Strange wireless trackball hi frequency noise

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Strange wireless trackball hi frequency noise

Post by superblonde » Tue Jun 29, 2021 6:16 pm

I got a trackball to see if I could work better in a DAW. Logitech MX Ergo Plus, it uses both bluetooth or it's own custom usb receiver dongle. I've found it makes a very, very high pitched mosquito-like whine, in two different frequencies, at different times like when it wakes from sleep to pair/connect, or sometimes when charging, very high pitch and very annoying, even can be heard 10' away. I have crazy good ears for high frequency, it is very noticeable. Strange, right? The tone is maybe about a C8 or C9, piccolo range & up, and most people hate piccolo's for the piercing shriek. Held up to the ear, the trackball is screaming these tones, very high dBm. I will have to return it. It also makes me wonder about using wireless devices in my DAW setup in general, since I suppose these audio noises are also related to RF noise and bad shielding and noise like that would couple into guitar cables.

Anyone have odd problems with wireless devices in studio?
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Re: Strange wireless trackball hi frequency noise

Post by superkons » Wed Jun 30, 2021 1:08 am

You mentioned it uses bluetooth, too. That high pitch sound you hear is the bluetooth trying to connect and pair with other bluetooth devices in the vicinity, as you correctly stated, my iLoud Micro monitors do exactly the same when I switch them on. It lasts about 10 seconds, and then stops. Is that the case for you, too? It is absolutely normal, anyway.
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Re: Strange wireless trackball hi frequency noise

Post by superblonde » Thu Jul 01, 2021 3:50 pm

It's odd, definitely not normal, I would say it is defective design and shouldn't have passed certification. Not good if expensive studio monitors also have this behavior. It was also continual when USB was connected to charge, it lasted for quite some time until I turned it off with the on-off switch. Hopefully I get full $$ upon return. So annoying that I just reported it to UL.
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Re: Strange wireless trackball hi frequency noise

Post by Casey H » Thu Jul 01, 2021 4:34 pm

superblonde wrote:
Thu Jul 01, 2021 3:50 pm
It's odd, definitely not normal, I would say it is defective design and shouldn't have passed certification. Not good if expensive studio monitors also have this behavior. It was also continual when USB was connected to charge, it lasted for quite some time until I turned it off with the on-off switch. Hopefully I get full $$ upon return. So annoying that I just reported it to UL.
UL is for electrical safety, things that plug into an AC wall outlet, and generally doesn't involve RF emission or susceptibility.

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Re: Strange wireless trackball hi frequency noise

Post by superblonde » Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:23 pm

Since it involves charging a battery, then maybe it is related, or maybe not, will see, as the case has been assigned to an engineer. This is acoustic noise, not RF noise, in detailed terms.

Here is an interesting related paper. https://www.usb.org/sites/default/files/327216.pdf When I was looking around earlier this week to figure out what the problem was, it seemed there were many reports of users with USB3 ports having problems with the wireless USB dongles for trackballs, where the USB3 port itself and the port's physical location was found to be the problem of the wireless hiccups causing mouse pointer lag & jerkiness. "Move the dongle away from the port" was the fix. That's no good, definitely shoddy design.

I'm reluctant to use wireless for many reasons anyways. Audio is easy enough to mess up without wireless causing hard-to-diagnose problems.

It seems hard to find a wired modern trackball now. I ordered a wired mouse which has a dozen buttons and fancy programmable LED lights instead. As a mysterious bonus the mouse seems to come with a guarantee that it will allow me to, "level up faster, take down more enemies, and outpace competitors in a raid. Activate spells quicker than ever!" lol 🤪
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Re: Strange wireless trackball hi frequency noise

Post by superblonde » Tue Jul 06, 2021 7:56 am

The UL complaint was assigned to an engineer within 1 business day. The UL engineer emailed me for more information after about 1 week. This is good response time.

If there's other devices out there making noise, whether it is speaker monitors or anything, I say, report the devices. Companies don't test their products much anymore, they just push them out quicker than ever. Meanwhile lots of analog audio gear is getting more and more digital features like USB and bluetooth, which definitely invites noise or strange problems from flawed designs.
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Re: Strange wireless trackball hi frequency noise

Post by superblonde » Thu Aug 26, 2021 7:58 pm

result from UL : (about 2 month turn around time?)


This is to inform you that we have completed our investigation and are closing this Product Incident Report. Since the information developed throughout the course of our investigation is proprietary and confidential, we cannot provide you with detailed results of the investigation nor specific details regarding the subject product. Rest assured that during the course of this investigation, all aspects of the investigation were conducted thoroughly, and all issues raised in your concern were considered.



Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and assisting us in maintaining the UL Public Safety Mission. We would encourage you to bring to our attention any other situations that you may come across in the future which involve products bearing references to UL. Reports from sources outside of UL are a valuable resource utilized to promote public safety and to maintain the integrity of our UL Marks. Please feel free to reach out should you have further questions.



Best regards,
xxx
Senior Market Surveillance Engineer



Unfortunately they had requested that I ship them the device but I had already returned it to meet the return window, maybe they had to try to get one themselves to test or something.
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