Cordless mouse harms batteries

eluminator

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Does anyone know of a cordless mouse that will pop up a window, or simply shut down, when the battery voltage gets low enough to harm NiMH cells?

My Logitech won't, and if I forget to check the battery monitor status, the voltage gets so low that the cells require several charge/discharge cycles to get the capacity back. I had one cell that never did come back to normal, so I threw it out.

The battery monitor clearly wasn't designed for NiMH anyway, but I think a warning when the voltage reaches "critical" would do the job.

If my Pentium 4 isn't fast enough to allow the Logitech software to figure it out, I could always upgrade to one of those hyper-threading things. If 512 Meg of memory isn't enough for Logitech, I could go to 1 Gig. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

Zelandeth

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Hmm, the one I have here (MS Optical Desktop Pro) pops up a window when the batteries get low, in the mouse, and I assume the keyboard, thought four months on, and the same ones are still in there. I'm using cheap alks though, so ignore the popups until the mouse starts acting up usually! Seem to get about a month and a half on each set of batts.
 

eluminator

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My mouse is optical, it's the only way to go for me. And you better believe this thing works until there's nothing left in the cells. It will work fine and then all of a sudden it dies, and the LED goes out. It just went dead a few hours ago. I removed and analyzed the cells. One cell showed .6 volts, the other was .9 volts.

Sounds like the MS mouse is the way to go.

Thanks guys.
 

Saaby

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I personally don't like the Microsoft wireless mice, their wireless engine isn't as responsive as Logitechs, but as always your milage may vary.

I'd rather put alkelines in a Logitech or replace a NiMh every now and than than switch to Microsoft.

You do realize that NiMh cells can be had for under $1 now right? It's nice to use them forever, but at these prices they're pretty disposable.

I use a Logitech optical wireless with NiMh and it seems to be fine, but I don't often cycle the same batteries back into the mouse--I throw them in the 'dead' pile to be changed and put back into the 'live' pile.

I just got a Logitech wireless optical trackball which I am currently running with Alkelines but the next runthrough will be with NiMh.

1 more thought! Instead of upgrading to a hyperthreaded chip or doubling your system's RAM, why not just get a Logitech MX 700, it comes with 2 NiMh AAs and a charging base that charges the batteries. If you get sick of the shortish battery life (You'll have to change for 4 hours for about every 1 week of continuous off-base usage) just pop in higher capacity NiMh cells. If you're feeling real spendy get the new MX 900--same thing as the 700 except flavored like Bluetooth.
 

K A

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I have a Logitech Cordless Mouseman Optical myself. The only thing the manual said about rechargeables is that the battery monitor would not report correctly. Whenever I check the battery status after a few days it usually says that the batteries are Critcal. But that doesn't mean the batteries are no means dead. They last for quite a while. I have only had the mouse go dead once on me. After about two weeks I throw the batteries into my Maha 401 to cycle my batteries.
 

DieselDave

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Interesting
I was using a Memorex wireless mouse and keyboard. I'm still using the keyboard even though the "shift" key sticks but went back to a wired mouse because the slow response time aggravated me. It sounds like there are some wireless mice that work as well as a wired mouse. I may have to give it another try, you guys are great!
 

IlluminatingBikr

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I have a cordless mouse hooked up to the family desktop computer. I love it. When it doesn't work, you need new batteries. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif
 

K A

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[ QUOTE ]
DieselDave said:
Interesting
I was using a Memorex wireless mouse and keyboard. I'm still using the keyboard even though the "shift" key sticks but went back to a wired mouse because the slow response time aggravated me. It sounds like there are some wireless mice that work as well as a wired mouse. I may have to give it another try, you guys are great!


[/ QUOTE ]

I had forgot to mention that my cordless is a USB version (it also came with a USB->PS2 adapter).

The only time I see any lag in my cordless mouse is when my computer 'burps' and everything freezes for a second. I have also encountered a problem when I was backing up some files onto my new USB Flash Drive. The mouse froze and I could not get it to unfreeze. That was in Win98se when it did that (I also dual boot XP). I have been in XP for the past few days and have moved the mouse to the PS2 port with the included adapter and have not noticed any freezing.. it could simply have been a 98 problem.
 

Empath

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I'm running a Logitech cordless optical mouse on NiMH. I chose the the option to hide the system tray mouse icon. When the batteries start getting low, it unhides itself in plenty of time for me to switch to the alternate set of charged NiMH cells. It's been running that way a couple of years or more with no problem.

An interesting piece of information I found some time ago, was that batteries lasted longer on an optical mouse if you use a light colored mouse pad or surface. It was suppose to have to do with better reflectivity. I checked on my system, and found the NiMH on a dark surface last me about a week. On a white surface it lasted about two and a half weeks. Light colored mouse pads seem to be difficult to come by. Just a point of interest, the CPF mousepad is white, available here.
 

Charles Bradshaw

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I also use the Logitech Cordless Mouseman Optical (original version). Nice mouse and the software (windows) does popup a battery low warning with NiMHs.

I swap the batteries when response gets jerky. Then charge the exhausted pair.
 

Empath

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My mouse icon just appeared, indicating my NiMH cells were at a "critical level". I swapped them with a charged pair, and measured the two I took out with the C.Crane charger. It indicates each cell was down to 1.17 volts. That's nowhere near enough to risk damage to the cells.
 

eluminator

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Very good Empath. I hid the mouse icon. Now I'll have to wait and see what happens. In lieu of the icon to click on to do a manual battery check, I managed to get a shortcut to the Logitech mouse properties in my Start menu.

And thanks for reminding me of the white mouse pad. I remember reading about that some time ago.

Saaby, don't worry. I think I'll stick with my Logitech cordless optical (not the mouseman), for a while longer. The Microsoft mouse may be easier on batteries though. They brag about it, and I seem to remember a review mentioning it. I can't tell if the expensive MS wireless mouse has the righthanded tilt, or if it's ambidextrous. They don't come right out and say. I suppose they are afraid of being sued by lefthanders if they do. Our country is sick and getting sicker.
 

TheFire

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I must say, I really love both my logitech MX series mice. They track better than ANYTHING optical I've ever seen, corded or no. You can actually play GAMES with this cordless mouse.(!) Battery life is pretty good, and it comes with a charger, which means that I don't ever worry about dead batteries. Really, you owe it to yourself to check out the MX series. They totally surpass any of the previous optical mice. (sorry for the slight OT, but I just had to say it... I love my logitech...)

Paul
 

Charles Bradshaw

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Guess what, I am left handed and use a so-called right handed mouse, with my right hand. I would have thought that right handers would use a mouse with their left hand, in order to keep their right hand free for writing and such. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif
 

eluminator

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Maybe this explains why I've never seen a left handed mouse.

We right handers aren't that clever. Right handers don't need to be so clever to live in a right handed world.

I've always assumed my left hand was there just to balance the right hand when I'm walking. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

geepondy

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I've owned two cordless mice, the Logitech optical mouseman discussed here and now the Logitech MX700. The original optical would go a month or two between charges and yes a low battery indicator would appear when they got low. The MX700 will not go more then a week without requiring charging and yes, it killed one or both of my NIMH batteries recently (never bothered to see which one). It would not go a whole day before requiring charging. An LED on the mouse will start blinking to indicate the battery level is low and I always waited until that happened before putting the mouse on the charger. But as TheFire has posted, the MX700 blows away the regular Logictech cordless optical in tracking speed and performance and is the first cordless optical mouse I've seen that behaves as smoothly as it's corded cousins. I've read reviews that the new MS Tilt wheel cordless mouse performs pretty well and has excellent battery life.
 

MacGyver

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[ QUOTE ]
Saaby said:...You do realize that NiMh cells can be had for under $1 now right? It's nice to use them forever, but at these prices they're pretty disposable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are they still that price somewhere?!
I need some & thought that price dried up...?
Please tell me I'm wrong! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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