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boy8cookie · Dec 10, 2008, 04:57 PM

I'm looking for an application or pref. pane that will act as a sort of driver for any USB input device connected. I remember having this a while ago, and I can't remember what it was called. It allowed you to configure the input of pretty much any device to any combination of keybinds, mouse clicks, or anything really. If anyone knows of such an app, please link me

If you have no idea wtf I'm talking about, please let me know so I can try explain better.

slugslugslug · Dec 10, 2008, 05:17 PM

It may have been USB Overdrive, SteerMouse, or Gamepad Companion. I'm not sure which, if any, are still in active development, but I imagine Google could help you with that.

boy8cookie · Dec 10, 2008, 06:21 PM

Perfect, thank you.

slugslugslug · Dec 12, 2008, 11:12 AM

You're welcome! I got around to doing some googling after that post, and it looked like SteerMouse had the most up-to-date website and most recent version update. I used USB Overdrive back in the OS 9 days, that was great, and I'd heard mostly good things about the earlier OS X versions. But at some point the author dropped off the face of the internet for over a year until he finally showed up to post the most recent version and announce that he'd had a kid. His website hints that it's still in development, but the most recent actual version update was over a year ago.

I'd be interested to hear what you and others end up using. There seem to be very few Bluetooth mice out there with more than 2 buttons + scroll wheel and native Mac support, so I may one of these days cave in and get a logitech or microsoft one plus one of the aforementioned apps.

tooki · Dec 12, 2008, 11:26 AM

FWIW, Microsoft's Mac keyboard/mouse drivers are great -- because MS didn't write them, they hired Mr. Montalcini, the author of USB Overdrive!! I use a MS wireless notebook mouse 3000 with my MacBook, and in the past I've used a MS keyboard, too.

Logitech's drivers are OK, but they can be a bit... invasive, and have been known to cause problems after some software updates.

Both MS and Logitech make fantastic hardware, I'd look at MS first, Logi second, but either one is a good choice.

slugslugslug · Dec 12, 2008, 05:37 PM

Yeah, I had some variation on an IntelliMouse that was beautifully customizable on OS X once.

But for a while there both MS and Logitech weren't making their Mac drivers compatible with any of their Bluetooth hardware. And Bluetooth built in to pretty much every Mac these days, it pains me to buy a cordless mouse and still have to use a USB dongle.

I guess now, both companies make 1 or 2 Bt products that are supposed to be Mac-compatible, so perhaps those drivers would work for their other devices. I specifically want a mouse with a few extra buttons and the ability to give them application-specific settings. I'm thinking maybe I'd get the Logitech MX5500 desktop set (since they don't sell the Bluetooth MX Revolution mouse a la carte) and sell the keyboard & Bluetooth adapter.

boy8cookie · Dec 18, 2008, 07:53 PM

Well, unfortunately, none of the apps could do what I wanted. The mouse I'm trying to use is here: http://www.sandiotech.com/

None of them could take advantage of the three (or even one) analog sticks, which is kind of the point.

tooki · Dec 18, 2008, 08:14 PM

Presumably those sticks are not using the standard USB driver class for mice.

boy8cookie · Dec 18, 2008, 09:33 PM

I guess that's possible, but gamepad companion did recognize the sticks, it just couldn't provide more than 1 keybind to the entire analog stick.

angelmb · Dec 19, 2008, 06:49 AM

Originally Posted by tooki

Both MS and Logitech make fantastic hardware, I'd look at MS first, Logi second, but either one is a good choice.

Maybe, but after all the options to get a true Mac keyboard from Logitech or MS are min, which gets only worse if your keyboard layout isn't an english one.

Logitech has two, the diNovo Mac Edition and diNovo Edge Mac Edition. Only one of them (diNovo Mac Edition) is available with other layout than english. Both are just too expensive for what they seem to offer. To label the Wave Keyboard as Mac compatible when it comes exclusively with Windows layout is a bad joke.

Oh well, then there is the 530 desktop combo, which I use with a MDD G4. Keyboard is barely OK, mouse is an utterly joke.

Microsoft is not any better either, I wonder if they have one single keyboard with a proper Mac layout. Besides that, their coolest keyboards -Wireless Entertainment Desktops 7000/8000- are so far Media Center aimed, and the included mice doesn't look any great. I wonder why they don't bring those to the Mac arena, or any other decent keyboard for that matter, which with the advent of virtualization software becomes rather insulting.

All in all, I am still using an old white Apple Keyboard with the gorgeous Mac Pro / ACD 30" combo which to me yells something is wrong in the Mac world as far as we speak about input peripherals.

boy8cookie · Jan 2, 2009, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by angelmb

Maybe, but after all the options to get a true Mac keyboard from Logitech or MS are min, which gets only worse if your keyboard layout isn't an english one.

Logitech has two, the diNovo Mac Edition and diNovo Edge Mac Edition. Only one of them (diNovo Mac Edition) is available with other layout than english. Both are just too expensive for what they seem to offer. To label the Wave Keyboard as Mac compatible when it comes exclusively with Windows layout is a bad joke.

Oh well, then there is the 530 desktop combo, which I use with a MDD G4. Keyboard is barely OK, mouse is an utterly joke.

Microsoft is not any better either, I wonder if they have one single keyboard with a proper Mac layout. Besides that, their coolest keyboards -Wireless Entertainment Desktops 7000/8000- are so far Media Center aimed, and the included mice doesn't look any great. I wonder why they don't bring those to the Mac arena, or any other decent keyboard for that matter, which with the advent of virtualization software becomes rather insulting.

All in all, I am still using an old white Apple Keyboard with the gorgeous Mac Pro / ACD 30" combo which to me yells something is wrong in the Mac world as far as we speak about input peripherals.

Not sure how this is relevant, but it was interesting. I'm still trying to figure out how I can make this happen. Does anyone know of a way to view the input of the device, whether it be keycodes or something similar?