[Mousemod] Raven Reinvented

[Meizuman]

So. A while ago I was keen on looking a new mouse that would fulfill my needs... It should have some programmable extra buttons, preferably more than 2, which my Creative Fatal1ty 2020 had. I was looking around for Sidewinder, Cyborg mouse, Nova Slider X600, Ozone Smog and many others. But I felt I wont find a piece of equipment suitable for me. I saw the Cyborg R.A.T. mouse line, but didn't find those anywhere...

Then, one day. I checked this odd looking monstrosity of a mouse called Silverstone Raven Gaming Mouse SST-RVM01B.

It had plethora of buttons, giant thumb wheel, 5 profiles and it had gotten some nice reviews... AND it was dirt cheap. What I read from the reviews, the launch price was somewhere over $60-70, and that should've mean it would cost something at least over 50€ in Finland. BUT it was going for 32€ with delivery. I made my choice. Then, after I ordered it, I noticed it was going to take long time until they get the mouse. It was about 10 days after they got it to delivery.

As I am keen to check all the available info before getting the product itself, I once again viewed the reviews and started to think about the placement of buttons. Back and forward were on the left side but unreachable for thumb. Then there was that monster sized wheel, that was not programmable in game mode. And on top of the wheel, a switch for DPI and/or game profile. So, what is the use of that one then, if I can't use it for gaming... Well, ok, it adjusts the DPI but the top button is just annoyingly placed. As I am used to gripping my mouse with my thumb, this mouse would not give a good place for thumb to grip it.

Then, the day came. I got my mouse... AND IT WAS BIG AS H*LL! I tried to fiddle with it, started STALKER and tried to play for a maybe 2-5 minutes. Then I quit. No way I want to use that for gaming. Or any other activity... Left side buttons had just horrific placement. The manual shows they should be used with my index finger...! Aaaggh.

I had thoughts about it before... MAYBE I could do some modding to the button placement...

And then I started to think harder.

And then. Well... I had to do it. It was not that expensive and it wouldn't give me a much of a headache if I couldn't do it and came up with a non-working-on-hold-mouse-mod-project that would never be finished.

What happened next?

[SORRY FOR THE OVER EXPOSURED PHOTOS] SE P1i has a weird flash

 

[Meizuman]

The obvious, take it apart!

Thumb doesn't like its place

It would want to be here.

Sorry, no pic of the horrendous Wheel

Next step is to start guessing where the new wheel will be located (see the white dot)

TIMEWARP (or lazy photographer, or just too much into modding)

Did some sanding on dremel tool. Feels already much better, says thumb.

Here's what will be replaced.

Took the axle from torx screwdriver (which was getting bored and not used), did a groove with dremel tool (not genuine)

It sits nicely

Then the hole for the axle: (remember the white dot?)

Shorten the axle: (I think I got a step too far with this. Should've left a bit more of that.

And it goes through the wormhole!

What do you say thumb? Thumbs up?

"..mmmaybe"

Where I could get a textured, small thumb wheel with some grip...? Ahem! A screw from a speaker terminal? Worth a shot...

And a button on top? U crazy?

At first I tried to do a one piece button from aluminium but my dremel tool isn't the most accurate thing. So, I grinded some and then I failed. I grinded the thing flat and then sanded it a bit to get it even. Luckily, I had a bit more aluminium and tried to to a round object to be used as the thumb wheel button... Success! Yay!

The Ol' button looks the newcomers from the distance...

 

[Meizuman]

TIMEWARP and the lazy photographer hits once again.

This was the time when I was totally unsure how I could get the thumb wheel button to work... I thought I'll make the wheel spin freely while the button stays on the chassis.

But my mind wouldn't let me do it that way.

So, again sorry for the timewarp. I was fighting with my brains so hard I totally forgot to took pics.

Don't know if you get it. Its kinda hard to explain...

So here is the new invention. The button will turn with the thumb wheel and there is a wire that goes through the thing. This thing is a hybrid made from basic plastic knob's insides (the metal shroud that has a screw for attaching it to an axle) and the there is a one half bit of this kind of connector. The hex screw goes through both, and the connector is inside the shroud, making the axle fit.

Then I made a little shroud on the axle that works as the other contact of the button. The axle and frame itself is connected to the buttons other contact.

The wires will go to the buttons contacts.

Some visual & mechanical testing with the thumb wheel on...

Then the wires from the thumb wheel buttons slider contacts to the "motherboard". I decided to use a fan header from dead mobo so the mouse will be easier to dismantle.
I got two sense connector+wires from Scythe fans and I dismantled the little connectors and soldered the button wires to them.

Other one ready

The button is ready for some testing... UUGGLYY!

DOES IT really work??

I think...

Oh... I think...

...IT DOES!

Next some button disappering action... and out-of-my-mind way of filling that huge hole!

Guess what that is? Oh no you didnt!

Yes. I'm sorry. It is hot glue. I may now go and bang my head to some harder material than hot glue.

Here you can see the "slider" I had to insulate it WITH HOT GLUE because the thumb wheel edge touched it too easily and changed the profile. I also grinded a good bit off from the inside of the thumb wheel.

Here it is with working thumb wheel but no side buttons. ME WANT SIDE BTN!x2!

 

[Meizuman]

Side buttons

Here is the doner

I had to give it a quite some thought before I ended up with this button layout.
After some time I then placed my hand on the mouse and marked the spots that would be convenient for my thumb.

I cut the holes and tested how the buttons would fit..

I first thought about putting the switches on the buttons, but then I decided otherwise

Placement for switches...

At last, they are on the spot..

Then wires for the switches

I had some problems getting all the buttons to work, but it seems that it was a driver issue.
The USB cord makes a tight turn on the front of the mouse and it's a little hard to get it on its own space.

 

[Loosenut]

Wow, nice work Meizuman

 

[Meizuman]

It took me three days straight! Never done anything this ambitious.. I should've had some plastic filler and things like that... Well. Maybe I'll give it a good finishing touch...

 

[DanishDevil]

I wish I had that much free time! Looks fun as hell and really cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Meizuman]

"Finished"

Still needs some gentle touch.

Should get rid of the led...

I thought I'd paint the thumb wheel black and leave the red stripe there... Then I should get rid of that hot glue and get some filler instead, maybe polyester resin could do the trick. What about doing the side with real carbon fiber...

The right side would need some kind of rubbery coating, its too slippery on hand.. Maybe I could mold the side a bit and get better grip for my ring finger..

 

[TechnicalFreak]

Nice work!
Can we call that a "modded mouse"?

 

[surfingerman]

nice work i think this raven company should fire their engineer and hire you, i mean seriously side buttons with index finger? my finger starts to hurt just thinking about it

 

[roast]

Wicked idea, kudos.
I always thought that the "ball" on the origional looked like some kind of wierd growth...

 

[xtaticego]

nice work , great job reinventing the mouse .

 

[MT Alex]

Very inventive, and a good job making everything work for you. A comendable effort.

 

[Meizuman]

To tell you the truth, this mouse acts a bit weird. It tends to do annoying "mini" movement when clicking (at the same DPI as the Creative) and the cursor tends to bounce. I have to toggle "Enhance pointer precision" from control panel to minimize it. On top of that, it has an occasionally problem with registering movement. Normally it is when I try to move it to the left, cursor just stays there for a second. So for now, I have really nothing good to say about the Philips PLN2030 twin-eye laser. Oh, and this mouse supports USB polling speed only up to 500Hz. And I have always used 1000Hz with the creative. The difference is there.

But for S.T.A.L.K.E.R., this mouse does feel nice. It's the desktop use, that's falling short.

 

[Meizuman]

To tell you the truth, this mouse acts a bit weird. It tends to do annoying "mini" movement when clicking (at the same DPI as the Creative) and the cursor tends to bounce. I have to toggle "Enhance pointer precision" from control panel to minimize it. On top of that, it has an occasionally problem with registering movement. Normally it is when I try to move it to the left, cursor just stays there for a second. So for now, I have really nothing good to say about the Philips PLN2030 twin-eye laser. Oh, and this mouse supports USB polling speed only up to 500Hz. And I have always used 1000Hz with the creative. The difference is there.

But for S.T.A.L.K.E.R., this mouse does feel nice. It's the desktop use, that's falling short.

EDIT: At desktop use, the mouse cursor has started to have its own will. When moving mouse slowly, it just stucks. Sometimes it registers X or Y but not that one which you want it to. Sometimes neither. I may have to try desolder the laser eye and move it closer to the bottom.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

I personally would have added a fan to that hole in the mouse and put some modders mesh over it, but I liked your idea. All in all, very good job. Hot glue is amazing for modding, however you need to know it will get soft and melt when you least expect it. I have started using JB Weld instead of hot glue, and I would personally use bondo for the side.

 

[KH0UJ]

Holy Camolly a mouse mod

 

[jrgerryd]

Nice work!
Can we call that a "modded mouse"?

definitely a modded mouse, really nice mods there

 

[Meizuman]

Arrggh. This mouse is driving me mad. Why EVERY last peripheral I buy, are so damn :bananas: !

The skipping:
I have Ulti-Mat Solid, a plastic very high sens, low friction pad. The mouse tends to skip badly sometimes, in slow movement, nothing happens until moving it at higher speed. Doesn't seem to happen much in gaming, but it could just be that I don't notice it so easily when shooting a raging bloodsucker in deserted village in Army warehouses...

So to remedy the problem, I decided to sand some plastic off the mouse bottom, so the sensor would sit a bit closer to the pad. Well, this didn't help.

Next step, I bought a Steelseries QcK pad. I thought that it could help. Well, it got Really bad with this pad. Maybe the "stalling" was gone but now the mouse started to jump all the time to upper left corner, this happened when I realigned my mouse on the pad. So then I thought, "shouldn't sand the bottom". Had to go back to the Ulti-Mat, which by the way worked wonders with the old Creative mouse.

Back/forward:
This issue has been around quite a while, don't know what would help it... But when any of the buttons are set as back or forward, they just don't work in Windows Explorer, but work in internet browser. And time to time, they stop working altogether. Though the creative mouse does work in this aspect (without a driver), so it must be an error in the Silverstone driver or something.

Moments back, I had blank left mouse button (unassigned) in 3 of the 5 profiles! I struggled with that one, but the cure was to simply right-click the Silverstone icon and "Reset to default". Of course I didn't find it before being in contact with Silverstone.

And now the DPI?
I really dont know what is happening, this mouse seems cursed. Just before I started to type this message (the biggest reason I decided to reply), the DPI went crazy. Before that, I tried to remedy the back/forward problem by closing the mouse software. The oled display showed 500 DPI for all the 5 profiles. And when I scrolled the DPI settings, it went from 000 to 900 (with normal 100 DPI intervals) and the cursor moved like my rig was trying to compute the answer to all questions in life = Really sluggish. I snapped few pics with my phone of the DPI screen and after a minute or so, it just worked as normal.