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iljitsch

Posted Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:05 am

And a year later...

Is it a tank? Is it a mouse? No, it's the wireless tank mouse!

First impressions:

It comes in a nice little box. No manual, but the underside of the mouse tells you what you need to know.

It is a very good replica of the original tank mouse, except for some obvious stuff such as the lack of 30 years of yellowing, no cable, and everything on the underside is different. Other than that it's just the buttons that are a bit smaller with more space between them, which is the scroll sensitive area.

On my Mac I don't like the scrolling, though, it's way too jittery: pages fly up and down with reckless abandon. And on the Amiga with my mouSTer USB to Amiga mouse adapter I'm 99.9% sure it's not supported. Perhaps it is with the extra stretch goal USB adapter.

It takes two AAA batteries (not included) and the battery compartment also provides storage for the wireless USB dongle (included).

The mouse slides around on four small plasticky feet that look like they won't wear out too quickly. There are two buttons on the underside of the mouse: one that slides between bluetooth / off / 2.4 GHz wireless (Apple Wi-Fi icon) and a push button that starts bluetooth pairing.

A nice touch is that in 2.4 GHz mode (using the dongle) the mode LED and the optical tracking LED are green, in bluetooth mode... wait for it... blue.

In both modes I had no trouble using the mouse on my black wooden desk. You can easily switch between the two modes (and thus two computers) using the mode selector switch.

The tracking/resolution is a bit slower/lower than my Logitech Anywhere MX 2 mice and similar to that of the original tank mouse. The mouSTer USB adapter lets me adjust this so no problem here.

I was happy to find the mouSTer as two previous USB to Amiga mouse adapters didn't work with the Logitech wireless adapter. And the one I still have lying around, the Ryś MKII, also doesn't work with the tank mouse USB wireless adapter, even though working very well with USB mice and the tank mouse adapter only needs 50 mA.

The tank mouse works with the A500 Mini using the 2.4 GHz adapter without any issues, and it's definitely nicer than the wired tank mouse replica that comes with the A500 Mini.

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iljitsch

Posted Tue Apr 04, 2023 8:48 am

This is strange: the Guru Meditation Youtube channel mentions that the Ryś MKII does work with the tank mouse USB dongle. I tried again and it definitely doesn't work with my early revision A1200. I have trouble booting my A3000 currently so I can't check whether it works on that one.

BTW, compared to my first generation Apple "magic" mouse and the Logitech Anywhere MX 2s that I love to death (some years ago I got a second one, so I'd have one at work and one at home) the tank mouse has much reduced functionality with not-great scrolling and two buttons. It's also cheaper than those other mice, but still not super cheap. So for general use I wouldn't recommend this tank mouse, but if you want a wireless mouse for your Amiga (real or emulated) it's pretty nice, and probably better than any current cheap optical mice.

I also have an ancient Logitech USB ball mouse that works really well with my A3000, though, and my Anywhere MXes can pair to multiple computers so those are easy to use with an Amiga, too, without having to get a separate one.

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3D-vice
Germany

Posted Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:51 am

Here some 1st impression images, since I apparently posted them in the wrong topic... somehow.

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iljitsch

Posted Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:44 am

The tank mouse on its own is 58 grams. With two Eneloop batteries, 82 grams.

The tank mouse that, IIRC, came with my (old version of a) A3000 is 122 grams, but the cable is mostly unaccounted for.

The THEA500 Mini wired slightly smaller tank mouse is 85 grams.

A1200 mouse: 103 grams.

For comparison: Logitech Anywhere MX 2: 103 grams.

Logitech ~ 20 year old ball mouse: 85 grams.

So I'd say that the new tank mouse is on the light side, but only slightly so compared to anything other than the original tank mouse.

A500 Mini tank mouse, A3000 tank mouse, new wireless tank mouse:

Image

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3D-vice
Germany

Posted Thu Apr 06, 2023 3:55 am

That's an interesting visual comparison of the mice. Thanks! After I had taken the new Wireless Tank Mouse into my hand, my fist impression was that it might be a bit smaller than the original Amiga Tank Mouse. However, I was wrong apparently. ;)





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