Texas Instruments Electronics Online Challenge
kogan.dg
Entry ID #: 4083
Created: Wed, Jan 11, 2017 10:26 PM
Team 10700B Texas Instruments Online Challenge Team Members: Lorenzo L., Michael K., Dennis K. For this project our team, VexMen(10700B), chose a Bluetooth Logitech Mouse. We chose this project because we wanted to learn what the mouse was comprised of, since it is such a common item for a computer. Not only that, it has a large variety of simple electronics and was easy to disassemble. Inside of the mouse, we found two large buttons that were at the tip of the two clickers. These buttons would register the clicks from the right and left clickers. The scroll wheel has an integrated rotation sensor that could sense when you moved the wheel and the direction it was spinning, allowing you to scroll up and down. There were three buttons under the wheel that detected if the scroll wheel was pressed down. When pressed, the scroll wheel would enable you navigate a page much faster. The final button activated the Cortana search engine in Windows. This button had its own chipboard that was connected to the mother board with a wire. The mouse sensed movement with a laser mounted to the bottom. This laser was a Class 1 laser which meant it was safe to use. As opposed to Class 4 lasers, which can be used to remove body hair or cut wood with laser printers. Lastly, there was a rechargeable lithium ion battery to power the mouse. This is not surprising because most household electronics contain lithium ion batteries due to their high energy density and low weight. In this project we learned many things, such as the different classes of lasers. Not only did we learn about how a mouse works, we also learned how certain VEX components can be applied to solve real world problems. For example, the VEX motors have rotation sensors like the mouse scroll wheel. We now understand how simple the mouse parts were and how we could probably make our own mice, although not to the same quality as Logitech.