For years I have used this mouse, 3,000 hours of Arma 3, 700 of DayZ and many many more from other games. When the cable eventually breaks, I will fit a new USB, when the switches turn to mush I will solder in new switches.
I’m far from a fan boy, especially when it comes to Corsair but the Scimitar, best mouse I have had.
A somewhat on-topic question: Is there an easily fixable mouse that wouldn’t cost me a kidney?
Depends on what you mean by easily.
I would look for a mouse where the screws aren’t covered by the stick on feet. Less can be more, less buttons, less things to break = more stable. Its also good to look at the faulty market: buy a working mouse, and when it eventually breaks source replacement parts from faulty mice from eBay, if the market is stupidly priced or non existent you many need to do some research for which switches are used, this can be difficult to ID.
So stick with mainstream brands like Logitech, Corsair, Razor (not my first choice but there will be no end of faulty mice 😅) but if your up for IDing PCB components then any mouse can be fixable.
Thanks for the reply! I was thinking more along the lines of “open hardware” — either a mouse manufactured by a larger company so that it can be easily repaired, with the manufacturer happy to sell you spare parts (something like Framework laptops), or a mouse designed by an internet enthusiast that you can assemble yourself from off-the-shelf components and 3D-printed parts.
I once saw a build-it-yourself kit for an ultra-light mouse somewhere. I naively assume that such a mouse would be easy to repair. Alas, that kit would cost me my kidney.
Pretty much no manufacturer is going to sell you parts besides maybe replacement feet. But the only things that fail on mice are all jellybean components.
Left mouse button fails? Buy another from mouser. Middle button fails? Digikey. Side button? Some other components selling company.
Outside of those super light mice there’s nothing special about any of them other than the exact layout, and the case. And the cheaper the mouse usually the simpler they are on the inside, and the easier it is to solder. Most PCBs will be single sided with through hole components.
I’m aware of Ploopy.
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I have a Logitech G305 which is actually two frankensteined G305s, which was pretty easy to do.
That is my (combined) M$ trackball. There are 2 boards in my trackball, 1 for buttons and 1 for the ball, First one the ball board stopped working, the second the button board stopped working, I opened em up, unplugged the top board from the bottom board, put the 2 working parts together and it is still going strong 26 yrs later, even the wheel and buttons only click once
Reddragon, and just pull parts from goodwill mice, they send you extra Teflon pads with the mouse so you can open it and keep the pads nice. Switches are just switches, they are standard sizes, and the cords usually use standard plugs, worst case you swap some pins around to match. Insanely easy to take apart, and cheap enough to not worry about breaking.
They are cheap as hell, but they have good tracking sensors and are really comfortable to use.
If you can solder I’d say most mice are easily fixable. The most common defect for mice are the switches, which are usually quite simple to desolder, as there aren’t any components near them.
E.g. I don’t have much experience soldering and it took me under an hour replacing both switches on the G Pro Wireless as well as the battery. I’ve bought this mouse used about 5 years ago and I wouldn’t be surprised if it lasted another 5 years.
Edit: The annoying part is the screws being below the feet, so you have to replace them after opening the mouse. But it’s all screwed in.
In addition to that, for popular, “name brand” mice, there are often also tons of replacement parts available from China. You can basically re-build the complete mouse from parts.
Otherwise, as you’ve said, switches, wheel, the battery and maybe the cable, should always be replaceable (as long as you can solder).
https://www.eloshapes.com/
Find a mouse you like the shape of and look at comparable mice that have replaceable switches. Then do a quick check on aliexpress at the prices of those switches/wheels. Things have gotten better with mice.