Logitech MX1000 Laser club

[Abbadon2001]

Have you not opened you mx1000 yourself? seems that if you want to hav this modification- why dont you be the first person to void your warranty
I like the effort lvel require to click the buttons, guess its personal preference and what apllications you are using.

please excuse spelling im a little tired after driving all day...

 

[Al Udall]

Opening MX1000...

No, I didn't -- yet. But in the same time I don't think you are to void your guarantee, as you supposed to open the mouse in case Logitech/vendor sends you your battery replacement.
In the meantime, I did open my old Logitech Cordless MouseMan Optical (hereafter referred to as LCMMO). Here we have buttons covers separated from the rest of the body like the most of other mice have those, and this mouse has light click effort of the level of MS IM Explorer I'm comfortable with when doing click-intensive Photoshop and other jobs. Switches in LCMMO look like standard 3rd party clickers (Omron? forgot the name), so my explanation of excessive click effort in MX1000 goes to the fact that main buttons' covers in MX1000 are made as integral, not separated parts of the body top cover.
Now, for me it was easy to check my theory: when handling the MX1000, if you reach with your fingers as far as the far ends of buttons' cover and click, the efforts are diminished and almost of the level of LCMMO: looks like switches are right under your fingertips in this position. Pull your fingers back so your fingertips are placed closest to the scroll wheel (the most comfortable position for me, plus my thumb would be in mush better position to operate side back/forward/switch buttons), and the efforts grow significantly because the lever is shorter in springy cover.

The remedy could be cutting button covers separate from the rest of the body top cover. Now, there should be some flange margins arranged for these cut buttons covers, so they won't just fall off.

 

[ElementalDragon]

Al, not 100% sure, but i doubt the actual contacts for the mouse buttons are right at the end. probably the reason it requires less effort at the end of the button is cause it would have a bit more leverage when pressing the little button thingy. My guess is that the actual button that the top cover presses is right about in line where the back part of the scroll wheel (closest to the cruise down button), meets the cruise down button. somewhere along those lines.

 

[ElementalDragon]

This post mostly goes out to MainFrameGuy..... or anyone else who has helpful input.

What kinds of Teflon feet/strips/etc... do you recommend for the MX1000? not too expensive though, although they shouldn't be since it's not very big nor hard to make.

 

[Al Udall]

on buttons position and on Teflon feet

yeah, switches could be anywhere, right. But it doesn't matter much. My point was about leverage: the farther you press from a pivot point of that springy warped cover, the less is your effort. A different approach to a complete cutting out button covers would be "unwarping" them like in positions closer to the scrollwheel where they have bent inside profiles which strengthens them and makes harder to bend/push.

On teflon: that's right, the real good, almost unscratchable (means: durable, and sliding freely over abrasive dust & dirt on hard grained polypropilene/teflon/milky glass mats for years) teflon is expensive: e.g., just three 0.09 mm thick 4"x3/4" strips of 3M Teflon 63 PTFE tape with acrylic (semi-permanent) adhesive are about $6. But guess what: they use it in lots of electronic components like (big) electrolythic capacitors, (big) coils, wire harnesses, quality/power/high-voltage multiwire cables. Now find some 3rd party acrylic not-so-thick glue, and you are all set after some autopsies of your spare electronic components. Hint: a good high quality teflon you're looking for won't be cut easily by ordinary scissors, only a very sharp serrated pro barber tool can do the job. Or a special hardened punch.
I just got more hints about teflon sources. Like there are reports of using slivers from so called "nonstick" frying pans. Here, again, the results are mixed: low-quality low priced plastic something Chinese put on their cheapo frying pans is useless for your mouse, but who would destroy a genuine high quality Teflon coat from a >$80 worth good brand kitchenware?

 

[Mainframeguy]

This post mostly goes out to MainFrameGuy..... or anyone else who has helpful input...

well the tape I got with my icemat has only been applied (so far) to an optical mouse I had before the MX1000. It looks to me like with the MX1000 you get a real chance to experiment with the feet if you feel like it - because there's a great flat surface to apply to and also because the mouse will not be too sensitive about the height at which it is used.

I will try using my icemat tape - I remember the only problem I had before was that on occasion the edges would seem to get kinda scratchy on the mat - this was probably due to the fact the mouse it was sticking to had slight curvature such that the edges could not stick down properly.

I would look into what 3M products might be out there - or try to find out where icemat get their teflon tape supplies from (although I have found they are not great on support, you may do better). Who knows perhaps icemat sell their teflon tape separately?

 

[logisticprism]

does anyone know the realistic range of the mx1000?

 

[Mainframeguy]

Just tried walking across room with mine in action - seems like it starts to deteriorate at about twelve feet away and terminates around 15 feet - roughly.

But why oh why would you want to be mousing at a distance?

Usually those type of apps have IR instead of mouse to control.

 

[ElementalDragon]

Mainframeguy: I believe the people who make IceMat actually do sell extra's of their teflon tape. think it's at the bottom of the list in their website's shop.

there's also This website, which has a few different types of teflon discs. might even get one of the mouse mats they have there.

 

[logisticprism]

mainframeguy: my friend wants a wireless mouse that he can use across a room so he can hook up his computer to his plasma and use it wirelessly from his couch or something. he wants to get a stupid macmice bluetooth one, found here http://www.macmice.com/themousebt.html. i'm trying to convince him to get the mx1000.

 

[ElementalDragon]

ya, he should probably get the MX1000. If he wants to use his computer as a HTPC from across the room, he's either gonna have to have his computer set to a pretty low resolution so he can still read what's on the screen, or have a really huge mouse cursor, which still won't really help you read what's on the screen.

 

[ElementalDragon]

found another (not good) review at AnandTech. exactly the way a review for a product should NOT be. guy who made the review is an idiot. seems like he's told the people at AnandTech all the wrong info.

http://forums.anandtech.com/message...1402251&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

This is still the greatest mouse ever.

 

[Al Udall]

teflon tape

I bet there's no such thing like genuine Teflon tape produced by manufacturers of IceMat. I trust they buy it from the 3rd party, and my bet is with 3M. Or it better be: you say it became scratchy, this fact alone tells me it's not (real) Teflon. Or their IceMat's grained/frosted glass surface is way, way too abrasive.

Thence, my ideal mousemat+mousefeet combo will be:

a. A 0.5 to 1.0 mm thick genuine (3M, ICE, or even original DuPont's) Teflon slightly grained, or brushed then lightly melted coat on aluminum plate: here's your champion mat (think of an expensive nonstick frying pan's bottom);
b. The 0.09 thick genuine 3M teflon tape cutouts as mouse feet glued by industrial strength acrylic glue.

This combo when kept relavely clean (especially from diamond dust and other abrasive materials) would work best, and stay slippery for ages.

Don't know what coating material C4 uses (if not Teflon), it might be hard polypropylene, it is also good, slippery and not abrasive.

 

[Abbadon2001]

There r a couple of sites that sell "teflon" tape - if it is or not i dont know, under either the icemat name or the steelmat name - whateverthat might be. try here:

http://www.casetech.co.uk/index.php/cPath/39_246

 

[Al Udall]

IceMats and Teflon

Yeah, I looked there: under Icemats they sell glass (I presume it has some smooth, leather-like grained surface, and not matted one which is thinly randomly scratched and is quite abrasive). They also sell teflon tape pieces at outrageous price, for feet. Like I said before, this combination is more prone to scratching mouse feet than, say, grained teflon mat surface (or grained hard/high density polypropilene/mylar) + teflon feet.
As with getting good teflon cutouts from a cable sleeve, there's a good chance of success in finding good mouse mat among modern/hi-tech kitchen cutting boards, I'm testing one right now, and I can tell you, if I ever were a gamer I could be some sort of an action champ in what a great precision and speed my MX1000 (overclocked to 200 Hz) achieves on this "pro" board.

 

[ElementalDragon]

may i ask you how exactly you "overclocked" your mouse?

 

[Al Udall]

it's not exactly mouse was overclocked, it's PS/2 port I use. Here is an old PS/2 sample rate raising utility called "ps2rate". Not all mobos/BIOSes are able to support 200 Hz though, but some ppl report successful 500 Hz -- on their USB ports though (with no other USB devices present though)

 

[ElementalDragon]

i don't think raising the sampling rate for the PS/2 port will work. from what i've heard and from what has been said, it can only go i think they say like 125hz..... unless i'm thinking of something different. think the mouse can only send the data so fast. upping the sampling rate for the PS2 port..... seems like the only thing it could do is tell the wireless reciever to work faster. Mouse seems it would still be like ".....wtf?"

 

[Al Udall]

yeah.... I thought so too, first. Then I raised my PS/2 maximum sampling rate to 200 Hz, and with mouserate utility discovered that REAL sampling emanating from MX1000 varies between 40 and 180 Hz, with bigger values obviously in the moments of either me jerking it violently (that's probably when the mouse thinks: "WTF!" like you say) or with regular movements but with acceleration turned on. At some board, ppl were discussing WinXP reg tweak for MX1000 to go to 500 Hz, and raising sampling buffer up to 300-400. No such luck for Win98 though, so I didn't bookmark that board (it can be googled out though).
Naturally, you'd need a lot of display resolution (2048x1536, or no less than 1600x1280 when in games) and more than 80-85 Hz screen refresh, to see the magic difference. Grainy display crap like 1024x768 gains absolutely nothing of sample rate more than 125 Hz, there's even no need of going 80 Hz. And the tragic truth is, there's no need to use MX1000/MX900/MX510 on that sort of "displays" (to this garbage you can add any LCD of 1024x, or even 1280x res., but with a refresh less than 80 Hz -- that is, every LCD)

 

[WolfShade]

Well, I just ordered mine today after reading all this stuff, got it for a cool 99.99$ CDN