Modern optical mouse (I)

Generally speaking, a modern optical mouse is composed of the main components such as shell + microswitch + scroll wheel + sensor (engine) + mainboard + RGB light. The core part is the microswitch, scroll wheel, and sensor (engine).

Microswitch

Let's take a look at the microswitch first. It is a quick switch that is actuated by pressure, which is also called a sensitive switch. It is the mouse button that we all are familiar with, and is similar to the keyboard switch at a certain extent.

There are microswitches under all the buttons on the mouse, and the metal reed switch parts are used inside. After we press the button on the mouse, the metal reed in the microswitch triggers once and sends out one electrical signal to the computer, and then reset. This is considered as a completion of one-click operation.

At present, common microswitch brands include OMRON, TTC, cherry, IC, ZIPPY, etc.

Engine

Let's take a look at the sensor of the optical mouse, also known as the engine. Its function is very simple, but is also very important.

It is mainly to convert the physical signal of the mouse movement into a digital signal and send it to the host to realize the movement of the cursor on the corresponding screen.

There are two most important parameters in the engine, which are also the parameters that everyone must see when purchasing a mouse——sampling rate and polling rate.