Hi all, Get your free optical mouse, thanks to some dishonest (that BIG online auction website) sellers. It is being sold as a 'laser' mouse (but, it is not a laser mouse). --------------INTRO-------------- I ordered one of these units as a test bed for some experiments regarding how to reduce the power consumption of the modern laser mouse, they all tend to eat batteries and induce significant 'lag' due to crappy power management design. This email is long. However, I divided it into these subcategories, for the readers convenience. Read none, all or whatever sections might interest you. -INTRO (this section) -FREE MOUSE, HOW TO GET IT -WHAT YOU WILL RECEIVE -HACKING POTENTIAL AND ADVANCED HARDWARE RELATED INFO -MY CONSCIOUS, DO I FEEL GUILTY? -PARTING WORDS --------------FREE MOUSE, HOW TO GET IT-------------- There are currently 13 sellers (on that BIG online auction website) committing fraud by promising to deliver a laser mouse. Prices range from $3.79 to $4.19 each, with free shipping. All the sellers are from Asia (what a surprise), selling a 'Rapoo' branded product. Rapoo is possibly a legitimate vendor, but they do not list this product on their website. The sellers are listed below, along with how many different auctions they are currently running. 1 a2emx 1 sportsoe 1 guoquk2015 1 xuesth2014 2 hot_mall 3 lanscity 3 e4country To get your free mouse, go to the BIG online auction website and search for "Rapoo 1100X laser mouse". Pick your favorite color, and buy it (or 2 or 3 or more). When the unit arrives, email the seller saying you want your money back, claiming it is not a laser mouse and that the item was misrepresented. The seller will ask you to accept the product as is, and offer to refund $2.00 of the selling price if you decide to keep the mouse. Tell them you are sorry, but you need a laser mouse and have no use for an 'optical mouse' and it's sub-par performance. Ask for a complete refund, promising to leave appropriate feedback if the item is not refunded in full. In my case, I was so put off that I suggested the seller should refund the mouse AND pay my disposal fees:) I gladly settled for the complete refund though....... If they give you crap, tell them you will go to the BIG online auction website with a complaint for gross misrepresentation of the value of the product. I didn't appeal to that BIG online auction website for this model, but I did appeal to them for a similar product in the recent past. They will support your request for a refund if the cost of the return postage is more than 30 percent of the selling price! Your refund will take 2 days at most. My purchase says 'optical' mouse on the label!! And, I took it apart, isolated the 'laser' and tested it. The unit produces photons at forward currents well under .4mA, and low threshold blue vcsel lasers DO NOT exist!! It's an LED, don't let the crooks convince you otherwise:) Before closing this chapter, I should say I bought my mouse from vendor e4country. Once they knew they couldn't deny my allegation that the mouse was misrepresented, they folded fast! Enjoy your free mouse. --------------WHAT YOU WILL RECEIVE-------------- The 1100X mouse is a fine basic mouse for casual use. It's a 3 button mouse with low noise mechanical switches and a scroll wheel that is very quiet and smooth. It draws 11mA when in general slow scanning, and increases to 40mA when fast scanning. In low power mode (after the mouse isn't touched for about 7 seconds) it draws just over 1.3mA. Although the deep sleep mode power consumption is a little on the high side, it appears to have no lag when going from sleep to scanning mode. It's actually not a bad little mouse-just don't expect it to be fast enough for gaming purposes. I should also say that this mouse functions in Microshaft computers and in Linux (ubuntu) systems. No drivers, no setup, no problems. I have not tried it my my daughters MAC yet. Inside the mouse, there are some nice parts....... There is a pretty blue LED, that is very bright. It is physically smaller than most mice, definitely to small for my big hands. But for those with smaller hands, it is probably very satisfactory. It appears the scroll wheel and the L/R buttons are mechanical switches rather than led based photointerrupters (which suck lots 'o power). The wireless receiver plugs into any usb connector, even a multiport satellite type usb expander works great. --------------HACKING POTENTIAL AND ADVANCED HARDWARE RELATED INFO-------------- As I stated previously, I was hoping to use this laser mouse as a test bed for wake up sensors with the design goal of reducing power consumption and minimizing 'lag' times.....thus (eventually) removing the need for a power switch. I have several sensors that consume a few uA of supply current while actually improving the lag time. Successful sensors I have developed use: :touch/proximity modules available cheaply on that BIG online auction website :a very sensitive vibration sensor (made in the USA, but pricey at $5.00 in single quan prices :a somewhat pricey piezosensor based unit with nanopower comparator I am currently developing a single point optical full duplex transceiver combination that (hopefully) will draw no more than 25uA of supply current, with lag times under 5mS. Work continues.... The Rapoo 1100X however is not very hackable. The optical sensor chip is an 8 pin unit, but it does not have any markings on it, so I have no way to tell what type of chip is is. But, it looks very much like the Avago Tech optical sensors with various location holes on the top side of the chip. The very small holes are markings on the chip that allow precise placement of the chip without the need for adjustable optical alignment. The blue LED is easily removed and has long leads. The optical assembly (which focuses the LED light onto the optical sensor chip) is small, easily removed and contains 100 percent of the optics necessary for the mouse to work. The usb transmitter is located in a conventional chip package, with all pins available for access. But, it is not marked with the vendor or the vendors part number. The optical assembly appears reasonably efficient (unlike old style optical assemblies used in older mice). I ran some quick preliminary exams on the optics. There are no wavelength sensitive reflecting surfaces or filters in the unit. So, it should work just as well for blue/green or near IR light sources. The major problem with deep hack-ability on the Rapoo 1100X mouse is that the raw output of the optical sensor chip goes to a satellite PCB that contains the processor(s). There are 2 chips that do the processing and power management functions. However, but these chips appear to be bare die with epoxy globs used to protect the bonding wires. So, there is no (easy) way to connect to these I/O pins and the type of chip(s) isn't readily available. The microprocessor crystal is accessible, but is unmarked. The satellite board that contains the epoxy covered processor(s) is small and hardwired, no mechanical connectors used. The mouse is powered by a single AA cell, so a boost converter is needed to power the LED and the optical sensor chip. However, I cannot find an inductor on the PCB anywhere. It might be a capacitor based boost converter however, which is much easier to hide:). So, the higher voltage source remains elusive, I didn't look to hard for it however:) --------------MY CONSCIOUS, DO I FEEL GUILTY?-------------- I'm an honest person. However, 6 months ago I made a similar purchase on ebay (another 'laser' mouse model, that turned out NOT to be a laser mouse). That mouse is still being sold on that BIG online auction website, same auction title, same seller and the same description!!! These guys are crooks....so I don't feel to sorry for them. They know the mice aren't laser mice, but they continue to sell them! Most users don't know the difference, and those that do choose NOT to make waves.....so the practice continues. I submit that that only way to stop the fraud is to exploit it rather than quietly tolerating it. --------------PARTING WORDS-------------- Please send them a message by turning the tables on them-purchase one (or more) of these and then request a refund! Keep the mouse for your junkbox, or use it, or give it away etc etc. These crooks won't stop the fraud until it becomes costly for them-they simply don't understand anything other than their profits. Please feel free to distribute this message as is, or in any form in order to allow others to get some free hardware from these crooks too! Exploit it while you can:). Tell them 'Art' sent you:) 73 Art -- http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .