WiebeTech Programmable Mouse Jiggler MJ-3 (Single Unit)

This device, which could be called a “programmable mouse and keyboard emulator” or programmable keyboard/mouse playback device, has enhanced productivity significantly without loss of corporate security, due to judicious use of it in the context of the workplace. I offer below some supplemental information about this great product.First, many reviews have asked what is wrong with a downloadable software solution instead of this, in order to save money? Well if corporate policy allows that, there's nothing wrong with a software solution. This device happens to masquerade as a standard, HID-compliant USB mouse (and can function as a keyboard as well, see below for details.) It acts as and is seen as, and in fact is, an additional real mouse, nudging the mouse cursor every few seconds to every few minutes, depending on how you program it. I think the default makes it move 8 pixels to the left and then 8 pixels to the right every 60 seconds but you can program the MJ-3 model to vary those actions. So when corporate policy is poorly designed and out of touch with the needs of the corporate workers, a scenario that is unfortunately not uncommon in the least, one can use one's free will to exercise judicious use of workplace time, while not forgetting the security concerns that invoked that corporate policy in the first place - for instance, always log off when leaving the workstation (in Windows that can be quickly done with a windows key-L command.) Even if this pseudo mouse is connected and running for convenience reasons.A little about programming the device (this only applies to the MJ-3, of course. The MJ-1, with a larger handle, easier to grasp, is not programmable and is a great product as well. I will explain my preference on this below as well.)To download the programming application for the MJ-3 (programmable version of the Mouse Jiggler) go to www.cru-inc.com/mj3 (which is listed on the package when it arrives) and this requires admin privileges to install. However, you can install this at home and program the mouse at home and then take the newly programmed mouse to work and it works as instructed. The program gives you the ability to enter any instruction in programming mode, such as to flash the device’s LED any number of times upon first plugging it in (to demonstrate that it’s active), and then to move the mouse a specified number of pixels (up, down, left or right) and then wait ("delay") a certain number of seconds, up to 255 seconds per instruction. Or you can do other things like enter any keyboard character you want and then delay. At any point you can flash the LED a certain (any one of 3) colors a given number of times (solid, flashing or once), the purpose of which is to signal to the user that the mouse is active and "jiggling." You can save the programs you created on your hard drive and reload them to program other MJ-3s you've bought, and upload those instructions to the new mouse jigglers. Works like a charm! I like the MJ-3 better than the MJ-1 because it's smaller, doesn't protrude where it can be knocked off or bent if your knee bumps it (of course one could put that into the back of the computer without that risk.) Others who need to pull the thing out at the end of the workday may prefer the MJ-1 because it has a larger handle, easier to grasp when removing. (Another idea to solve that problem is to buy a USB hub with individual on/off switches for its attached devices, such as the Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub with Individual Power Switches and LEDs (HB-UM43) or other similar device, which is currently $9.99 with Prime shipping. I will also mention below a programming idea below to solve the problem of yanking the device out of the computer daily to log off.) I also like the smaller jiggling that the programmable version allows - 8 pixels at a time, the default for both the MJ-1 and MJ-3, is a bit too much for the precision, graphics-intensive work I do at my workstation, so I set it to just move a pixel at a time every 255 seconds (looping in a 1 pixel square to complete the loop and then repeat) and it's imperceptible and yet keeps the workstation alive.Although one can use the device to enter text or simulate any key press, such as alt, shift or control, I do not recommend having it hit the control key because then if you hit "s" at the same time, for instance, it will save the file or program you're working on at the time, and of course other shift or control or alt combinations can have fairly major impacts. Such as rotating the angle of the screen that's displaying, etc. In some programs, particularly Unix/Linux based at the command line, control-c will cancel a running program or script, control-s will pause a running batch file in Windows, and control-q will resume its execution, etc. However, with a combination of mouse moves, mouse clicks and text available one could get pretty creative in a script that's running without one doing concurrent tasks - imagine the mouse going down to the Start button, clicking on it, moving a certain distance and clicking on a known program (or on a desktop icon representing a shortcut) and then entering a login username, password, or whatever, to activate a given program. Perhaps to check remote email on a Linux server, do a remote backup, etc.Of course, if security reasons make it appropriate, don't forget to "windows-L" to manually lock the workstation if you're getting up and leaving for long enough to make hijacking your computer a possibility. There are *some* reasons for locking the computer - it's just that IT policies don't usually read our minds to know the right time to lock them and end up removing our freedom of choice to do that ourselves. Stealing our rights to make valid judgments is never a reasonable idea unless we're total dolts and then why did they hire us in the first place? The only cheaper way to do this is to have a cheap, $10 watch with a moving second hand. Place it under an optical mouse when you leave the computer and when you return your workstation is still alive. However, I like the Mouse Jiggler device better because I don't need to grab the proverbial watch and balance it under the proverbial mouse - more automatic than that type of manually triggered system.Here's my programming solution to the "auto logoff" problem, and to the issue of getting questions from coworkers about having worked all night, as well as solving the problem of breaking the device by yanking it out of the workstation at the end of every workday. This solution would allow one to log off, say, at 5 PM and starting at 8 AM the Mouse Jiggler would be active again for another 9 hours, until 5 PM that same day. Or at whatever shift one is interested in maintaining.You can actually program it to stop moving the mouse (and thus allow auto-logoff) at the same time every day and turn itself on at another time, if you're willing to write a long program and start the jiggling at a certain time to make that work for you. You're allowed to enter any instruction in programming mode (go to www.cru-inc.com/mj3 to get the programming utility), such as move the mouse a specified number of pixels (up, down, left or right) and then wait ("delay") a certain number of seconds, up to 255 seconds per instruction. Or you can do other things like enter any keyboard character you want and then delay, or flash the LED a certain (any one of 3) colors a given number of times (solid, flashing or once.) So in order to make it dormant at 5 PM each day you'd set a starting time (upon which that 5 PM time depends), so let's say the jiggling starts at noon. Program it to move as you wish for a given number of times at the desired intervals until 5 PM - that's 18,000 seconds from noon. (Not as hard as it sounds because one can "copy" one action to another so that saves work.) 18,000 seconds is about 70 times 255 seconds so you'd copy the "255 seconds" command 70 times (or round it off to 240 seconds for 4 minutes even, to make it exact, so 75 instructions of 240 seconds each), and then do the same for no mouse actions (0 pixels in any direction you choose) in a similar way until 8 AM the next day, when you know you'll be logging in. (That's 225 instructions of 240 seconds each not to move the mouse at all.) And then 4 more hours (from 8 AM till noon, when the cycles starts over again, so 60 more instructions to jiggle similar to the noon to 5 PM routine) of mouse jiggling. Not all that much work - I'll bet one can do that programming work in 10-20 minutes, save it to the device and it will execute when you take it to work, and so if you plug it in precisely (in this example) at noon, it'll do that every day. The fact that it's jiggling during the daytime on weekends won't matter because by then it's logged off and jiggling the mouse won't log it back into the computer. If it somehow gets out of sync with the work day, just unplug it and plug it back in right at noon. Ditto for if your shift changes - plug it in 5 hours before end of shift, 4 hours after beginning of said shift for this particular example.I consider this product nearly as "life changing" as another favorite product for the modern computer user, the Realforce 87U Tenkeyless (White/Gray) keyboard, which is the Steinway piano of computer keyboards. Invest in yourself and your productivity and buy both products!

At my company they have some method of putting the computer to sleep after a certain amount of time that I haven't been able to figure out.The problem is when I'm writing files to a USB drive and the computer goes to sleep, access to the drive is shut off and the transfer becomes corrupted.Well, I need those files in order to do my work.So I got this device.It works perfectly out of the box. Every few minutes, it "moves the mouse" just a tiny bit, which keeps the computer awake if I have to walk away to do something else, and my file transfers complete.There's a free application you can use to make your own scripts, so if it doesn't "move the mouse" often enough or you need it to send keyboard keys, or make specific mouse movements or clicks, you can use the application to make up your own script and send it to the device, which saves the script.You do not need to have the application running for the script to work, so you can program the script on your personal computer, then transfer just the device to your work computer, eliminating the need to install the application on your work computer.Edit 4/11/2024:I have now been using two of these for several years. They have become essential tools at work. They are probably the second most important tool in my bag after my screwdriver set. When I bought them I thought "wow that's pretty expensive for such a little device" but the work and stress they have helped me to avoid is worth hundreds more than I paid.

I love this product. I've been using it for a month now at work. I needed this programmable mouse jiggler because only the administrator at work can alter computer settings to automatically log me off the computer after a given amount of time. I think this jiggler will work on nearly all computers because the computer thinks this is a mouse. It's a plug-in-and-play device; default program will move mouse a tiny distance every minute so that the computer does not time out to screen saver and log you off. For the less tech savy people, you just open the box, take out the small item and plug it into any USB drive on your computer. If you want to change the settings on the jiggler, the directions tell you to go to a website and download a program where you could change the program (such as move an inch to the left in 2 minutes then move up 1 inch in 5 minutes); your program can be super elaborate and long if you want. I think the maximum amount of time between each action to configure is 5 minutes (meaning, the jiggler has to do something every 5 minutes or less). I'm a millennial and decently good with computers, and I had no trouble with the program; took me like two minutes to understand it. If you are over 50 years old, I can imagine that configuring the program may be difficult.