Mouse with non-mechanical rotary encoder scroll wheel

expert_vision

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May 2, 2010
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I'm so tired of jumpy scroll wheels lately.
I have a ZM-M500WL mouse, and overall is great, except the scroll wheel started to be jumpy after a year. The type of scroll used by this mouse is the common mechanical quadrature rotary encoder
mouse-wheel-encoder-2of.jpg


This type of scroll seems to be unreliable, as I had the same problem in the past with mouses like this. The mechanical contacts get weak or dirt gets inside and the sensor does not work properly. I clean it with some isopropyl alcohol, works for a short while then starts to be jumpy again.

Are there any alternatives to this type of scroll wheel sensor?
And what should I look for when shopping for one, as you don't generally find this information ?
Or do you know a mouse with a good scroll wheel sensor, that is not ridiculously expensive ?
 
by jumpy do you mean that when you scroll one direction it immediately scrolls the opposite? that would be a wearing (bending) of the little tab inside the switch that gives tactile feedback in most cases.

all mice would need a rotary encoder of some style to convert the rotational movment into an electrical signal. there might be different styles on the market but over 99% of mice would use as pictured. some have more/less/none tactile feedback, greater resolution, etc but they fall into the same category.

i've never had issues with dirt or dust causing issues and we live in a house with major dust problems (wood furnace, etc). the problem is mostly the little tab. this can sort of be fixed with a small screwdriver but not perfectly. at this time you could just replace the whole encoder as they arent all that expensive.

the only alternative would be to get away from this style tactile feedback. logitech hyperscroll is a bit different but doesnt stay in place well. the g502 has an odd really clunky scrollwheel that might not suffer the same issue but i cannot say for sure.
 

expert_vision

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May 2, 2010
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So I looked this up a bit more, and Logitech has some mouses (MX Anywhere 2, M560 and others) that use a scroll called 'Hyper-Fast Scroll'. This scroll sensor seems to use some kind of optical sensor instead of mechanical contact tabs that get loose over time, like the commonly used rotary encoder.
This means that this type of scroll won't degrade over time. Definitely will give this a try.
Here are some shots of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5nygmZ7nVM
https://toemat.com/logitech-mx-master-fix/

Feel free to post any other brands that use optical sensor for the scroll wheel. It baffles me as to why other brands didn't switch to optical sensors, even in their high end products. Probably the mechanical sensor is still mass-produced, so it's cheap. Hopefully things will change in near future.
 

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