Question Cyborg R.A.T 7 MMO Special Edition Mouse

Athan

Resident Freddy
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Dec 24, 2003
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I'm in the market for a new mouse. As much as I've loved my Logitech MX518 over the years (had it since 2006!) I'm finding that more and more I want MOAR BUTTONS! (Scroll down to the [n]bold bit[/b] for the question without more pre-amble.)

So, I've been casting my eye around. I've come across things like the "Razer Naga MMO" (12 thumb buttons, and can get a version that is optionally wired or wireless), the "Razer Naga Hex" (6 thumb buttons in a hex shape, probably easier to accurately hit than a 3x4 pad of them), the "Steelseries WoW Cataclysm Mouse" (I like the extra buttons either side of the main two, and the thumb buttons seem nice and chunky for accurate use), but then I happened upon the mouse in this topic's title, the "Cyborg R.A.T 7 MMO Special Edition Mouse".

It looks to have enough buttons in the right places for what I want (although I wonder if the extra buttons by the two main ones can only act as 'lock' buttons for those, or can be configured for other things as well). What I love most is the physically reconfigurability of the thing, change pinky rest, position and angle of the thum rest/area, how far out (and high) the palm rest is, weight.

So, to finally get to the point. Does anyone have one of these mice and got any comments about how it works in practice? Do the screws holding things on/in place keep coming loose? Buttons dying on you? Or is it just awesomeness incarnate ?

I've already watched these two:


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UQMy3UrR8I


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFZwMXgf7qQ
 

Poag

m00?
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I, personally, will never buy a cyborg device again. I bought a rat5 when my X8 started getting a bit wonkey.

Having gone through 4 of them (the sensors were failing to power up for 5 mins after boot up, and if you took it off the surface it would power off) tried it on a pair of pcs and a mac, Cyborgs response, must be my problem. No refund, no further switches.

So left with a £50 paper weight, binned, vowed never to return to such a shitty support service.

Took my X8 apart, phone Microsoft, they said "yeah clean this bit and it'll be golden" did as instructed, worked perfectly..they even set me up with a fresh 6 month warranty for that repair.
 

Poag

m00?
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When it did work however, i found the side buttons (the top two on the mmo) were annoying to press and if i held the back one down then my thumb got fairly sore after a while.
 

Athan

Resident Freddy
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I'll start by saying "Poag, I should have listened to you" :p. I'll hopefully be trying out either that SteelSeries mouse I outlined above, or maybe the Logitech G600 (as I know Logitech make decent sensors that will actually work on my mouse mat).

I did order a Cyborg MMO 7 from dabs.com, it arrived just over 2 weeks ago. Initially it seemed OK as I was expecting some re-adjustment time from my old mouse.

Summary
Either the 'Twin-Eye' sensor they use is badly designed, not working properly on all 4 surfaces I tried, or they have poor build quality/QA on it. The physical reconfigurability is mostly useless and the palm rest badly shaped for comfort. The mouse buttons all work OK though. The profile software is sub-optimal, with no builtin help, out of date web help, and no feature to auto-detect applications and switch profile.

Even if it turns out my unit was just faulty and they could get me one without the mouse drift issue... I'd still not recommend buying this mouse unless you get to thoroughly test drive it hands-on first to be sure it's comfortable in your hand.


In detail...
But then the random drifting of the mouse pointer started. It's a problem I'd read about before buying, but only in the context of people saying "this was on a cloth mousemate, I used a smooth one, or just my desk, and the problem went away".

It didn't go away for me. Started on my EverGlide cloth mouse mat. Tried the WoW:WotLK CE mouse mat I had, still random drift. Tried my bare desk... still the problem. Tried a sheet of Epson Ink Jet paper, still the drift.

Made sure no dust/debris in the mouse sensor pit or near it, or on the surface I was trying to use. turned the DPI down, which did alleviate it some but only in a "well, now I'm less sensitive to everything, so I'm also not showing as much drift". This couldn't have been the cable pushing it around, especially as at times the problem manifested as "I'm moving the mouse up to that close/minimise button... still moving it up... still... why's the damned mouse pointer fighting me by drifting downwards?" and there's no way the cable was pushing that much!

Un-installed ALL Logitech s/w and drivers (despite having a Logitech G110 keyboard, which is a little less useful without them), still the problem. At the direction of MadCatz support I removed, redownloaded and reinstalled their drivers and s/w, still the problem. They said "obviously faulty, return it to who you got it from".

Note the problem also showed up in Linux where the kernel driver and X.org would have been treating it as a 'simple' USB HID Mouse with lots of buttons.

So it's now on its way back to dabs. The web interface to arrange the RMA offered the option of refund, so I'm trying for that. I wouldn't want to risk a replacement unit having the same problem, given the number of other people who've experienced it to any degree. If they insist then I'll take a replacement and hope it works.

Now, for a review of the working aspects of this mouse.

Remember all that 'physical reconfigurability'? Mostly useless for my hand size. I had to have the thumb panel adjusted all the way forwards else I couldn't comfortably use all the buttons on it. I also had to use a claw grip (4th and 5th/little finger on the right side of the mouse) else the mouse would shift under my hand when trying to use the 5-pad buttons. This then combined with the shape of the adjustable palm rest, which has a 'corner' on it rather than being smoothly rounded, to cause discomfort on my palm if I had the rest anything but only 1 or 2 notches out. I'd have preferred further out for more palm support. Oh also only that claw grip with 4th finger in place gave any hope of using the 'shift' button that's there, it's too far forwards to each with 5th finger alone and too much on the right hand side to reach with 4th if you're resting that on RMB.

Oh and not only is that 'corner' a problem on the palm rest, but if adjusting it fully out (or close to) it's then too high, as the adjustment is purely horizontal, so the further back it is the more of a corner the back edge is forming. Really they could have done with offering an additional interchangeable palm rest with at least the back edge of it being as low profile as possible, not to mention the whole thing smoothly rounded.

The 'pinky rest' right side panel was also uncomfortable, cutting slightly into 4th/5th fingers when resting there, so I ended up using the non-rest rubberized panel for extra grip.

For reference my palm size is: ~7cm across at join to wrist, ~9cm across where webbing/crease of thumb starts if thumb pressed to side of palm, ~11cm across to outer edge of thumb in that position, ~11cm from middle finger crease/palm to wrist/palm.

As for the buttons, those all worked fine. I'm not sure the 5-pad could be made less stiff without risking accidental activation. With the thumb pad all the way forward I could comfortably hit the button in front of the 5-pad 'at rest', easily roll down to the thumb-rest button, move up slightly to the forwards button, and use the joint of my thumb for the backwards button and the one rear of the 5-pad. I had to curl my thumb to use the tip/pad on the 5-pad. Main mouse buttons worked fine. Had to be a little careful not to hit the ActionLock buttons, but got used to that (and if needs be you can configure those completely off with the 'Update' tool).

The 'Smart Technology' profile software was also not very polished. There was no help actually built into it and the web help it pointed to was obviously for an older version as the screenshots looked quite different. I encountered that when I was wondering "what the hell is that button in the profile editor, next to the mode ones, with an upwards arrow toggling to the arrow plus a locked padlock?", which wasn't present on the web help. I never did find out what that button did, it didn't seem to make any difference to either operation of the mouse or ability to change things in the editor.

A big missing feature was that the ST s/w doesn't try to detect which app has focus and change profile automatically. The software for my Logitech G110 keyboard does this smoothly. A few times I wondered why either Chrome wasn't acting how it should with the mouse, or a game wasn't, because I'd left it in the wrong profile.
 

Poag

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You seem to have had a slightly better sensor than me, mine wouldn't even power on often which was sad. As for the rest, very much the same as me. The pink guard meant i actually got my pinkie flesh caught under the side of the mouse when moving it to the right sometimes when i'd relaxed my grip a little. The mouse itself was far to small.

Mine was billed as size adjustable but in actually fact only the 7 series mice are, they just put it on the 3 and 5 series with a caveat stating "only on 7 series"

All in all, a terrible series of mice. Using my old X8 still atm and its vastly superior to the RAT series in almost every way.
 

Athan

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For what it's worth dabs.com have been pretty good about this whole thing. I just now got an email with a PDF detailing the refund (they didn't quibble over that at all), and they're even refunding the original delivery cost! Yet to see it in my bank account though, I'll check tomorrow.
 

Athan

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And the refund is now in my bank account.
 

Hawkwind

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Just had my second Razer Mamba fail on me inside a year. So not just Cyborg that has issues. Will stick with the Naga from now on, or until there is something better.
 

Athan

Resident Freddy
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FWIW I'm loving my Logitech G600 so far. Last I looked Dabs (who I got mine from) still showed it as 'Usually ships within 3 days' rather than 'In Stock'. However they sent one, as part of a larger order, to me on a Tuesday (arrived Wed no problems) when I'd placed the order on the preceding Saturday, so don't let that put anyone off ordering one from them.
 

Ormorof

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i would love to see someone try and take that through airport security

"honestly mr border police its a mouse!"

looks amazing though, shame if it doesnt work as intended!
 

Fweddy

FH is my second home
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Funny, I have a RAT 5 and I think it's brilliant. I got it about 4 months ago and haven't had any trouble with it.
 

Lamp

Gold Star Holder!!
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My mouse is very simple. Its got a left button. A right button. And a scroll wheel.
Its 10 years old. Logitech. £6
Works perfectly. On any surface.
 

Yoni

Cockb@dger / Klotehommel www.lhw.photography
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I have a cata razor and it is great... The buttons work well when you get used to them.
 

Aada

Part of the furniture
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Bought my Naga a year ago nearly and it is probably one of the best £50 i ever spent on my pc stuff, just a great mouse to use for almost any game.
 

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