Rebuilding a copperhead..a Solaris17 story..

Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu

JF-Expert Member
Feb 3, 2009
42,314
33,108
Rebuilding a copperhead..a Solaris17 story..
Ok so my coperhead was giving me problems it was apparent their was a broken line the mouse kept shutting off etc. well that doesnt fly with me because im in love with the mouse and i dont have $$ to but another 60-$70 mouse...so i decided to rebuild...

Ok this isnt a guide or a mod guide just a user experiance and a fun story...maybe it will give ideas... So after lots of trial and error i had thought i found the most likely spot of the break..i did this by taking my hands and 1 incha at a time flexing the wire until i could tun the mouse on and cut power at will.

So first b4 we tackle this problem we need to set up shop i decided on my kitchen table that would be perfect. Now i just needed the proper accessory's to do the job.

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
my%20kit.jpg


my kit this was a X-mas gift from the girl..and has an impressive arsenal of stuff it was made spacifically for computers it includes wire cutters needle nose tweasers. anti static strap tourque and allen wrenches mobo washers and screws a whole bunch of stuff

next we have cashews...because ever modder needs a snack

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
what%20keeps%20me%20going.jpg


ho zah!

Next is solder because you kinda need it to repair wires..

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
solder.jpg


now i need my soldering iron because doing it with a lighter would be crazy painfull

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
soldering%20iron.jpg


ok so we have our necessities now we need to start with the obvious clean our nast dirty gold tip...this is important because we need connectivity.

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
clean%20gold%20tip.jpg


this took actually more than 10 min because it was ridiculously dirty and corroded..So now it was time to clean the out side of the mouse this was crazy nast because my hands get clamy so their was an abundance of seemed like dirt and grime in the buttons and stuff i solved this with a q-tip and some paper towels..

now it was time to take the mouse apart you can do this by removing the bottom mouse foot and accessing the screw underneath.

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
shell%20top.jpg


this is the top shell of the mouse with all the buttons on it...it seems the LED symbol is not connected to the board like i thought it would be instead you simply unplug it cool stuff.

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
shell%20bottom.jpg


the bottom of the shell is pretty simple this holds the board and obviously the bottom wires. nothing is screwed into the mouse on the inside after you remove the top shell the logic boards simply slip into a couple pins and can be lifted right up.

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
My%20mouse%20apart.jpg


the entire mouse apart

And this is our sweet circuitry 2 boards actually sitting on top of each other..the bottom one holds all the chips and the driving for the mouse..the top one controls LED's and has the side botton inputs.

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1027x768.
sweet%20razer%20curcuitry.jpg


Here are the 2 boards layed out..they arent held together by much..just 2 4pin connectors on eaither end of the pcb..

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
2%20boards.jpg


and here are the connectors i was talking about..the wire for the mouse isnt ocnnected at all so i considered buying a replacement or another bad mouse off of ebay to replace it with a good wire but i have no $$ so decided against it. the little white one is the connector for the top LED the red one is for the usb wire...these were extremely hard to get off their clipped in rather well and a few times i thought i was going to need to buy a new mouse.

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
curcuit%20connectors.jpg


Now the first step to soldering and repairing this wire is to strip it for that i found an old razor knife i accedentaly stole from work a while back

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
tools%20for%20the%20job.jpg


this is what we will use to cut up my mouse....now to see what we got.

i started with the first place i thought they're may be a break i was greated with frustration as i found the inner 4 wires are tightely coiled in a plastic/aluminum wrap..that was incredably hard to cut off

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
inner%20metal%20sleeve.jpg


now after i got that off i was greated with some unexpected things...3 diff wires a metal unsleeved wire and a pece of rope...i take it the rope was so the wire doesnt stretch and break good idea except for the epic fail....not because it was usb i took the other 3 sleeved wires and off a hunch decided they were data lines...which means out unsleeved aluminium wire was infact 3.3v power...

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
inner%20wires.jpg



now after i checked the 2 places i thought their would be a break in the wire their wasnt.....this posed a problem as i wasnt going to cut down 7ft of cable to find a small splice...i invented a new crazy idea that could help or destroy my mouse..this idea would mean increased functonality or going without a mouse for a couple weeks...i picked the first one kk lets do it

what i decided to do was first make an incision on the wire right behind the usb port....what i was going to do is solder the actual solder wire to the 3.3v wire then make another incision were the wire goes into the mouse totally going over whatever break was their.


wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
step%201%20solder.jpg


The first cut and solder

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
step%202%20solder.jpg


the second cut and solder

now that i had done that and ran the solder wire up the side of the actual wire..i needed to cover it and make sure hat it didnt break again...for this i had awesome wiring tape... so i decided to make a wire inside a wire sort o speak

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
wrap%20job.jpg


athis process took the better part of a half an hour but i decided to show you guys what was happening it went well except as the weight of the wire increased it kept falling off the table..making me worry that the tension of the wire wouldnt really break my solder point but the crazy fragil wire it was soldered to.

but i eventually finished and started to rebuild the mouse.

wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
all%20done%20tape.jpg


after i had put it all back together and took a sec to observe how incredable ugly it was but i kinda didnt care so i moved on...the tape was done and i put the mouse back together after thoroughly cleaning it. Like a little boy i didnt clean up any of my things and ran to my computer to try it out...this was extremely nerve wracking for me as i had broke the wire on my second solder point..which means i had to solder the 3.3v line back to itself than solder the junction wire on..it was risky and scary..but low and behold i plg it in and SHA ZAM!! it fires right up..and no mroe disconnects!!! i WIN!!! i hope you liked reading this crazy thread as much as i liked making it....i consider myself a modder i cant leave anything i get alone as some of you may know and this random threads help other ppl understand that even if you have limited tools and even if you have the right ones...if you have some time and patience it doesnt really matter how much know how you have to make something wonderfull get pulled off
smile.gif


wol_error.gif
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
all%20done%20sha%20zam.jpg

__________________
I Made the Millionth post! | "I shut her up by giving her the rest of my paycheck."-bpgt64
My Rig 8500/8600GT Mod Guide Rebuild a Copperhead Heat Ware
NF4 Ultra SLI Mod Solaris Utility DVD 4.0 GPU-Z Broken CPU pin guide
Vista Mark
 
Back
Top Bottom