Razer Mamba+Firefly Hyperflux, beware

[Deuteronomy93]

Hi All

 

Not to fearmonger but hopefully this will help some people out, I'm just about to return my second set of Mamba+Firefly.

 

Basically I currently use a standing desk which has a metal bar going right down the middle of the desk and this is causing interference, making the mouse disconnect every few minutes.

 

I tried a few different options to find this out and also combined certain things to try and alleviate the issue to no avail.

 

Here is what I did:

• Directly on desk next to metal keyboard
• Directly on desk not next to metal keyboard
• Firefly mat on electrical tape next to metal keyboard
• Firefly mat on electrical tape not next to metal keyboard
• Firefly mat on electrical tape and another thick mousepad next to metal keyboard
• Firefly mat on electrical tape and another thick mousepad not next to metal keyboard

Desk Details:

• 2.5cm (1 inch) thick MDF/laminated wood table top.
• Stainless steel metal support running directly underneath.
  • About 1mm thick tube, roughly 2.5cm (1 inch) width under the desk/firefly. 

Best case scenario I had:

• Hyperflux was on top of an Asus cloth with rubber base mousepad, about 3mm thick.
• Electrical tape was applied to the desk in the shape of the hyperflux.

Things I didn't want to do:

• Dismantle desk and wrap the full bar repeatedly with electrical tape.
  • A lot of effort considering the desktop has monitor arms on it.
  • May cause the desktop to bow slightly if I use too much.
• Increase the layers of the electrical tape on top.
  • Will make it an uneven surface.

 

To summarise, if you're looking at this product:

• Don't get it if you have metal (even thin metal) an inch underneath and through various insulators.
  • I do not know the magic number of mm/insulators where this would not be an issue.
• Be very careful if you have a standing desk, I've had a few and only 1 didn't have the metal support running directly under the desk.
  • If you have a Jarvis or something similar you should be ok.
• Be careful if you have metal near it/wireless chargers.
  • To be fair to them they do list this in the instructions and I knew this ahead of time, I did reorganise my desk to accomodate for this, the site has instructions about this, but not things like metal desk legs (hence my diasappointment).
  • One thing that I won't get a chance to properly test is to what degree a metal keyboard may interfere with it.
    • I would hope this wouldn't be an issue as I believe Razer sell keyboards with metal frames. They also sell the Orbweaver (which I have) meaning that your overall space is more crampt and depending on how you like to position, your keyboard in all likelihood will be close to the pad.
• My last hope of something similar is that I've ordered a Logitech g903+Powerplay mat.
  • I didn't want to get the originally due to having too much software for peripherals already but this does have onboard memory so I can uninstall the software if necessary.
    • I kind of noobed out with Razer and not wanting too much software, the Hyperflux things require Synapse 3 and the Orbweaver (not sure if there's a newer one) requires Synapse 2 so I was again disappointed by this but would have lived with it.
  • I spoke to Logitech support and the agent (that said he had one) stated that although it doesn't work with metal desks, his pad is 50% on carbon fibre and 50% on stainless steel and still works.
    • As this is a worse scenario than mine, I'm more hopeful it will actually work.

[Vishera]

If reliability is what you want,then go for Logitech for gaming,or Microsoft if you don't want to game.

[Deuteronomy93]

I wouldn't argue that this was an issue of reliablity, its that it simply doesn't function as part of these scenarios.

 

As mentioned in the post, Logitech is the next option.

[Deuteronomy93]

As to be expected, the Logitech seems to have worked right out of the box.

 

The difference with this mouse is that it actually uses a battery rather than a capacitor so it was always likely to experience interference much less.

 

I may be wrong, but I thought the battery % of the mouse went from 74 -> 73 -> 74 - 75 so it'll be interesting to see if it does manage to charge whilst using but should be fine to trickle charge when in use or charge faster when not in use.

[Vishera]

51 minutes ago, Deuteronomy93 said:

As to be expected, the Logitech seems to have worked right out of the box.

 

The difference with this mouse is that it actually uses a battery rather than a capacitor so it was always likely to experience interference much less.

 

I may be wrong, but I thought the battery % of the mouse went from 74 -> 73 -> 74 - 75 so it'll be interesting to see if it does manage to charge whilst using but should be fine to trickle charge when in use or charge faster when not in use.

I am glad the Logitech works,enjoy your new mouse