2 different questions about wheel tilt and mouse scroll speed

x64 Replacement/Alternative to Microsoft's IntelliMouse application.
Forum rules
Please read the forum rules before posting for the first time.
The more information you can provide, the quicker and more accurately someone can help.
NOTE: To reduce spam, new users can not post links, files or images until they have at least 4 posts.
Post Reply
dispalo
New User
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2019 11:24 am

2 different questions about wheel tilt and mouse scroll speed

Post by dispalo »

XMBC Version: 2.19.2
Windows Version: Win10
Mouse Information (brand/model): Sharkoon Drakonia
How long have you used XMBC?: not long enough ;)
What language and keyboard layout do you use in Windows?: ger

Hello Phil,

I hope you can answer me two (different) questions.

1. My drakonia has a wheel for left and right scrolls and xmbc doesn't recognize them. But since I have an original software for that mouse and I can tell my scroll wheel what signals to send, I thought I'd ask you if there is a possibility to simply send a certain signal that xmbc recognizes as sideway wheel clicks. I'd use a script if needed.

2. I love the possibility of changing mouse profiles, but whenever I do that, I loose control over the scroll speed. Is there a possibilty to tell xmbc to leave that feature alone and just accept the win10-settings?
User avatar
phil
Site Admin
Posts: 7627
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2003 11:12 pm

Re: 2 different questions about wheel tilt and mouse scroll speed

Post by phil »

1. XMBC is looking for the mouse message Search Results WM_MOUSEHWHEEL (horizontal wheel) for the left/right "tilt" functions. That is default on mice with tilt wheels (where the normal scroll wheel also tilts left/right) but I don't know about mice with second physical wheel as I'm not seen one myself. If your software allows you to change it, then there maybe a "default" or a setting to send those standard messages, but I'm sure it wont be obvious which setting to use (it never is obvious to me in the Logitech software LOL!).

But as for running a script, it may be possible - I'm not 100% sure though and the script would have to inject horizontal scroll messages into the mouse message queue (using the SendInput API is how XMBC does it). Perhaps you can use AutoHotkey to do this... Autohotkey is much more advanced scripting wise and you can build scripts to monitor input and trigger output so it could monitor for something the mouse can do (or if the mouse software allow you to run scripts, maybe you call the AHK script directly) and then it could inject the message that XMBC is looking for....

I guess what I'm saying is that I think its probably doable but will take some thinking & external stuff like AHK.


2. When you say scroll speed - do you mean the "number of lines" to scroll, or are you talking about the cursor speed?
XMBC should only touch these settings if you tell it to. That is, by default the standard windows settings is what is picked up, and unless you change it in XMBC, it shouldn't get changed.... So if its changing without you telling it to, I need to know a bit more (maybe the debug log will help me) so I can investigate what is going on.

EDIT: Is it this mouse? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharkoon-40449 ... B00889SAE8
--[ Phil ]--
--[ Administrator & XMBC Author ]--
Logitech G9/G604/M720/MX518, Microsoft Intellimouse, Trust 16341 BT Mouse
Windows 10 x64, AMD Ryzen 5900x, MSI x570 Tomahawk, 32GB DDR4,
nVidia RTX 2070s, Evo 970 1Tb NVME, 2x2TB WD Black (RAID1)
dispalo
New User
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2019 11:24 am

Re: 2 different questions about wheel tilt and mouse scroll speed

Post by dispalo »

Thank you for answering. I found a solution.

to 1)

The thing is, that the drakonia has a scrollwheel up/down that works like any other mousewheel, but the sideway-scroll is different. It's not a real wheel. When I use the drakonia defaults I can mousewheel-click left and the window scrolls to the left. But just one bit. If I want to go further I have to click and click and click again. Maybe that is not the kind of wheel xmbc expects?

https://superuser.com/questions/547754/ ... onia-mouse

I found this here and it works. The posting was specific for my mouse, but maybe it works for other mice as well. The simplest of scripts can solve this problem. Great, now I have potentially 6 mouse functions more on my mouse, because I use 3 additional layers after the basic one.

One stupid question remains: it's what buttons you actually use for this. Obviously the posted script is useless for us, because we xmbc-users cannot (should not) use Scroll lock. So we need to use different buttons. I'm still trying to figuring out which ones to use, but that's not your problem :)

I hope people with the same problem can use this to solve theirs.

2)

I meant the number of lines. But I have solved it. I use the advanced scroll options now.
User avatar
phil
Site Admin
Posts: 7627
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2003 11:12 pm

Re: 2 different questions about wheel tilt and mouse scroll speed

Post by phil »

Sounds like your pretty much there.

For keys to use - you could try F13-F20 (not normally on most keyboard but I think supported) instead of scroll-lock or pause - you can also turn off the "Disable XMBC when scroll lock is on" in XMBC advanced settings - but beware if you do and you reconfigure the left button incorrectly it can be difficult to turn off XMBC to fix it :).

It actually looks like quite a nice mouse - and cheaper than most of the Logitech devices of similar spec. May be time for another mouse - I do have a habit of collecting them - mostly to test this or that... But my favorite so far is my trusty Logitech G9 (which is no longer available and I've already had to replace the left and right click micro-switches to keep it going.... I bought a newer Logitech model last year but it just didn't feel right! lol.
--[ Phil ]--
--[ Administrator & XMBC Author ]--
Logitech G9/G604/M720/MX518, Microsoft Intellimouse, Trust 16341 BT Mouse
Windows 10 x64, AMD Ryzen 5900x, MSI x570 Tomahawk, 32GB DDR4,
nVidia RTX 2070s, Evo 970 1Tb NVME, 2x2TB WD Black (RAID1)
dispalo
New User
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2019 11:24 am

Re: 2 different questions about wheel tilt and mouse scroll speed

Post by dispalo »

Funny, but now that i am testing all this, I find a new problem I didn't encounter before.

My sideway-wheel is sending continuous signals, as you would have expected. I just found out. Did not know that.

Xmbc recognizes my sideway-wheel now and as a test I used "simulated keys". But when holding the wheelbuttons, the signal is sent over and over again as if the setting "how to send simulated keystrokes - 6 Repeatedly while button is down" was active.

I know there is a setting "fixup (debounce) tilt wheel autorepeat", but I am unsure how to use this or if that is the solution.

-- reply to your new posting:

I would never use scroll lock. That is reserved for xmbc. ;)

Yeah, I think I will use the F-keys. The drakonia software is very outdated, so I need a dirty trick for it (global hotkey, calling up script that does what is needed to be done).

The bad software aside, I can really recommend that mouse. It has three thumb-buttons that are difficult to confuse your fingers. Not once I accidently clicked one of those buttons. It's a very good button setup. I bought it again just a couple of weeks ago after testing other mice, e.g. Zelotes C12. That one is a good mouse, with six! thumb-buttons. But I accidently touched buttons all the time, so I came back to my old drakonia.

I use one of those three buttons as middle button, so that I have three additional layers. More is not feasible. I have more button functions than I can actually remember. So, if you're interested, good choice. One warning though: The dpi-lights are incredibly bright and you cannot deactivate them. I mean *really* bright.
User avatar
phil
Site Admin
Posts: 7627
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2003 11:12 pm

Re: 2 different questions about wheel tilt and mouse scroll speed

Post by phil »

OK to the repeated messages - this is not unexpected - thats how all tilt mice work. However there are several settings in XMBC - the one you mention was the first and not so successful attempt to work around it, but if your using a remap (sim keys or other) then on the "Options" tab of the profile, you have the "Ignore repeated remapped horizontal scroll" that should do the trick. The only thing you may need to tinker with is the time - depending on how quickly the message auto-repeats.

As for the mouse, sounds good - the bright lights (Why do they do that) could be annoying but as long is it does not stay lit when the computer is off, not so much of a problem - one mouse I had did stay lit up like a Christmas tree even when the PC was off (maybe it was a USB charging port I had it plugged into, not sure but that one didn't last long plugged in!!!)
--[ Phil ]--
--[ Administrator & XMBC Author ]--
Logitech G9/G604/M720/MX518, Microsoft Intellimouse, Trust 16341 BT Mouse
Windows 10 x64, AMD Ryzen 5900x, MSI x570 Tomahawk, 32GB DDR4,
nVidia RTX 2070s, Evo 970 1Tb NVME, 2x2TB WD Black (RAID1)
dispalo
New User
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2019 11:24 am

Re: 2 different questions about wheel tilt and mouse scroll speed

Post by dispalo »

Ah, good. Works like a charm. Now I need to spend 8 hours to think about what to do with those new buttons, so that in the end I can save 1 or 2 seconds each day. ;)

I bought a couple new things recently and they all have their lights. Since I want a mouse with great many buttons, I need a gamer mouse. Because they have lots of buttons. But Gamer Mice often have those light, because all gamers are 14yo. The same with headsets. Mine broke a couple of days ago and now I am ordering a new one. Since I don't want to pay a fortune and because gamer headsets often have good quaility and prices, I ordered one of those. But they often have lights, so will have mine. My tower is fortunately in a different room, but it has lots of lights as well. Yes, it's a gamer PC. Not sure, but there might be a pattern.

I call that light pollution. I can understand that some people think that this is "sexy". Okay. But sometimes you stumble across a piece of hardware, that does not allow you to turn it off and this I cannot understand.

It's not that disturbing unless it's very bright. That is the case with Drakonia. The thing has two light sources and one you can turn off via software. The dpi settings is always visible and the brightest thing in the room (why??), so I used some rubberband to hide that. Yeah, I am a bit sensitive with that.

If you buy it, I hope you will love it as I do (the lower thumb button is so marvelous!) :)
User avatar
phil
Site Admin
Posts: 7627
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2003 11:12 pm

Re: 2 different questions about wheel tilt and mouse scroll speed

Post by phil »

Completely agree on the whole light pollution thing. The only light I want is from my monitor thanks very much! I have the same problem with headsets too (but at least the light can be turned off (every time you plug it in lol). Have to say, the backlit keyboard on my <gaming!> laptop is actually quite useful though - nicely configurable (as in I can dim it right down) and just enough light to see what your doing with a dark screen.

Most other devices have some tape over them (including the mains power extension blocks that also seem to be well lit these days - why!!). :)

Glad you are making progress with your configuration though.
--[ Phil ]--
--[ Administrator & XMBC Author ]--
Logitech G9/G604/M720/MX518, Microsoft Intellimouse, Trust 16341 BT Mouse
Windows 10 x64, AMD Ryzen 5900x, MSI x570 Tomahawk, 32GB DDR4,
nVidia RTX 2070s, Evo 970 1Tb NVME, 2x2TB WD Black (RAID1)
Post Reply