How does the mouse used daily work on a daily basis, maybe many people have not thought about this problem carefully, right? Why does it slide "where to point" freely on the screen, and how does a mouse click translate into an action? Also, why do mice sometimes have combos, and where is the problem? If you also have these articles, we can dive into them and find out.
The birth of a mouse
On December 9, 1968, the world's first mouse was born, and the original intention of the inventor to design the mouse was to make the operation of the computer easier to replace the cumbersome instructions of the keyboard. The original mouse was a small wooden box, and the working principle was that the ball at the bottom of it drove the pivot to rotate, and the rheostat changed the resistance to generate a displacement signal, and the signal could follow the movement through the cursor on the screen processed by the computer.
The real popularity of the mouse only happened after Apple bought the license to produce the mouse for forty thousand dollars. The famous Lisa computer was the first standard mouse, and the matching mouse was distinguished in that it used a steel ball instead of the rubber ball of the modern mouse that appeared later.
In 1982, Logitech invented the world's first photoelectric mechanical mouse, which is when the basic structure of the mouse was mature, and the mice we use so far have not got rid of the original design ideas.
In 1999, the optical mouse was born, and Agilent introduced the world's first LED-based optical mouse product. This kind of mouse does not need to work on the mouse pad, and has made a decisive breakthrough in optical positioning technology.
How does a mouse work?
The accuracy of the cursor when operating the mouse depends mainly on the relationship between the sensor (scroll wheel or photoelectric sensor) and the holding part. A poorly designed mouse that does not guide the user to use the mouse in a more comfortable way can also result in poor pointer accuracy. Taking the optical mouse we use the most daily as an example, the internal structure of a mouse is mainly composed of PCB circuit board (including light-emitting diodes, optical engine sensors, main control chips, optical lenses, etc.), with grating rollers or mechanical rollers (non-grating rollers), ABS material shells, buttons, wires (or wireless transceivers), micro switches, optical lenses.
So how does a mouse work? The optical mouse is first shot at a 30-degree angle to a flat surface, such as a tabletop, through the LED light on the bottom, and by illuminating the shadows created by the rough surface (no matter how smooth it seems, it is actually potholes), and through the refraction of the plane, it is fed back to the sensor through the lens. When you move the mouse, the optical engine sensor will "record" a continuous image, and then through the internal digital signal processor (DSP) to compare and analyze each picture before and after, so as to determine the direction and position of the mouse movement, so as to obtain the coordinates of the X and Y axes.
Then, it is transmitted through SPI to the miniature control unit transmitted to the mouse, that is, the main control chip. After calculation, the main control chip transmits the obtained result data to the computer either through a cable or through a wireless signal. Here, the so-called "recording" obtains a continuous image, which is actually the sample rate of the mouse. Its unit is Frames/sec (frames per second), which indicates what level of image the mouse can capture and process in one second, naturally, the higher the number, the better.
Whether the mouse is a traditional LED optical mouse, or a mouse that uses a laser as a light source, it essentially belongs to the category of optical mouse, the difference is that the laser light source belongs to coherent light, its wavelength is very single, even after long-distance transmission can still maintain its intensity and waveform, performance is stable, and LED light source is incoherent light (Incoherent Light).
The process of obtaining images from laser light sources is based on the light spots formed by the interference fringes generated by the laser irradiating on the surface of the object, and then reflected to the sensor, while the traditional LED light source is obtained by illuminating the shadow generated by the rough surface. Therefore, the laser light source can produce greater contrast to the image of the surface, so that the image obtained by the optical engine sensor is easier to identify, thereby improving the positioning accuracy of the mouse.
What is micro-motion?
In addition to the movement of the mouse pointer, how does the mouse click occur? Essentially, the vast majority of mice are triggered by microswitches.
Micro switch is a contact mechanism with a small contact interval and quick action mechanism, with the specified stroke and the specified force for switching action, covered with a shell, and its outside has a drive rod of a switch, because the contact spacing of the switch is relatively small, so the name micro switch, also known as sensitive switch. The micro switch has a tiny contact interval and a snap-action mechanism, a contact mechanism that switches with a specified stroke and force, covered by a shell, and has a transmission on the outside, and the shape is small. Microswitches are composed of 5 broad categories of components. Its contact spacing is small, the torque is large, and there is generally a drive rod outside.
The external mechanical force acts on the action reed through the transmission elements (press pins, buttons, levers, rollers, etc.), and the instantaneous action is generated when the action reed is shifted to the critical point, so that the moving contact at the end of the action reed and the fixed contact are quickly switched on or off. When the force on the transmission element is removed, the action reed generates a reverse action force, and when the reverse stroke of the transmission element reaches the critical point of the reed, the reverse action is instantaneously completed. The micro switch has small contact spacing, short action stroke, small pressing power, and fast on-off. The traditional mechanical structure micro switch, idle for a long time or long-term use, more or less physical wear and oxidation problems, will lead to poor contact, or contact position offset caused by failure to trigger, double-click and other problems. At present, manufacturers will increase the wear resistance of the spring plate to improve the life by different methods, or use alloy materials to enhance the electrical properties of the contact part.
That is to say, the micro switch is a mechanical switch, in addition to the touchpad used in notebooks, Apple's Magic Mouse mouse uses the principle of capacitive induction, the vast majority of mouse products rely on this mechanical trigger switch to achieve click operation.
At present, the types of micro switches can be divided into traditional micro-motion, silent micro-motion, optical micro-motion and other major types, micro-motion brands are mainly Omron, Panasonic, Cherry, IC, ZIPPY, TTC, Kaihua, Shuangfeiyan, Fuller, Huanuo, etc.
From the perspective of trigger life, from 5 million times to 60 million times, of course, entry-level, mid-range mouse products use 5 million to 10 million times of products, 20 million times or even 60 million times of products, or high-end mouse standard, DIY users buy and replace it on their own. In fact, the vast majority of mouse damage is just a failure of the microswitch, and the optical engine and main control chip are good.
How does the scroll wheel work?
In addition to the buttons, another important component of the mouse is the scroll wheel, which actually appeared much later than the mouse. In 1995, the mouse wheel appeared Genius invented the "multi-dimensional hybrid mouse device", the purpose of which is to control the mouse movement more conveniently. It adds a gelatinized plastic scroll wheel between the two standard mouse buttons, which can also be used as a button. In addition, scrolling it makes it easy to scroll the window page.
The scroll wheel design of the mouse generally includes two types, one is a grating scroll wheel and the other is a mechanical scroll wheel. At present, mechanical rollers occupy a dominant position. Compared with the grating structure roller, the mechanical encoder wheel has the advantages of easy installation, simple structure, easy main control programming, etc., and most of the mice at present use the mechanical encoder structure to make the mouse wheel. Unlike grating rollers, the core element of a mechanical roller consists of only one mechanical encoder to get the job done. The mouse wheel rolls to rotate the turntable in the encoder, and the contacts on the turntable are in contact with the fixed contacts inside the encoder to generate an on-off signal.
In contrast, the advantage of grating rollers over mechanical rollers is that the rolling is more accurate, but its mechanical structure determines that the life is not as durable as grating rollers. The grating roller is a symmetrical design with the pivot point centered on the roller. The axle fulcrum of the mechanical roller is actually biased to one side, and the force is not uniform when used for a long time, and the life is naturally worse. In addition, the rolling feeling and durable quality of mechanical rollers are very dependent on the materials and designs of roller manufacturers, and some low-priced products are poor durability due to poor materials.
Interestingly, the cost of grating rollers is actually higher than that of mechanical rollers, which I am afraid that many people did not expect, the same level of mouse products, if the use of grating rollers, its price must be higher than the use of mechanical rollers. In addition to the accuracy problem, cost problem, grating roller competition but mechanical roller another important willingness to be in the power consumption problem - more and more mice use wireless design, whether it is 2.4GHz products or Bluetooth products, in order to extend the battery life as much as possible, will try to optimize, grating roller is essentially based on electrical signals to judge, power consumption problems are always insurmountable - mechanical rollers only have conduction, disconnection problems, do not consume any electrical energy, therefore, Grating wheels have been abandoned by mouse manufacturers.