FaeMinx
Rainbow Liberation Instigation
Careful about that caffeine intake...
Best wireless Mouse for gaming in bed?
- Thread starter FaeMinx
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Careful about that caffeine intake...
rygD
Nihilistic Mystic
Lag or not, I still prefer to avoid Bluetooth and wireless stuff most of the time to avoid security and interference failures. If it were a little more convenient I would probably not use wifi.
I actually don't consume caffeine very often. I do love serial experiments lain, though.
I actually don't consume caffeine very often. I do love serial experiments lain, though.
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
Wired used to be king, when it only ever used to be your headphone cord that broke after you caught it on something, but these days I have drawers full of half broken USB cables I really should chuck out. Never had a cable built into a mouse fail though.
I really should pull apart some of those USB cables to work out where they cheaped out. You used to have monster cables coming from your joysticks that carried two players worth of discrete signals, and they weren't that much thicker than some of these 4 core USB cables. Maybe it's a matter of current carried though - perhaps some of these thin cables aren't rated at the kind of currently I'm pumping down them when I'm charging my devices using them.
I really should pull apart some of those USB cables to work out where they cheaped out. You used to have monster cables coming from your joysticks that carried two players worth of discrete signals, and they weren't that much thicker than some of these 4 core USB cables. Maybe it's a matter of current carried though - perhaps some of these thin cables aren't rated at the kind of currently I'm pumping down them when I'm charging my devices using them.
Grench
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Why I suspect that 'pro gamers' prefer wired mice...
When playing a game competitively, it is important that your equipment stays constant between practice and competition. I.e. you wouldn't want to practice on one mouse then try to compete on another one. This alone doesn't dictate one technology over the other, but it does mean that whatever technology she/he is going to use would need to be consistent.
Within gatherings for competitive games, there are often dozens or even hundreds of computers all on folding tables in long rows. Every one of those gamers has a cell phone - more than half of the cell phones have Bluetooth turned on. The number of devices all competing for that same signal space has to be obnoxious. You don't want your mouse to need to compete for that signal space. So, wired.
Then there is the whole, "my mouse / keyboard battery died," thing used to explain to your team why your character has been walking into a walled corner for the last 5 minutes while you were scavenging wired devices from your roommates/family computers...
When playing a game competitively, it is important that your equipment stays constant between practice and competition. I.e. you wouldn't want to practice on one mouse then try to compete on another one. This alone doesn't dictate one technology over the other, but it does mean that whatever technology she/he is going to use would need to be consistent.
Within gatherings for competitive games, there are often dozens or even hundreds of computers all on folding tables in long rows. Every one of those gamers has a cell phone - more than half of the cell phones have Bluetooth turned on. The number of devices all competing for that same signal space has to be obnoxious. You don't want your mouse to need to compete for that signal space. So, wired.
Then there is the whole, "my mouse / keyboard battery died," thing used to explain to your team why your character has been walking into a walled corner for the last 5 minutes while you were scavenging wired devices from your roommates/family computers...
As far as I know audio is encoded lossy over bluetooth. The way the audio codec works introduces a bit of latency. The same goes for wireless screen transmits (which is done over wifi instead, together with sound). The video codec needs a bit of time to efficiently encode the video based on motion detections.
Caine
Hardcore Member
Do any of you remember how you would usually move your game controller through the air to untangle or reroute the wire?
I still do that with wireless controllers sometime. Silly habits die hard. But indeed, wired for the win (stupid batteries).
I still do that with wireless controllers sometime. Silly habits die hard. But indeed, wired for the win (stupid batteries).
rygD
Nihilistic Mystic
I rarely have issues with cables breaking (ATM I am using 10 year old earbuds) however others in my family that through them, even when we bought a bundle of the extra durable quick charge ones. Mine is still working fine. My other half destroyed a couple from one brand, moved onto another that broke, and is on a third brand. I think it just comes down to use. I am more worried about killing ports than cables, but that means I try to avoid putting much stress on the cables.
For the record, I also have someone that destroys controller cables...
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The few wireless mice I have tried out (not gaming mice) were flakey. The ones we have around the house always have dead batteries when I go to use whatever they are attached to. That gyro one was the only one I liked, possibly because gyro and phaser. As for my daily driver: If you need a wireless trackball you are doing it wrong (although it would help when on the couch with the computer connected to the TV).
Grench
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Wireless trackball? I stumbled on this a few days ago:
Code:
https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-910-001799-Wireless-Trackball-M570/dp/B0043T7FXEWhat if someone were to merge that 'wireless trackball' with a wireless laser mouse to effectively get dual analog controls? Use the mouse movement for coarse movement and 'dial it in' on fine movements with the thumb on the trackball. Sniper special.
WizardStan
Mega GP Mania
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I use the M570 at work. I use it's nearly identical predecessor, the TrackMan Wheel, at home and have had it for at least 15 years without complaint. I am exceedingly happy with both.
rygD
Nihilistic Mystic
But why?
WizardStan
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Why what?
rygD
Nihilistic Mystic
Why a wireless trackball? I see problems but only one benefit. I am glad it works for you, just wondering why you went with wireless.
WizardStan
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Because there is literally no other choice. The model of trackman that I have at home did originally come in wired, but it was discontinued when they released the wireless. And the M570 never had a wired model. Today, the only wired trackballs are the ones with the ball in the middle, meant to be adjusted with your fingers. If you want one that is thumb-oriented then it's gotta be wireless.
Believe me, I understand the bizarreness of something stationary being wireless: at least with a mouse you can make the case that the wire hinders movement, but my trackball doesn't move, there is no reason for it to be wireless.
At least it doesn't eat through batteries like mice do: my home trackman needs a new AA ever 6 months (possibly because I buy dollar store batteries for it), and my office M570 I had for nearly two years before it needed its first battery replacement.
rygD
Nihilistic Mystic
I prefer the bigger ones, although I use my while hand with them. Good that it doesn't constantly need new batteries. Strange that the batteries last longer than a wireless mouse since it does basically the same thing, just upside down.
WizardStan
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Because they need to work on many different surfaces, optical mice use a bright laser for tracking; optical trackballs have a known constant, the ball is covered in dots which are very easy to track so it doesn't need to waste energy powering a laser.
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
I'd be slightly surprised if a trackball wasn't using a laser in this day and age. Sure, a wider beam could illuminate more sample pixels to help track movement better, but assuming the sample rate is high enough that you don't need that, illuminating a couple of spots ought to be more efficient than illuminating an area, and given we've been making consumer grade red lasers for some 30 years now, and probably 25 years for battery powered CD players and so on, I'd have thought they'd have got them pretty efficient by now.
I've a logitech marble trackball in the loft somewhere, I think. I prefer the finger type, as I can use two or three fingers and my thumb to keep the ball in motion, for example if I'm scrolling a large document. I've current got a cheap laser mouse hooked up because the marble is just a bit big for this laptop. The rechargable AAs in that have lasted about a year I think, or at least I installed them about a year ago and only noticed they'd died a week or two back. But mostly I've adapted to using the trackpad on this machine, and these days it's rarely enough of a frustration to make me reach the the mouse like I used to.
Also, because this mouse will power down until you press a button on it after a little while, for the vast majority of its time it's not powering the laser, even if I shake it about. That might have a big effect on the battery life, if I'm not actually using it a lot at all.
I've a logitech marble trackball in the loft somewhere, I think. I prefer the finger type, as I can use two or three fingers and my thumb to keep the ball in motion, for example if I'm scrolling a large document. I've current got a cheap laser mouse hooked up because the marble is just a bit big for this laptop. The rechargable AAs in that have lasted about a year I think, or at least I installed them about a year ago and only noticed they'd died a week or two back. But mostly I've adapted to using the trackpad on this machine, and these days it's rarely enough of a frustration to make me reach the the mouse like I used to.
Also, because this mouse will power down until you press a button on it after a little while, for the vast majority of its time it's not powering the laser, even if I shake it about. That might have a big effect on the battery life, if I'm not actually using it a lot at all.
Silent-Hunter
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This company makes wired ones. Another company does as well, Sanwa Supply.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B016QCPO0G/ref=psdcmw_11036491_t1_B0042UINCG
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B016QCPO0G/ref=psdcmw_11036491_t1_B0042UINCG
WizardStan
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Probably, but it's still a source of power drain that isn't in an optical trackball. A quick google suggests a low power laser using between 10 and 100 milliwatts, and a AA battery has between 3.5 to 4 watt hours. If we lowball the laser and highball the battery that's 400 hours of continuous use. Assuming it gets about 8 hours of use a day and the only thing it had to do was power the laser, that's about 50 days, just shy of 2 months, on a single battery. I'm suspecting that everything else, the movement processing and the wireless transmitting, is actually pretty negligible compared to the laser.
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
But an optical trackball still needs a lamp in there, because the ball blocks all external light. I think it might be an IR lamp in a lot of units, as I haven't spotted it yet. I guess IR LEDs are clocked somewhere south of 50mA at 1.7V (i.e. <85mW), which is in the same ballpark as your laser quotes.
Maybe they could make the ball with phosphors, so that it picks up light on the exposed side and charges them. But that'd give you a bit of a dead zone from a standing start, and might interfere if you're doing find work for a long time. They'd probably still need a lamp for those occasions, but at least it could be turned off when the phosphors were already charged.
Maybe they could make the ball with phosphors, so that it picks up light on the exposed side and charges them. But that'd give you a bit of a dead zone from a standing start, and might interfere if you're doing find work for a long time. They'd probably still need a lamp for those occasions, but at least it could be turned off when the phosphors were already charged.
