Testing utilities

Archie
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Posts: 144
Joined: 31 Jan 2019 15:27

Testing utilities

Post by Archie » 12 Apr 2020 17:51

During initial checking, repair and modding tasks, it's handy to use special software. There are plenty of tools available for that purpose. My favorite is Microsoft Mouse Hardware Diagnostic Tool (MouseInfo), included with Microsoft IntelliPoint v8.20 software package. It's capable to check basic 5 buttons, pointer movement and vertical scrolling.

https://trackballs.eu/media/software/te ... usinfo.zip

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Also, it's possible to use X-Mouse Button Control utility by Phillip Gibbons as a tester: it shows activated controls in yellow color. XMBC is able to check 5 buttons, vertical and horizontal scroll signals.

https://www.highrez.co.uk/downloads/XMo ... ontrol.htm

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Common limitation of generic tools is, they support up to 5 buttons - because that's what native Windows driver can handle. To test multi-button devices, you'll have to use proprietary utilities supplied by device vendor.

For checking and comparison of particular devices behaviour and feel, quite convenient is FPS style reaction test v0.9 by Alexander Dräbenstedt: you'll just have to follow chaotically moving target with cross pointer.
This is a toy program to test your reaction speed or, more precisely, your eye-to-hand delay time under 'realistic' conditions. You could call this delay time your 'personal ping' from eye to hand as it is also expressed in milliseconds (ms).
http://www.draebenstedt.de/reaction/reaction.html
https://trackballs.eu/media/software/te ... action.zip

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Enotus Mouse Test v0.1.4 by unknown (to me) author. Allows to test various properties of device. I've slightly modified it by replacing the icon with image from application window, and added python25.dll it needs:

https://trackballs.eu/media/software/te ... st_mod.zip

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Mouse Rate Checker v1.1b by Oliver Tscherwitschke does single thing:
This little program measures and displays the sample rate of a mouse, i.e. how often the mouse sends information to your computer. It just measures the time between two "WM_MOUSEMOVE" messages and calculates the frequency.
http://tscherwitschke.de/old/download.html
https://trackballs.eu/media/software/te ... r-1.1b.rar

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Keyboard Test Utility v1.4 by Javad Taheri is not related to the pointing devices, but is handy for full checking the trackballs with numpad, keyboards with embedded trackball, and DIY projects like this one:

http://drjackool.blogspot.com/2016/12/k ... ility.html
https://trackballs.eu/media/software/te ... tility.zip

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