Think about it. Which is better for sensing movement?
two rolers on the sides of a ball
a lazor and senser
Someone will say “but you need to clean ball mice” - you have to clean light-mice as well - you need to use a cotton bud for that.
Also - over the years we’ve worked out what serfices work well for ball-mice - old-fasioned hard-back books are my personal favorete - but with light mice all the rules are different. rather than looking for medium to high friction im looking for… what does make a good serfice for a light mouse?
The best I’ve surface that I’ve currently found optical mice work great on is cardboard (non-glossy side). Non-glossy drawing paper also works well, though tends to stick to your hands after long periods of use. Avoid rugged surfaces (especially plastic tables/surfaces with heaps of stucci-like patterns on them), though trousers and other similar fabric, usually work ok though offering limited maneuvering room.
Indeed, although my old ball mice would eventually break down after about 2 years on the job with their first cases of the furries, and needing 3 monthly checkups for recurrances of the furries (usually signalled by problems dragging the cursor more than 1/3rd of the way around the screen in a single go), they were usually good enough as a far as accuracy went.
Yeh I’ve been using laser for a long time now as well, they’re great, the ball ones are clumsy and unreliable in my opinion.
Plus laser are usually wireless, the one I have at the moment can work from the other side of my house, no problem. (not that you need that) And the USB plugin sticks less than 1cm out from the laptop, its one of the new ‘nano’ recievers.
My last laser mouse outlived my last laptop, and it would have kept going if I didnt damage it. And i never had to clean it, ever. And it worked on every surface, exactly the same way, I don’t even use a mouse pad. :yes:
Aligorith: Thanks for the advice, I might be using the wrong kind of surfice.
AD-Edge: Whether it’s lazor and whether it’s wireless are actually completely different factors. And most optical mice I see and use have cables - maybe you just live in a higher tech world than me. However, I do find it hard to find ball-baced USB mice.
You also need to differentiate between optical and laser mice.
Lasser mice: “This mouse uses a small infrared laser instead of an LED and has significantly increased the resolution of the image taken by the mouse. The laser enables around 20 times more surface tracking power to the surface features used for navigation compared to conventional optical mice, via interference effects.”
I use a wireless keyboard and wireless laser mouse. Excellent since my computer is also the main DVD player in the house, I maintain dual screen between my moniter and the HDTV above. I can then use my mouse from anywhere in the house, as a remote when we watch movies.
The pain comes when I’m using Blender. I can kill a set of batteries in my mouse pretty quick holding MMB for long periods…and the keyboard has a battery protection factor, if I hold shift, or alt/shift for more than 10 seconds, it times out. THAT makes me mad if I’m trying to do detail selection.
That’s not our topic tho, so my input is this: My laser mouse works everywhere. In fact, it only has to be in proximity to a vague surface to work. It has never needed cleaning.
My daughter’s computer has an optical mouse attached. It’s a royal pain. The surface under it must be clean, homogenous color, non-reflective, and sometimes a microscopic piece of fuzz gets in the lens and presto, epileptic mouse. Useless for precision 2D or 3D work.
I say laser is superior, but if I had a choice between optic or ball mouse, I would definitely choose the balls. In 15 years, I only had 2 ball mice die…from cord failure.
The first few generations of optical mice where awful. I stuck with a ball mouse till the Logitech’s dual optical version (but the off centre sensors had me switching as soon as the MX line came out). Nowadays (due to RSI) I only use a mouse for the odd bit of gaming (Razer FTW! Wacom for the artwork :)).
Yeh ive never seen a USB ball mouse, theyd be hard to come by. And yes lazor and wireless are different things, but combined they make the perfect mouse (in my opinion)
Microsofts latest laser mice in the 8000 series and others are horrible, i’ve got one and it only works in some situations, my mate bought one and he can never get it to work (this is the invisible ones), the red glowey ones of yesteryear are much better.
@SchnitzelKiller: I also was wondering how long such a ball-less mouse species could survive…
Edit: Sorry… On topic, I’ve used a cordless laser mouse on the arm of my chair for a few years now (no mat needed). With a laptop and limited space , I don’t think it can be beaten. The improved sensitivity of laser makes this a practical option for me. If not for this I’d have to sit shiver at a desk! The only times I’ve replaced my mouse is when I inadvertently destroy the usb connector by passing my hand through it as if it were empty space.
