If your Acorn mouse is not playing properly, we have a nice new article that can help. Our
resident server guy has written the article which takes you through the process of cleaning a mouse and the options for replacing dead ones.
Take a look, you might learn something new and get that spare mouse or the one on your older Acorn machines working again!
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Mice behaving badly |
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andrew (12:23 28/7/2003)
ToiletDuck (14:38 28/7/2003)
mavhc (16:22 28/7/2003)
ad (22:08 28/7/2003)
ToiletDuck (22:37 28/7/2003)
ksattic (22:39 28/7/2003)
richcheng (12:26 29/7/2003)
Simon (16:53 29/7/2003)
ksattic (20:21 29/7/2003)
ToiletDuck (20:47 29/7/2003)
mavhc (11:30 30/7/2003)
ksattic (14:56 30/7/2003)
rich (14:24 31/7/2003)
stdevel (18:31 31/7/2003)
ksattic (19:25 31/7/2003)
nunboy (09:12 11/8/2003)
mavhc (10:09 11/8/2003)
Mart (21:49 15/8/2003)
moss (23:53 15/8/2003)
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Andrew |
Message #92436, posted by andrew at 12:23, 28/7/2003 |
 Handbag Boi
Posts: 3439
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Also the optical mice from STD accumulate less muck than the Acorn mouse as they lack the wider ridges down the side. |
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Mark Quint |
Message #92437, posted by ToiletDuck at 14:38, 28/7/2003, in reply to message #92436 |
 Quack Quack
Posts: 1016
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mm optical
:drool: |
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Mark Scholes |
Message #92438, posted by mavhc at 16:22, 28/7/2003, in reply to message #92437 |
Member
Posts: 660
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What's the update speed of USB mice compared to Bus/PS2, how smoothly do they move? |
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Andrew Duffell |
Message #92439, posted by ad at 22:08, 28/7/2003, in reply to message #92438 |
Posts: 3262
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I've had problems with the microswitches on the mouse buttons breaking on Acorn mice, but they can be replaced for 99p from Maplin Electronics and easily soldered in place of the old ones. I've done it 3 times now :D |
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Mark Quint |
Message #92440, posted by ToiletDuck at 22:37, 28/7/2003, in reply to message #92439 |
Quack Quack
Posts: 1016
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it really depends on the mouse i think for the update speed, although on good mice (i.e. logitech mx500/mx700) is the same on USB and PS2. I own the MX500, although I plug it in with USB as its plug and pray if I need it :) |
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Simon Wilson |
Message #92441, posted by ksattic at 22:39, 28/7/2003, in reply to message #92440 |
 Finally, an avatar!
Posts: 1291
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mavhc: I can't really notice any difference in update speed because PS/2 mice are capable of a decent-enough refresh rate to match the screen refresh. However, optical mice are far superior in that they look damn cool and they don't require the ball to be cleaned. The pointer never sticks or jerks about. The life should also be better as there are fewer moving parts (just the switches to worry about). |
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richard cheng |
Message #92442, posted by richcheng at 12:26, 29/7/2003, in reply to message #92441 |
Posts: 655
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Nice article. Goodjob, Rich. Any chance of linking to it from the Hardware section itself? I realise most of the sections aren't really updated, but it'd be nice to keep them as up-to-date as possible, methinks. |
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Simon |
Message #92443, posted at 16:53, 29/7/2003, in reply to message #92442 |
| Unregistered user
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Optical mice are lovely - the only thing Microsoft are good for! I wouldn't go for Logitech, except maybe the top-of-the-range MX700 etc. the mid-range one I have sucks. Opticals can have the annying thing of going mad suddenly on some surfaces - like the pointer randomly shooting across the screen. Seem to work fine with PS2Mouse, and obviously on the PC, although I always use the PS/2 interface instead of USB as it saves me a USB port and PS/2 is useless for anything else... |
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Simon Wilson |
Message #92444, posted by ksattic at 20:21, 29/7/2003, in reply to message #92443 |
Finally, an avatar!
Posts: 1291
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Heh, I'd say exactly the opposite about MS/Logitech! My first two optical mice were MS ones and I had nothing but trouble because the pointer would go nuts on all surfaces. The three Logitech ones I use on various computers I use all work great. I use one of the bottom-of-the-range corded ones, a wireless one and an MX300. |
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Mark Quint |
Message #92445, posted by ToiletDuck at 20:47, 29/7/2003, in reply to message #92444 |
Quack Quack
Posts: 1016
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I have both a Optical Microsoft 5 button intellimouse, and the Logitech MX500.
I liked the M$ one when i used it, much better than the wheel mouse it replaced.
Bought an MX500 to replace that and its an awesome mouse. Its exactly the same as the MX700 but without the wireless bit. The mouse perfectly fits your hand, and works much better than the M$ one. |
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Mark Scholes |
Message #92446, posted by mavhc at 11:30, 30/7/2003, in reply to message #92445 |
Member
Posts: 660
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Just wondering if the whole USB stack part slows it down. Got a logitech optical wheel mouse at home, think it's http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&contentid=4992&crid=3&detail=2&countryid=18&languageid=1 Wheel occasionally doesn't click in the same place as it sends the click data, and it doesn't like the dark fake wood grain on my desk much, in certain places the pointer wobbles when it's still. USB and PS/2 is nice though. The one at work is http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouse/wmo_info.asp which is slightly too high, but the wheel works better. Of course my religion forbids me from giving MS any money. The ones we let the school kids use are http://shop.primepc.co.uk/acatalog/Optical.html Chic 1310 Optical PS/2 Mouse which cost about 3-5ukps. They're ok, great for the price. Also got a few A4 Tech Optical Mouse PS/2 SWOP-35 at about 10ukps, slightly better than the Chic ones, wheel mouse isn't that clicky. What I really want is a very flat mouse, now the ball's gone there's no reason why they're so high, my hand naturally curves about half the height of a mouse.. |
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Simon Wilson |
Message #92447, posted by ksattic at 14:56, 30/7/2003, in reply to message #92446 |
Finally, an avatar!
Posts: 1291
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The USB stack doesn't slow things down, though I don't know if I can recommend the Simtec USB solution as I'm still having trouble with all USB mice I've tried when using them with Select 3. Windows won't always close (they keep popping up) and the wheel does absolutely nothing. USB is fantastic on the IYONIX though currently the wheel on a wheel mouse does nothing. |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #92448, posted by rich at 14:24, 31/7/2003, in reply to message #92447 |
 Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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I've had no problems with a Packard Bell USB optical mouse under RISC OS 4.02, so I would suggest ksattic's problems are either with Select, or some other software is interfering with the normal operation of the mouse. I know some joypad software I used to have loaded on one of my machines gave similar errors under RISC OS 3.x. |
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Stuart Tyrrell |
Message #92449, posted by stdevel at 18:31, 31/7/2003, in reply to message #92448 |
www.stdevel.co.uk
Posts: 279
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MouseAxess? The favourite for b***ering up all things mouse-wise though is tidydesk - kills all known mice dead :-( I'm scheduled to run over the mouse code myself (as I've got a just a /little/ experience in this area), just to tweak if needed. I know there's another update to the Simtec stack due imminently which integrates work done for extra-RISC OS licensees. Look out for it. |
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Simon Wilson |
Message #92450, posted by ksattic at 19:25, 31/7/2003, in reply to message #92449 |
Finally, an avatar!
Posts: 1291
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Thanks Stuart - I'm looking forward to being able to use the mouse wheel! I should probably clarify my "recommendation" statement above - the Simtec USB card is a great addition to my machine, and my only gripe is the strange mouse behaviour, which can possibly be attributed to Select 3 like Rich said. I'll have a play and see what I can find out. I don't have any mouse utilities running. |
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nunboy |
Message #92451, posted at 09:12, 11/8/2003, in reply to message #92450 |
| Unregistered user
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Hmm - TIB has a habit of publishing non-RISC OS news. Why not just suck Drobe's RSS feed? That way at least you get two different comment sets (and there are people who only comment on one of the sites.) It'd be more interesting, anyway. |
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Mark Scholes |
Message #92452, posted by mavhc at 10:09, 11/8/2003, in reply to message #92451 |
Member
Posts: 660
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Or you get the same comments repeated on both sites and have twice as many places to check for new comments. |
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Mart |
Message #92453, posted at 21:49, 15/8/2003, in reply to message #92452 |
| Unregistered user
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I know that news is a bit hard to come by at this time of year. It's nearly a month since this was stuck on here (well 3 weeks:-)). The tabloids manage - well ok they make things up. Hey! there's an idea! |
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John Hoare |
Message #92454, posted by moss at 23:53, 15/8/2003, in reply to message #92453 |
Posts: 9348
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It's mainly down to the workload of the TIB editors. Drobe carries all the latest news - TIB should really concentrate more on features, which are a little harder to come up with when we're all as busy as we are. After this weekend, I should have the time to get something done. |
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