetarchive.com/) for your mouse's chip and figure out what each pin does.  Probably easier to go that route than figure out what the pins on the IR componants do.