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Living room gaming (wireless mouse problems)
leojreimroc
Member UncommonPosts: 371
in Hardware
I've been trying to setup my PC in my living room. My only problem right now is that my wireless mouse and keyboard have really bad reception when I'm on my couch. When I'm right next to the pc (which is next to my TV) the reception is just fine. Are the mouse and keyboard just cheap (they were not expensive). I end up being around 12-13 feet from my PC. I also plug the USB stick in the back of the PC because I can't get the front ones to work.
Comments
Also, if your rf signal has to pass thru electronics, that will affect your equipment. You could try a usb extention to move the dongles to have a clear l.o.s. to you.
Roses are red
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The reviewer has a mishapen head
Which means his opinion is skewed
...Aldous.MF'n.Huxley
There is the new Roccat Sova coming out (note its Sova not Sota). Its pretty much a keyboard lap table that has a mouse pad next to it.
Wireless has 2 main factors. First is antenna size. The size of a typical wireless mouse is fairly small. The RF receiver is also fairly small. Second is interference. If your PC is between your mouse and receiver, you are going to get interference. Also the direction your receiver is facing can also be an issue. You might want to get a USB hub and stick it ontop of your PC with the RF receiver in it. You can also simply turn your pc around so you are looking at the back of it. Make sure your front USB is plugged into the mobo. On the bottom side of most mobo are pins you plug USB from the front panel to. They are also labeled something like USB with 2 rows of numbers.
Some of the cheaper Wireless devices are IR - and need line of sight to the USB dongle. These are awful. I don't think you have one of these or you wouldn't get getting anything at all at the back of your computer.
Some are RF, and have their own proprietary protocol and USB dongle. The range and quality of these will vary widely based on the manufacturer. Some are good, some are really bad, some are battery hogs. It's very hit or miss
Some are Bluetooth. Bluetooth is RF, but it works with the build-in bluetooth controller your computer may (or may not) have and won't need it's own dedicated dongle. Bluetooth will usually go better than 12-13 feet, and since it's a fairly standard protocol the devices tend to have pretty similar operating characteristics. I have bluetooth for my HTPC setup, and they work nearly all over the house.
Another option is to use VNC (or RDP) and your smartphone/tablet as a K/M. The premise is basically the same as remote desktop, except you don't actually use the display, you watch your TV just like when you use a regular K/M. It turns your tablet/phone into a giant trackpad with keyboard. This works very well on LAN WiFi. I wouldn't necessarily want to game with it, but for just entering web sites and clicking around general use it works extremely well. There are a lot of apps that do this on the associated app stores.
While I have my BT keyboard and mouse for my HTPC setup, 9 times out of 10 I use VNC and my phone to just start a movie or play some music because I don't have to dig out the keyboard/mouse and my phone is always with me.
Is it practical to move the PC to be closer to where you sit? It might not be, but if it is, that might be the easiest fix.
I try to get wired everything whenever possible, as that makes you categorically immune to a whole host of problems--including but not limited to what you're dealing with.
This is not accurate and implies that signals are manipulated by other electronics. They aren't.
Signals can be blocked, bounced, or attenuated when they hit a surface, no matter what that surface is. Metal cases are a common reflector of signals. Some electronics may give off varying amounts of RF noise which can interfere with the receiver's operation, but they don't manipulate the source signal in any way. You may have interference issues with your computer so close to other potential noise sources, or you may have another issue.
There is a small amount of RF noise present at all times on all frequencies which is nearly impossible to get rid of without expensive shielding. In order for a signal to be intelligible by the receiver, the signal has to arrive with enough power to overcome the noise. If the transmission source is only designed to do this at a distance of less than ten feet, it probably won't work in your living room.
You need to find a device which works at a longer distance.
I just tested my Logitech M510 mouse and it worked without issues at a distance of 20 feet as long as I didn't put my body between the mouse and the receiver. I had a clear line of sight to the unifying receiver.
The other suggestion which will work is Bluetooth. The Wii U uses Bluetooth to stream video to the controller in a living room environment, so I think it would be fine in your situation.
Almost --
Wii and Wii U (and PS3/PS4) use Bluetooth for their wireless controllers (Xbox uses something similar but proprietary). The Nunchuck controllers also use Infrared for motion tracking (that's the bar that has to go on your TV).
Wii U uses a dedicated and semi-proprietary WiFi N signal optimized for latency to send video to the handheld controller (and from the camera back to the Wii U). It has a much shorter range than the Bluetooth controllers do, but it's also much higher bandwidth.
This also isn't quite true (there are a lot of electronics which their sole purpose is to manipulate other signals, including RF signals), but it doesn't really fit the scope of this forum, and Syntax42 is correct in saying that the interference from other devices is low (assuming they are all consumer-purchased devices and not "homebrew" or some other type of DIY, which must pass an FCC inspection for RF interference prior to being sold).
As others have mentioned for distance you want to pick up an RF keyboard and mouse and decent mones are not that cheap.
Of course the cheapest option is a USB ext and it looks like that is what you are doing, but with that you will have cables on the floor, if that is not an issue for you then that is the best option
otherwise something like this.
http://www.ebuyer.com/491535-cherry-b-unlimited-aes-wireless-desktop-keyboard-and-mouse-black-uk-jd-0400gb-2?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products&gclid=Cj0KEQjw6pGfBRD09M-TmYTBzqIBEiQAcRzH53PiO1efb7Cs_8XwHF_EnxPL5F0lU5yZ6RWWIsbeugcaAvta8P8HAQ
That one has a 10m range and is one fo the cheaper Cherry ones.