Wireless Solar Keyboard and Mouse?

[Jack Parker]

I've just heard about these products and am interested in them for my iMac. (Tired of replacing batteries.)

The Logitech wireless/solar powered keyboard looks fantastic! It charges through any light source and keeps its charge for three months even in total darkness.

Does anyone have experience with this keyboard? Is there a mouse that does the same thing?

 

[shoebobs]

Talking about the K750? I've been using it for a long time and I love it.

 

[Jack Parker]

Talking about the K750? I've been using it for a long time and I love it.

Thanks shoebobs. Sorry for the delay in replying. Yes, that's the keyboard I'm looking at, in silver. It gets a lot of good reviews on Amazon but, some of them (recent reviews) mention problems that I wonder if you've experienced?

NEGATIVE REVIEW #1

The only thing that is a drawback is the Logitech software itself. Especially the "solar" software. You really don't want to install it. As written it will needlessly put strain on the processor by sending literally hundreds of queries to the keyboard about the solar status every second and flood log files with the information. The keyboard control software is also quite buggy as well (personally I don't use it for the keyboard, but I have a logitech multi button mouse M705 as well that the customization is handy for)

NEGATIVE REVIEW #2

did not work with mac OS10.9.5

NEGATIVE REVIEW #3

I purchased this keyboard about 1 year ago. It worked great! It was exactly what I was looking for. After a little while, the keys started squeaking a little bit, but no big deal. Then suddenly it stopped working. No power. I charged it in the sun for a day, but still nothing. I called logitech and they sent me a new one, no questions asked. I was grateful for the good customer service. But now only about 6 months into using this new keyboard, the same problem has occurred. You should be aware that this issues exists. It's pretty frustrating, particularly since I have been overseas both times my keyboard broke making replacement difficult. I'm about to call again and see if they'll send me yet another replacement. When I buy a keyboard I want it to last for years without complications.

NEGATIVE REVIEW FROM JAN. 17, 2015

Logitech has not updated their Mac drivers for this keyboard at the time of this writing. Since 2012, the Rewind/FastForward keys still do not work.

The keyboard itself feels great to type on, but no software support is a deal killer. Will not buy Logitech again, they have been ignoring their customer service and software updates for too long.

NEGATIVE REVIEW #5

Batteries won't charge properly after a few months regular use. Be warned.

Has this been the case for you?
Can you use it without installing the "solar software?"
Being wireless, but not Bluetooth, how reliable is it?

What kind of mouse do you use with it? From what I can tell, there are no solar powered mice. (Well, I did see one but it looked rubbish.) I thought I'd use the Magic Mouse but get the Mobee Technology Magic Mouse Charger.

 

[ActionableMango]

I've had my Logitech solar keyboard for almost as long as they've been out. The battery is still taking a charge and it works fine. The battery is not meant to be user replaceable, but I did a Google search and have found that people do it and it's not very hard at all.

The battery status software used to be a CPU hog on OS X, but it was updated and is fine now. It's fine on Windows. I feel this software is crucial to using the keyboard.

Unfortunately I moved rooms from a bright sunny room to a fairly dark room with little natural light that has to go around two corners to reach the keyboard. Because of this, about every 2 weeks I have to leave the keyboard in the window while I am at work in order to top up the battery.

On rare occasion the keyboard won't wake up with the computer from sleep and I need to "reboot" the keyboard by flicking its power switch off and on. By "rare" I mean maybe once every 3-5 months.

I have never had problems with reception.

 

[boatcapt]

I'm using this keyboard myself and after about 2 years of usage the battery died. But the fix was simple and inexpensive. I purchased 5 - ML2032 batteries off of eBay for 20 bucks. Installed battery and has been working perfectly again ever since. I actually like it much better than my Apple bluetooth keyboard.

 

[dyt1983]

edit: To remove personally identifying info not relevant to the conversation.