In this mod, I am going to teach YOU how to change the boring RED led in your Logitech Optical mouse to a different color such as BLUE or GREEN. Detailed pictures and descriptions will guide you through the process. Also- It's very important to remember to take your time.

For this modification, you will need:

1-Philips Headed Scredriver
1-Roll of thin Solder
1-Soldering Iron
2-LEDS (I'n this one we bought the radioshack 3.7 volt, 5mm BLUE led)



The first step to changing your led is getting to the existing one. You will need to use your phillips headed scredriver to take the screw from the bottom of the mouse- This is what you should have when you take it apart (Circuit board not pictured). DO NOT LOSE THE SPRING!

Once your soldering iron has heated up, take the BACK of the circuit board and unsolder the existing LED by quicky touching the solder and wiggling the LED until it pops out. If you hold the soldering iron there for too long, this could cause you to melt the circuit board and ruin the mouse.

 

Alright...if you've gotten to this part, your hardest part is done. This is what the led looks like when it's insoldered.


This picture is quite blurry but there's a TAB on the bottom side of the little led casing. I used a scredriver to pop it out in order to "unlock"/free the led from this casing.

A better picture after the tab has been broken off.

AH yes! Here we go- Pull the led from the back of the casing gently and then slide the new led snugly in to place.

Slide this casing straight down through the holes form the old led and then bend until the two pins form the bottom of the casing snap into the circuit board.
***NOTE*** Make sure the LONG wire from the led is in the hole with the "+" sign on it or the led will NOT work


Here's a quick picture of the new led in the casing with the casing bent down into place.


You should STILL have the wire poking out of the back of the circuit board so now is where the second hard part comes. You need to SOLDER these into place. We do not have any pictures of the soldering but make sure there is a nice bead holding the led wires into place so they will not come loose.

 

Since these blue leds are not nearly as strong, light-wise, as the RED leds, you will need to put TWO to make up for the difference and this will make more of an effect on the translucent sides of the mouse as well. Just Take your second led and PICKYBACK it on the first led. Solder it's wires to the first leds wires since it will not fit into the holes too. You will need to also put the thin metal wiring back across the top to hold that casing down.

 

Your done!!! That wasn't too bad now was it? Just go ahead and slide all of the pieces into the mouse as seen here and screw the mouse back together...it should work just as well as the red led now. This is a simple-cheap way to modify something on your computer. It's affective and noticable as well! These also make GREAT gifts so if you've got a friend who is a computer FREAK then you might think of doing something like this for them!

Once again a blurry picture, but this is what mine looks like! Yours might even look better.