Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent mouse and more!
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2020
The Logitech M510 wireless mouse is a very comfortable and smoothly performing mouse. It is a full size mouse that nicely fills up the palm of the hand. The weight of the mouse is "just right". The mouse body is symmetrical so that will be equally comfortable for left or right handed people.
The mouse movement and scroll wheel work perfectly smoothly with no jump or jitter. The mouse optical performance is very robust on poor surfaces. It works equally well on a mousepad, a bare table, on a pants leg, back of a book, even the palm of the hand. It tracks perfectly on almost any surface (which many other mouse brands have trouble with).
These mice use the Logitech "Unifying" USB mini receiver which can support up to six Logitech devices by itself. If you have a Logitech mouse, keyboard, trackball, etc... they can all operate from the same receiver (saves using up USB ports). Be aware that the unifying receiver ONLY works with Logitech products and that it is NOT Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Logitech products can be "paired" with the unifying receiver in Windows and MAC (of course) and also in Linux by using the software package called "solaar" (free, open source). The mouse comes pre-paired to the receiver, so it works "out of the box". If you want to add (up to 5 more devices), you have to pair them yourself.
The battery life is awesome. Because I hate leaking batteries, I always use AA lithium cells for everything (including the mouse). My first old Logitech MS-510 mouse that I purchased over three years ago is still working fine on the FIRST batteries that I installed in it (two AA lithium). Since I use it on my desktop the mouse power switch is always left on. It must consume practically no power when not being used.
If you use the mouse with a laptop or need to move it from computer to computer, the little unifying receiver can be stored inside the mouse (in a little USB sized slot next to the batteries) to avoid losing it.
What follows is some technical information that you can skip if you don't care.
Construction: This mouse is very nicely engineered and can be completely disassembled by removing two little screws inside the battery compartment. No screws hide under the teflon slider pads, so those don't get damaged if you take the mouse apart. Every component then can be removed simply by sliding or snapping it out. Why take it apart? See next.
My personal feeling is that the left and right mouse buttons are too light (i.e. press too easily). The buttons are no lighter than other mice, I just prefer them a bit tighter. To change this, I replace the two little microswitches with Omron Series D2F-01 parts that have a 150 gf actuation force. It takes about twice the pressure to click these switches as compared to the originals. To replace them is super simple: Just unsolder the originals and solder the new ones in place. If you forget which way they go in, the orientation is printed on the PC board.
The side "scroll" buttons already use heavier pressure microswitches, so I don't change these. The "middle button" (pressing the scroll wheel) and the left/right scroll switches (rock the scroll wheel left or right) are a different type of switch that also do not need changing.
If you disassemble the mouse, be aware that the little plastic slider for the power switch will be free to fall out when the mouse PC board is removed. If you don't know this, it's possible for the slider to silently fall out, never to be seen again.
I won't tell you HOW to unsolder and resolder the button microswitches, because if you don't know how, you shouldn't be doing jt in the first place (or get an electronics-knowledgable friend to help). And, of course opening and modifying the mouse will void the warranty!
I will give you one important hint: Because the mouse was assembled using RoHS compliant lead free solder, the microswitch solder joints should first be RE-SOLDERED with leaded solder before sucking or wicking the joints clean. This is done to "alloy" the high temperature lead free solder into more manageable leaded solder to avoid burning/ruining the (single sided) PC board.
Good luck! This mouse (hacked or not) gets 5 stars and both thumbs up. It works flawlessly, it's comfortable, battery life is amazing and the price is good (even better when it's sometimes on sale). Grab one!
