Oh, and because it’s easy to configure on Linux I can confirm that it works very well with 2 ms (500 Hz) polling. At least the mouse interface came with new valid-looking data every 2 ms. Unfortunately this system isn’t very suitable for games.

The above implies that *I* (not the mouse) had no problems with that resolution, on this low-friction surface.

That said, its long-distance tracking is pretty good, and it didn’t get confused in my maximum tracking speed tests. I’ve moved it at speeds where the individual reports said something in the 700-800s at 125 Hz. Speeds that high (which need only 11 bits at 125 Hz; as mentioned 16 and 12 bits are more than enough for now) are not generally useful for anything, but the good long-term tracking is quite useful in games, and during stalls because the resulting position is more predictable. It also hasn’t forced me to look down for 3 seconds yet, let alone when someone with rockets is approaching.

The shape of the two big buttons was clearly made for the first two fingers next to the thumb. It’s not really bad when you have your middle finger on the scroll wheel and ring finger on the right button (reverse if you use your left hand), but you’ll miss some comfort. After a bit of use I’ve noticed that the spots where my fingers rest on the main buttons have been reflecting less light in the diffuse way but more in specular. I.e. it makes them look darker but shinier.

On Mac OS X buttons 6 and 7 (the right-side buttons) are mapped to the scrolling axis at a low level, so you can’t just have a button 6/7 without changing the system (AFAIK). The Razer driver offers some configuration, but the only potential way to get to get the buttons is pass-through, and as you can guess the system alters that. Regarding the Razer driver, if I set everything to pass-through, it refuses because it wants at least one “click”; it doesn’t see a button 1 pass-through as click.

Thanks,

Bostton1

“Razerguy Says:

April 11th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Yes, anodized aluminum is much longer wearing than plastic … about 3 to 5 times longer wear, plus as you mentioned there is 2-sides that if used can possibly outlive you and your system:)

The Pro Pad is made of the same mateial as the eXactMat but the white surface is harder to keep clean. I’d suggest the eXactMat for gaming and the Pro Pad for office use.

Since my original post we have been able to adjust the laser performance on the Copperhead to track perfectly on the eXactMat and the eXactMat laser has been dropped from the development list.

If you purchased a Copperhead today the tracking on the eXactMat will not be a problem.”

Thanks for the info!

What’s interesting about the Mantis is that we have pro players swearing about its performance at both high and low sens games.

Sorry but you’ll have to do a search in and around Southern Flevoland for traditional retailers or you can contact our major EU distributor online through our EU store.

Pixel skipping:

Well, I came across this:
http://razer.tigga.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3400
which links to these:
http://razer.tigga.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3409
http://razer.tigga.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3354
(yes, they’re old)

Apparently it thinks direction changes are jitter, and when you finally move it enough it can skip over the pixel it’s been ignoring. It’s at a small scale, but I am considering a higher-CPI mouse with a reason: I have much more control than the 400 CPI of my current mouse. I.e. I can make many small movements without moving the pointer. And in games I find that I’m sometimes fighting to get a pixel on a target that’s far away. It’s not that I don’t have pixel-precise control, it’s that at the sensitivity required by my current surface space/tracking speed limitations (not much of a problem with the Diamondback and a large surface, I guess), combined with 400 CPI, a pixel becomes too large. But, umm, the point is that I think I’d be able to use its 1600 CPI, and notice imperfections at that scale.

It was apparently fixed by a driver update. Is that in the sense of trying to detect common problem patterns and doing what seems best, or perhaps updating firmware? I found that the sensor uses a small program that the controller sends to it to detect movement, so the latter might be possible if there’s some interface to update it. I also found that the Diamondback used an early version of that sensor (to be the first). Could that be different in current versions? I’ve taken a look at the driver and found some evidence in one of its files (the one that would end up at /System/Library/Extensions/RazerPRODriver.kext/Contents/Resources/Info.plist): it mentions two different mice (Razer PRO v1/v2), gives some hints that each is a Diamondback, and the difference is in the product ID. Still, even if it’s not fixed perfectly, it’s a big improvement over what I have now, especially considering tracking speed which can make low sensitivity more useful on a larger surface.

Polling rate: I’ve read about people using it at a higher rate, and getting real updates between 500–1000 Hz. It might not be official, but it seems it does support it. But still I can make no guess how much it’d help (or how I could get it working here for that matter…). It’s certainly not preventing saturation of the giant 16-bit deltas, simply because there’s no way to saturate them.

Surface: ah yes, I can imagine the Mantis Control works well at low sensitivity, for which there is enough space. Combined with fine control (if friction doesn’t get in the way) that could make for some interesting precision without significantly compromising the ability to make large turns quickly.

I think it’d be best if I could try all of this. Any idea where that’s a possibility in the Netherlands, near Southern Flevoland? It’s hard to find out.

Pixel skipping/high jitter threshold: what exactly happened to that?

Polling rate: what would be used in my situation? What is the actual improvement I read about caused by? I can only conclude that the delay difference is relatively small, and that a higher rate would be more synchronized with the screen.

Surface: is there a tracking difference between the ProPad and the eXactMat, although I think it doesn’t really matter? How do they compare to the Mantis/Everglide Titan? ((effective) static/sliding friction, potential tracking problems, wear)

And last but not least, could there be coming anything of interest to me in the near future?

I’ll see what we can do about offering some images of the Pro Tools images on our gallery. Maybe Razer Blueprints can do this for us as their product gallery is pretty complete.

Because of the anti-ghosting multi-button binds (chording) capability the Tarantula backlighting will be limited … you can’t backlight keys that are chordable (if that’s a real word). There will be an accessory sold that will allow you to top light the Tarantula … more info to come on this after market product later.

There are no plans on offering a full Razer PC but we never say never to anything. If we ever do that it will be ultimate.

Could you also provide some pictures of what a pro-tools modified Copperhead looks like? If I am going to void my warranty I would at least like to see why I am doing it and weight its worth.

Will the tarantula be backlit? In the prvided image I only see a few keys lit not the whole board.

RaZeR RoX…the way you guys are going I will have a full Razer PC