If you are like me you get really excited when you find two Nintendo controllers at the Salvation Army. One was priced at $1.00 and the other at $.37 (i didn’t fight the pricing). Of course, they get home and meanwhile occupy a part of my brain that is like a broken stove. There is this back burner that is constantly on. Ideas get on there and just simmer away. So the idea for one of the controllers was to make it a card reader that i can plug my sd or compact flash cards into to transfer files. Sunday morning i came up with my idea for the second one… make it a mouse.
What you’ll need for this project:
A Nintendo controller
A optical mouse
A Dremel tool
Small screwdrivers
Super glue
A hot glue gun
Wire cutters
A soldering gun and solder for electronics
Two (if you do it right) replacement buttons
Four or five hours
First open the donor and recipient up and dremel out some space for the guts (the mouse i used was perfect. I just had to leave out the scroll wheel.) Clean up the mystery child’s coagulated sweat with a powerful cleaning product.
Aw heck, i don’t have the patience for a complete tutorial – i just spent the better part of the day working on it. Here’s the narrative… Hack and cut. make the guts fit. Open a hole for the sensor to shine through on the bottom. Glue the sensor’s clear plastic reflector thing down in place. Remove the buttons from the mouse circuit board carefully. Solder spare wire (i used telephone wire but you could use the wire from the Nintendo controller) onto the board so that you can use the A button as your left click and the B button as your right. Solder carefully. Attach the replacement buttons. Mine were from a dead stereo. Yes, i keep dead stereo electronics around. You should see the collections of crap i have. I had to bend some sort of barrel thing on the circuit board in order for the case to fit. One of the contacts pulled out of the board (as i had expected) and i soldered an extension for it. I cut a piece of the nintendo controller off to fit behind the 4 way rocker so it would feel like it iriginally did. The start and select buttons didn’t have enough space behind them to allow that. I hot glued the hollow part of the A and B buttons so they would contact the buttons i had put behind them. I hot glued the mouse board and the replacement buttons in place once that was all calculated out. I wrapped the cord for the mouse around the posts that prevent the cord from being pulled out. I reassembled and tested and had to take it apart and carve out some hot glue because the A or “left” button wouldn’t click. Here are some pictures…
On the top side the only apparent difference is that the cord is grey and it has a usb plug at the end. The bottom side had the opening for the sensor. The only thing i would do differently is to cover the inside a little better – there are a few points that red light penetrates the sticker on the top of the controller because the plastic case has holes drilled in it. I considered putting the scroll wheel in because i really prefer my mice with them. It could be done fairly easily but i wanted to keep the form factor. The wheel would have come out right between the red buttons and the “Nintendo” logo. Using the controller you put your palm over the 4 way control and your index finger on the A button. I have been using the novelty mouse ever since finishing it six hours ago.
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Also featured in The Crafter Culture Handbook by AmySpencer.
[...] who are technically challenged as the product looks nice, but building it is actually simple. Click here to see the [...]
[...] [source] [...]
That’s bloody brilliant ! =P now if only you could add a scroll button. But that would ruin the retro look
[...] Learn how now! [...]
[...] to keep your hand on all day, but come on! It’s an NES controller! How can you resist? [Product Page via [...]
[...] maybe I could build a new NES-inspired computer, complete with an NES controller mouse and card reader, and maybe even a cartridge hard [...]
[...] maybe I could build a new NES-inspired computer, complete with an NES controller mouse and card reader, and maybe even a cartridge hard [...]
[...] Comando NES, transformado em rato óptico Quem tiver uma Nintendo NES parada em casa, com um comando a mais, pode fazer algo realmente Geek. Transformar o vosso comando num rato óptico. Manual aqui. [...]
wow!!!! i like the idea :D !!!!!!!!!!!
[...] Product Page via Geekologie [...]
[...] Product Page via Geekologie [...]
I dont get the thing with replacement button? Why do you need them?
Im going to do that but probably use a wireless mouse to create a wireless but this will go perfect with my computer because my computer is entirely super mario bros. Lol but i think it would be better or if i could make a computer remote cuz i am constantly watching movies on my computer
i wanna hack QUAKE 3 online, a bathroom mirror, lcd screen, an electric tooth brush, and a mini web cam to make the worlds first in-mouth first person shooter, imagine 50 kids in russia high scoring your teeth into blinding whiteness.
[...] 7th, 2007 Can we give this guy the Nobel Peace Price? He took apart an optical laser mouse and reinstalled it inside a NES controller. If you could see [...]
dude im a runescape person i could use to pk it would be so much easier
i just made mine from a SNES. pretty sweet. I used the now empty mouse and an old flash drive and I now have a SNES mouse and a mouse flash drive. :-D Thanks for the inspiration
[...] there anything the awesome NES controller can’t do? This awesome little hack project can be done with a cheap old mouse and an old NES controller. I wonder what else you could stuff in [...]
You rock!!!(I want to make one for myself^^)
what are the controls for snes
Wow what a great idea. I have been trying to decide what to do with my non working excess controllers and will have to consider this!
[...] a fully fledged computer mouse. Check out the project write-up to see how it’s made. PyroFactor: Read Permalink | Email This [...]
[...] est tout simplement géniale! Basé sur une réalisation du même genre qui donna par contre une seconde vie à une ancienne manette de jeux NES, cet iPod vidéo 5G [...]
[...] posible, recuperando su utilidad. Tal como lo hizo stefferroo de Craftster: basado en el manual del control de Nintendo a mouse, y con un poco de relleno, ha logrado desafiar a la muerte electrónica y mantener, al menos en [...]
[...] of your lame, average looking mouse? Worry no longer! Turn your old NES controller into a mouse [...]
Wow. This is awesome. I love the quick and dirty instructions. I think I will go through $300 in mice and controllers before I get this right!