Originally Posted by
Valkyrie-MT 
I just wanted to comment on my experience. After reading this thread I went off and purchased the remote and receiver. I got the remote from e-bay and the receiver refurbished (looks new) from the
Dell outlet site (Part: YY993). I didn't have to call or chat with anyone. I just added it to the shopping cart, paid, and it showed up two days later.
Motivation: so, I think the gyration branded version looks ugly with the glittery gold paint, although the function keys for browser and e-mail would have been nice, but are not necessary. Also, this was a touch cheaper, so if you don't mind the look of it, or are not comfortable with splicing smallish wires, go with the Gyration branded version. Also, I highly recommend the gyration RF keyboard. Now, the keyboard will not work with the Dell receiver, and I don't know if they sell it seperately (ie. without the mouse). I already had a mouse+keyboard and I just replaced the mouse and my MCE remote with this Dell beauty.
So, I've been using gyration remotes for 4 years and I love them. I noticed that the cable the receiver comes with is a straight-through cable with identical ends, so if you cut it in half, you have two chances to splice your usb adapter to it. Now, initially, I intended on putting it inside my computer case for neatness. I figured, since Dell designed it for that, I'll start with the assumtion that it will work for me too. Well, it worked great, until I put the aluminum cover on. It all worked flawlessly from 40 feet (as far away as I could get going through two partial walls and a couch) without the cover. With the cover, the range was flakey at 8 feet. To test it, I was doing circles with the mouse pointer. I consider it unacceptable if it is anything but perfectly smooth. So, I found a compact flash card case that fit perfectly, with a little snipping. I hot glued the corners of the case and voila! External enclosure (see picture 1). I dangled it on the inside of my entertainment center door (see picture 3) and it's range was flawless until about 30 feet away!
Now, I spliced an internal USB plug to the receiver (with the original intent of using it internally). WARNING! The wire colors on the Dell Receiver are Non-standard! There is a mapping shown
here. Note red/green means connect both colors, not either/or. Also, I didn't use the thick black wire on the usb header, only the thin one. I think the thick one is for the grounding of the chassis. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Then, I got an adapter to give me a standard USB plug. I would recommend just spicing on a USB plug from an old device (although somtimes the wires can be tiny). I am using
this and an internal USB 5 pin header with wires. I also had to use a USB extension to get it where I wanted it. Ideally, I could have just gotten a long USB cable and directly splced it. That's what I would recommend to anyone else trying this.
Anyway, it works great. When I started Vista x64 Home Premium, the drivers were all downloaded and installed from Micorosft automatically. To get the lcd display on the remote to work, that DID require the
Dell installer, which appears to have just installed the tray icon based application and this worked right away as well with the push of the connection button on the remote (the one with the waves). One thing I didn't see anyone mention is that the media center and mouse functionality are all RF based, not just the mouse. And the responsiveness to button presses is great! And it has IR learning as well to turn off you TV or receiver.
Anyway, I love it. Everything worked perfectly. Here are some pics (note: the light on the receiver flashes when it is receiving RF):
Also, I don't have any wierd timeout wierdness or any wierdness for that matter. It is working flawlessly. Although, it's only been working for 2 days now. And, as soon as Windows7 releases the RC to MSDN, I will be testing it. Although, I suspect that since it works with Vista, Win7 should be fine.
Good luck to anyone else that tries this.
-Valkyrie-MT
I mean what kind of "standard" is Wireless USB if not all Wireless-USB devices work with all controllers? I mean that's like plugging in a normal USB device to a computer with a certain controller only to find it doesn't work because it's not compatible. I.e. Not standard at all!
