We had a very successful Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, so much so that there was not the bandwidth (or at times, the Internet connection), to post here on the development blog. We are presently working on completing distribution relationships with a number of European distributors which should make the mouse much more broadly available this fall and winter. The 1.0.3 software is complete, the installation program is finished, and we will be posting it here along with the source code this week. In addition to fixing some macro problems, it replaces the autosync function with a manual sync. This gets rid of the annoying sync delay on startup but there is an option to turn it on if you happen to make lots of mode changes or new modes and have a problem remembering to sync your mouse.
The replacement program is progressing slower than we would like because for some reason that presently remains inexplicable, the first sample from the second production run did not match the prototype. The joystick was not mounted horizontally, but angled upward in a manner that would have caused problems. So, we had to tell the factory to fix the newly introduced hardware bug, which is why we haven’t sent any replacements out yet. We will provide you all with a ship date as soon as we have one. We completely understand everyone is eager to get a fixed mouse, but after sending you mice of a quality we consider unsatisfactory, we don’t believe we would be serving either you or ourselves well by sending out mice that we know are flawed. So, please hold tight, keep using your current Metas, and rest assured that you will receive the fixed mice as soon as they are available.
After some spirited discussions about the question of whether we will pay for all of the shipping costs required for the mouse replacement program, we have decided to revise our policy with regards to the return of the first-run mice. We concluded that it is no more our goal to provide average customer service than to make an average computer mouse, and therefore we have decided to pay the cost of shipping the first-run mice back to us. If you elect to return your first mouse, we will send you a pre-paid mailing label along with the replacement mouse if that is possible or else we will arrange to refund your credit card in the amount of the shipping costs. We know we can provide pre-paid mailing labels for customers in the USA and we will investigate other alternatives such as crediting your credit card for customers living elsewhere. If you are a European or UK customer intending to send a mouse back to us, we will inform you of how we would like you to ship the mouse back to us once we receive your replacement form.
If you have already sent us a replacement form indicating that you want to keep the first mouse and this change in shipping policy has caused you to change your mind about that, please send us an email that references the serial number of your mouse and informs us that you would prefer to return it instead of keeping it. On a related note, if you don’t wish to send your credit card details over email, you can telephone us at our US number until 12 noon EST and give them to us verbally. You can also call after noon and leave the information on the voice mail there. Keep in mind that if you purchased the mouse with a credit card and your details have not changed since then, you can simply write “same as ordered” on the form since we already have the necessary information.
We delayed sending out the mouse replacement forms for nearly a week because we decided to confirm the fixes on a second-run prototype first. We wanted to make sure that we could assure all of our customers that the problems really have been fixed before we required them to decide if they want to keep their old mouse or send it back to us instead. This delay was beneficial because one of the production problems turned out to be masking an underlying issue with the quality of one of the button components. That too needed to be fixed by replacing it with a different component, so it wasn’t until yesterday that the Hardware Pessimist we brought in to help us confirm the fixes pronounced the second production prototype good to go. He reports 100% click reliability on all buttons and a satisfactory reduction in the L1/R1 wobble as well as a properly centered scroll wheel. We’re sorry for yet another delay, but doing these things properly takes time.
We’ll be sending the forms out via email tomorrow, but in the meantime, you can download the Mouse Replacement Form here if you are eager to get on with it. Please email the form to sales -at- warmouse.com when you’ve completed it. We just pulled the trigger on the second production run today, so it’s not yet possible to give you a precise date on when we’ll be shipping the replacement mice out to everyone but we will keep you posted on it as the process continues.
A few WoW gamers have emailed us with questions about some of their basic macros not working in World of Warcraft. This is happening for a very simple reason and is easily fixed. If you look closely at the text input of a failed macro, you’ll see that WoW doesn’t react quickly enough to the “/” command to be ready to accept the incoming text when it arrives from the mouse. So “/cast Black War Ram” will show up as “/ st Black War Ram” or something like that. The solution is to add a very small delay between the “/” command and the following macro text. Here’s an example that you can find in the default WoW Hunter mode under Macros: Call Black War Ram. Note that due to different CPU speeds, you may need to experiment a little with the exact timing of the delay in order to get it to work consistently. In this case, the shortest reliable delay turned out to be 12 milleseconds.
/{12,1}CAST[Space][Right Shift]+B LACK[Space][Right Shift]+W AR[Space][Right Shift]+R AM[Return]
The delay takes the form of {x,y} and both variables represent milliseconds. The first number (x) is the time in milliseconds that we wait before entering the following item. The second number (y) is the time in milliseconds that we hold down the following key or button. So “abcd” is the same as sending the macro “{0,0}a{0,0}b{0,0}c{0,0}d”. Don’t forget to put that [Return] on the end either or the command won’t enter! And one more tip: make sure you have your capitalization correct as WoW is picky about that.
If you happen to have read the manual or played around with Modeware, you’ll notice that it tracks the percentage of click statistics, both overall and by mode. See Modes/Display Mode Statistics or utilize the (S) hotkey. We are curious to know what your highest percentage of Meta clicks vs Mouse clicks happens to be, and what mode it is. In our lead designer’s case, it is the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 mode with 54.8% Meta clicks and 45.2% Mouse clicks.
We anticipate sending out the Meta replacement forms on Wednesday, July 28th. This is because we want to completely verify our fixes and provide everyone with complete and accurate information before people decide whether to keep their first mouse in addition to receiving a second one or not. In answer to a question that was raised recently, we will eventually be making the refurbished mice available for sale at a discount, but we don’t know what the price will be yet. It will be more than the $25 it will cost to keep the first batch mice, but less than the $79.99 retail. The exact price will depend on how much it costs us to swap out the buttons and underlying PCBs. For those who have expressed interested in keeping and fixing their first mouse, we can arrange to post some pictures from Meta users who have figured out how to straighten out their scroll wheels and stabilize the L1/R1 buttons in the next few days.
First, we apologize for the quality issues that you, our very first customers, have experienced. We particularly value those who were willing to embrace our revolutionary mouse technology, and very much regret that this has thus far turned out to be more bleeding edge than leading edge. However, we are committed to making sure our customers are satisfied with their mice, and in the interest of doing so, we prefer to operate on the principle of full disclosure. So, without further ado, here are the problems we have identified.
1. The scroll wheel is tilted 1mm to the left. This is due to a flaw in the production process. The factory has agreed to provide us with replacement scroll wheels and all future Metas will utilize the correctly balanced scroll wheels.
2. The L1/R1 buttons do not engage reliably. This problem is not actually limited to L1/R1 and affects ALL of the Meta buttons. It is also due to a flaw in the production process. The internal button “triggers” produced were a fraction of a millimeter shorter than designed, thus creating the intermittent problem that is more easily seen in L1/R1 than the other buttons. The lighter the pressure, the more likely it is the buttons will fail to engage properly. The factory has agreed to provide us with complete sets of replacement buttons.
3. The L1/R1 buttons rock backward. This is a design flaw that exacerbates the button trigger problem, which is why it is most often reported in L1/R1. We are replacing the bottom shells with new ones that will prevent those two buttons from rocking.
Here is how we have decided to resolve the problem. Rather than having you send back your WarMouse Meta for repairs, we will be sending a new replacement mouse in which these three problems have been resolved to everyone who fills out a Replacement Request Form. This form will be emailed to everyone who ordered a mouse. You will have the option of either sending your current mouse back to either our American or our UK address after the replacement mouse arrives or keeping your old mouse for $25. If, as we anticipate, you prefer to send your old mouse back to us, you will have 30 days from the receipt of your replacement mouse to send it back. If we don’t receive it, we will charge your credit card $30. All shipments both ways will be by delivery-confirmed post and we will contact you to ensure that no one will be charged accidentally. We hope to be sending out new mice to everyone within four weeks, but we cannot guarantee a ship date until we have an opportunity to test the new mouse fixes. In order to improve our quality testing, we will select two or three customers and ask them to confirm the fixes as well before we pull the trigger on the production run. While we will continue to accept orders, we will not be shipping out any mice until the fixed versions are available.
We hope this will resolve the first batch quality issue to each and every Meta user’s satisfaction. If you have any questions about this replacement policy or suggestions for improvements upon it, please email us or leave your comments here.
Software Bug #3: No Modes Advance Crash. We have learned that if you delete every single mode from Modeware, then attempt to go into Advanced View, Modeware will crash. We are currently adding this fix to Modeware 1.0.3. In the meantime, if you are deleting unused modes, which is useful for speeding up the mouse sync process, we recommend leaving at least one Group containing at least one mode as we assume you will be able to get by with a mere 63 empty mode slots. If you have deleted all your modes already, please email support -at- warmouse.com and we will send you a pair of files that will permit you to restore your Meta operations with Modeware containing nothing but a single test mode.
Hardware Bug #2: L1/R1 Rear Click Fault. We are in the process of determining the precise cause of the problem that causes the L1 and R1 buttons to fail to engage if clicked on the rear quarter of the button in the first production batch. We believe this design flaw exists on all of the mice shipped to date, but is unlikely to be noticed by users whose fingers naturally rest on the middle or front sections of the L1/R1 buttons. We have temporarily halted Meta shipments while we fix this and the previously reported scroll wheel problem; next week we will be announcing a plan to ensure that those Meta buyers who are experiencing either of these problems will be able to get their mice fixed. Until we are able to arrange to either fix or replace your mouse, we recommend that users who are experiencing Hardware Bug #2 use Modeware to assign L1 functionality to button A5 using the Special Button/Left Mouse Button function and R1 functionality to button B7 using the Special Button/Right Mouse function. Based on initial user reports, this should serve as an effective temporary workaround.
We appreciate your patience and hope that your Meta is otherwise working well for you.
Here is a hands-on take on it from one of the first WarMouse customers to order and receive his mouse: “I love my Meta, having mapped out a mode for Dragon Age: Origins—which I’m almost playing one handed now—was leagues easier then any other hardware/software package I’ve encountered…. The Meta is by large and by far the best mouse I’ve ever owned and will be my last mouse, unless you release a MK. II.”
Hardware Bug #1: Scroll Wheel Tilt. We have determined the cause of the problem that causes the scroll wheel to tilt 1mm to the left on the first production batch. In some cases, this tilt can cause the scroll wheel to touch the side of the wheel wall and interfere with the motion of the wheel. While the scroll wheel is fully operational in most cases, this can be disruptive and annoying. We are very sorry for the problem and are working to come up with a solution that will permit users who are experiencing this problem to send their mice back to us and have them repaired at no charge if they so desire. Our suggestion in the meantime is to use the joystick for your scrolling needs; it is faster and more effective anyhow. And please rest assured that we have already taken steps to ensure that the second batch of mice will not feature this hardware bug.
Software Bug #1: Basic to Advanced Mode Change. When going from Advanced View to Basic View, the active mode will change. We should have caught this one, but because none of us ever leaves Advanced View we just missed it. No excuses. Meta Modeware version 1.0.2 fixes this bug and is now available for download.
Software Bug #2: Right Alt reports as Left Alt. Recording a Right Alt function saves as a Right Alt function but incorrectly reports itself as a Left Alt function. This fix is incorporated into Meta Modeware 1.0.2.
TO FIX SW BUGS 1 & 2: Please download Meta Modeware 1.0.2. Instructions are in the zip file. Just make sure you exit Modeware before trying to copy over the 1.0.0 executable. The source code has also been updated to 1.0.2 and is available on the Documentation page.
We are pleased to announce that we have released the source code for Meta Modeware under the Lesser Gnu Public License, version 3. You can access it, as well as the latest version of the Meta Modeware manual, on the Documentation page. If you are interested in participating in future Modeware development, contact us and we will inform you when we begin setting up an organized open source project to expand and improve upon the WarMouse Meta’s functionality and features.
We also have to apologize to our European customers who have been waiting patiently to place their orders as our online store is presently only accepting orders from North America. Our UK and EU currency stores are not yet operational and PayPal is presently refusing to permit us to accept orders for reasons that are unknown to us. However, we expect to have our UK store up this weekend and Amazon UK has received their stocking order and should be open for business soon as well is now accepting Meta orders. Because of this unexpected delay, we will extend the 20% discount for a week for all European and British orders once those stores are online.
In the meantime, we invite our American customers to clean out our initial US stock. The factory is producing more, of course, but after five days, we’re already down to our last 50 in the States.