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Battery Status of Wireless Keyboard/Mice?
Elvii
asks: "I'm looking for a wireless keyboard/mouse
solution for my system. My first choice is the Logitech
Cordless Desktop because I've seen them and like them,
(works as standard keyboard and wheel mouse, to the best
of my knowledge) but I'd like to be able to monitor the
battery life in the keyboard/mouse as the Windows software
can do. Anyone know of software or specs for these types
of things? Logitech hasn't answered my email request for
help yet." Is this yet another closed spec that Logitech
would do well to open up? Is this feature available for
any other OS aside from Windows?
rwg,
You may have tried this already, but here's something from my own personal experience... I think it's possible that your mouse might not be broken after all.
I've had one of the older Logitech RF wireless mice, a Cordless MouseMan Pro, for a couple of years now; though it's (annoyingly) incompatible with the new Cordless Desktop stuff *argh*, I still use it & like it a lot... I just wish it had a wheel.
Anyway, to prevent interference with other nearby Logitech cordless mouse users, each mouse/receiver pair can use one of several available channels - you change/cycle around the channels by pressing (once, then twice, then thrice &c...) the little recessed button on the bottom of the mouse, next to a tiny LED which flashes with each change.
Occasionally, mainly I think due to low battery (and going in & out & back in range of the receiver) my mouse and receiver can end up on different channels -> the mouse appears to be dead, although it's really just had some kind of brain fart and won't talk to my receiver anymore.
I fix it by cycling the mouse through each channel in turn - using the little button on the bottom of the mouse - until the mouse & receiver sync back up again... adjust/test (& repeat) until it's back on the right frequency once more.
The older model that I have has (I think) 6 channels... so if the new Coredless Desktop stuff is at all similar, then it's quite possible (likely even) that your friend's mouse & receiver were set to a different channel... so your mouse would still appear to be toasted.
L8r,
Almost Anonymous Alex ++adt
I am just on the market for a nice mouse (someone else is paying) and I am wondering problems aside, will it work with linux and; what connectors does it have ?
thanks
The logitech mouse didnt seem too great.
Go check out Diamond Multimedia's GyroMouse
Pro. It has a range of 40 feet and can be
used just like a regular mouse (used on your
desktop with a mouseball moving sensor wheels)
or an airmouse using "patented gyroscope
technology." They have a battery life of
8 hours. I dont know what kind of battery it
uses, but it looks similar to cordless phone
batteries, and is rechargable. The mouse stand
is its recharger. So as long as you put it
back in the stand when not using it, battery
life should not be a problem unless you are
a freak that for whatever reason needs to use
the mouse for more than 8 hours continuously.
Grats for the info... will probably get it and an in-store warrenty(4 year), so if I do have problems like that I can just return it to the store and get credit for a new item or no-questions asked replacement... i just wish i could see if the batteries were at 20. 30, whatever.... guess I need to poke around more if I really want the battery status....
:)
and seeing as i sometimes have so much clutter I don't even know where my desk is, i'd bet the only way I'll know the batteries are dead will be keyboard not working anymore...
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I have a Logitech cordless desktop, and I haven't had any of those sorts of problems. I've had it for about 4 months now, and I just replaced the batteries on the mouse for the first time yesterday. I haven't had to replace the keyboard batteries at all. I use it under both windows and Linux, and I actually never even noticed that there WAS a battery meter under windows until yesterday when I went to the mouse control panel to see why it stopped working. Interestingly, I never saw any degradation in performace. The pointer was working fine one second, and then all of a sudden wouldn't move at all. (Being under windows at the time, my first thought was that it was probably a software failure ;-)
When I first got it, the wheel on the mouse would stick a little. I mean it was physically harder to turn it past one point. Turned out the mouse was just screwed together too tight, loosening the front screw fixed that problem. The other thing I've noticed is that if I place the mouse on a metal surface, (with or without a pad) it works very poorly. If I put a book between the surface and the mouse however, it's raised far enough that it doesn't interfere with the signal. My desk is wood, but I have an empty metal computer case as a mouse stand next to an easy chair where I sit sometimes.
I play quake and other games with it all the time. I can't feel any difference from playing with a cordful keyboard and mouse, and not having a cord on the mouse just rocks for games.
I have experienced some of the problems others have reported of skipped key presses, etc. But, they all went away when I found a good place to put the receiver. As the documentation says, placement is important. Don't place the receiver near anything that emits RF. That means keep it away from your display and your Linux boxen.
My PII-300 makes both the keybd and mouse go lame. Likewise my displays and the network hub. My HP Inkjet printer and my NetWinder don't do anything bad. In fact, I usually keep the receiver right between the two with no ill effects.
Seems like you have been having way more problems than i have... i get a good 25 feet distance, no prob. My keys stuck a little just after i got the system, but they haven't seemed to do that since. not a problem. (course, i had the same problem with my old keyboard, so i guess that could be why i'm so oblivious to it...) as for the battery situation, i use my computer a whole lot (but not the mouse, i prefer the marble trackball... if only they made that wireless!) and i've had the cordless desktop for over 6 mos, and i haven't replaced the batteries that came with it yet. i love it. one of the coolest things that i have for my computer, it's great.
Here's my Cordless Desktop story:
I bought the Logitech Cordless Desktop back in December 1998. Got it back to the dorm, unpacked the box, plugged it in, installed the NT drivers, and away I went. Three days later, I turned my machine on and found the mouse was dead. I changed batteries, mashed the Connect button more than I probably should have, and ultimately got frustrated. One of my friends had an older version of the Cordless Desktop, so I borrowed his wireless mouse. It worked with my receiver. I then took my mouse to his receiver -- no dice.
Off to the store for a return...
So, I return it, find I had bought the last one three days earlier, get a refund, and buy another from a different store.
Get it back to my room, plug it all up, everything's peachy. Three months later in March, the mouse goes dead. Same situation -- my friend's mouse works on my receiver, but my mouse doesn't work on his receiver (or mine, of course). Since it was way past the time period I could've returned the stuff to the store, I'd have to deal with Logitech directly. Great. I still haven't contacted them about warranty service... Anyway, enough of that. Some important things to note about the Cordless Desktop:
- It eats batteries for lunch. Don't even think about using rechargable NiCad AA batteries -- they last me a whopping two or three days between charges.
- Keys randomly "stick," which makes playing Quake or any other game that uses the keyboard hell.
- It sometimes eats keystrokes, especially when the batteries are low.
- If the batteries start dying and you don't have spare batteries, you're screwed. I had my keyboard die while I was finishing off a rather lengthy English paper at 3:30am, and I ended up having to plug my roommate's keyboard into my computer so I could finish it.
- I will admit, though, that the Logitech cordless stuff is a thousand times better than the infrared-based wireless crap. With the Cordless Desktop, you don't need line-of-sight to the receiver or anything, and I get a good nine foot range with it. (Expect a range of just under three meters outside of the US...)
As for checking the battery levels with Linux or a non-Windows OS: The receiver has four LEDs on it. The standard caps/num/scroll lock LEDs and a "Connected" LED. When the battery level in an "attached" device gets low, the Connected LED will start blinking. While it would certainly be nicer to have a program to graphically show the battery levels like the Mouse/Keyboard Control Panels in Windows, at least the flashing Connected LED will tell you when batteries are low...