Logitech Cordless 2.4GHz Presenter

[weg]

I've just bought a Logitech Cordless 2.4GHz presenter. Even though advertised solely for Windows, it more or less works on the Mac, too. My only problem is that whenever I plug in the USB key, the keyboard setup assistant of OS X (I'm on Tiger) pops up and asks me to press the key to the right of shift - which, of course, doesn't exists on the Presenter, so I have to skip the step and tell Mac OS X manually that I want to use European (or US, doesn't matter, the Presenter has only left arrow, right arrow, b and F5 keys) keyboard layout. Is there any way to skip this (except from totally deactivating/removing the keyboard layout assistant)? Logitech doesn't (and will never) provide any drivers for this device...

EDIT: Problem solved, I have to login as Administrator, since the User doesn't have permissions to write to /System/Preferences/com.apple.keyboardtype.plist. Once one has used the device as Administrator, Mac OS X remembers the type of the device (ANSI, in my case).

It's a bit strange that Mac OS X doesn't save the settings when the user explicitely sets the type of the device using the System Preferences. These settings could be saved per user, or OS X could ask for the Administrator password to store this information globally..

 

[mrbobbo]

Logitech Presenter & Keyboard Setup Assistant

Hi Weg,

I just bought the presenter and I'm trying to follow your instructions for getting the Keyboard Setup Assistant to go away. On my system 10.4.11 PPC, the dialog only has a Continue button. The Presenter has no Continue button nor can I dismiss the window from the Presenter. How were you able to do that?

And about logging in as Administrator, my user is an administrator. Wouldn't that be good enough?

Also, if you're using Keynote, have you found a way to reprogram Keynote so period blanks the screen.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[asixrunner]

Logitech Presenter is working on my mac leopard

I was able to get my Logitech Presenter working on a Mac using a simple utility that can be downloaded from the Apple website.


http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/steermouse.html

If you start Steermouse, first add an application (I tried it for Microsoft Powerpoint) and assign the following buttons:

Left Button PgUp
Right Button PgDown
Middle Button B or .
Button 4 F5
Button 5 esc

it is easy to configure. Just position the cursor on the corresponding field and hit the buttons.

The volume up and volume down buttons do work also.

i hope many people will enjoy this solution!

 

[mrbobbo]

Steermouse

Hi Asixrunner,

What a great tool! Thanks for posting.

I can see how it works but I can't get it to apply to the presenter. I've set the middle mouse to B for keynote. But I had to do that without the presenter plugged in because if it is plugged in, it prevents me from moving on the screen because its the mouse.

So how do you get the new settings to apply to the presenter?

 

[jmferrell]

Any more progress on this? I'm a little confused by the technique -- seems to me the Presenter sends the keystrokes themselves, and so doesn't function like a mouse at all -- the right button on the Presenter isn't a "right mouse click" -- it's actually a "page down" command, right?

When I install SteerMouse (on a laptop) it sees the Presenter as a multi-button mouse, sure, but the Presenter isn't sending (as far as I can tell) actual mouse-clicks that SteerMouse can remap.

So I've had no luck. Am I missing a step somewhere? Anyone got this to work? (I'm using Keynote, of course, but I don't see how there'd be a difference from axisrunner's Powerpoint...)

 

[TheJasko]

Incompatible with Logitech Control Center and Leopard

At first I tried using the presenter without any additional software or anything, the keyboard setup assistant did not show up and it only worked with Keynote, not Powerpoint. I then installed steermouse to assign keys for powerpoint, but with no success. I clicked the "Error Info" button in steermouse and it told me that there are issues with the installed Logitech Control Center, which lets you configure logitech keyboards and mouses. After deinstalling LCC, first the keyboard setup assistant showed up. I quit it since you cannot hit the "button next to shift", but the presenter now also works with powerpoint. But I still cannot use steermouse, alterations in the key-settings have absoulutely no effect (i bound "esc" on the next slide button but it still changed the slide). Steermouse displays a normal wheelmouse upon connection of the presenter, but hitting a button has no effect, unlike when I connect a actual mouse, where it works fine. This is rather unfortunate, since some buttons do not what they should, e.g. instead of "black" the key quits the Keynote presentation, and in Powerpoint the F5 button does not start the presentation. Steermouse would therefore be useful here. So, to sum up:

1. The presenter generally works fine with 10.5.8
2. Logitech Control Center has to be deinstalled for full functionality
3. Steermouse does not work with the presenter (at least in my hands)

I still like the presenster and I am looking forward to using it extensively.