Mouse Shake — A Raspberry Pi Pico and Adafruit Neo Trinkey Project

In the article, “ Raspberry Pi — Expanding My Mind with the GPIO, “ I describe my discovery of the Raspberry Pi GPIO and my first project using it. While my second project, Mouse Shake, is a small step forward in complexity, I use it daily. It’s exciting to make something useful.

This article reviews the Mouse Shaking program and its journey from a Raspberry Pi Pico on a breadboard to an Adafruit Neo Trinkey.

Mouse Shake is Raspberry Pi used as a USB mouse that continuously moves the cursor on a computer screen. It’s used to keep my computer from sleeping. One of the computers I use daily is a locked-down Windows PC; I cannot change any of its settings. For security reasons, the PC locks and requires a password after a few minutes of inactivity. In an office environment, this functionality makes sense, but for a remote worker, this is a nuisance. I discussed my frustration with the helpdesk and their recommendation was to run a short video looping all day to prevent the PC from locking. Mouse Shake is a better solution.

Mouse Shake — Raspberry Pi Pico

The functionality of Mouse Shake is straightforward. Pressing a button will trigger the cursor to move back and forth and illuminate an LED. A second button press will stop cursor…