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Mouse input lagging while video output is fine.

By @Klikong
    2023-11-02 06:12:33.483Zassigned to
    • @david

    I've been using the tinypilot voyager 2 for nearly 1.5 years now. I'm using tailscale to access the KVM from overseas. For the last 2 months a new issue has arisen. My mouse input occasionally experiences lag spikes between 2-30 seconds, mostly on the lower side, but the larger ones significantly impact my work in a negative way. As I mentioned in the title, the video output is totally fine using H.264 (great update btw).

    Solved in post #8, click to view
    • 9 replies
    1. David @david2023-11-02 09:47:40.840Z

      Hi @Klikong, I'm sorry you're experiencing this mouse latency issue.

      It's definitely odd to see mouse latency without also experiencing video latency. Can I confirm that your setup has stayed the same over the last few months? i.e., are you using the same client machine, target machine, mouse, keyboard, networks, etc.?

      Could you also share a TinyPilot log with me to review? On your TinyPilot web interface, go to System > Logs and click Get Shareable URL. Then paste the link in your reply.

      1. K@Klikong
          2023-11-02 10:29:32.646Z

          Hey David,
          the setup has not changed at all since we first established the tailscale network. We removed the fan 6 months ago, but the KVM never gets heated and it doesn't chronologically lineup with the issues we're having now anyways.
          https://logs.tinypilotkvm.com/b07BXN2x

          1. David @david2023-11-03 12:21:44.770Z

            Thanks for sharing those additional details about your setup! And thanks for sending over those logs.

            Unfortunately, the logs don't have too much information. But the logs do at least suggest that there are no obvious issues - so that's good.

            Do you notice whether you experience this mouse lag while using particular pieces of software on your target machine? Or is it random?

            If possible, it would be really useful to see an instance of this mouse lag on video. I appreciate that's a lot to ask for, so don't worry if it's not something you can share.

            1. K@Klikong
                2023-11-04 09:47:47.852Z

                It seems to be random, of course there might be an underlying issue that I'm oblivious to. Capturing the mouse lag on video is a bit tricky, but I don't think it's necessary. Just imagine there is a standard delay of ~400ms and then it jumps to 2000-30000ms before returning to baseline. All the while the video works just fine. I do want to mention though that I am occasionally experiencing blackscreens for a couple of seconds. And this issue seems to have increased in the last couple of months as well. My gut feeling tells me that it's a hardware issue, but I'm not tech-savvy by any means.

                1. David @david2023-11-06 12:32:37.176Z

                  Thanks for those details, @Klikong.

                  Hardware issues are quite rare, so I'd be surprised if this was a hardware issue. From your description, it sounds like this is mostly likely a network connection issue.

                  Are you happy to run ping to check the network latency? If ping reports similar latency to the behavior you're experiencing (2000-30000ms), that would suggest that this is a network issue.

                  On Windows you can run ping via CMD (press the Windows + R keys, type "cmd," and press Enter.). And via Terminal on Mac. Can you open CMD/Terminal, paste the following command and hit Enter to run it?:

                  # Change to your TinyPilot's Tailscale IP if it's different
                  ping 100.104.69.37
                  

                  Once ping has been running for a while (and hopefully captured the behavior during one of these mouse lagging instances), use Ctrl + C to quit.

                  Most ping implementations output statistics once you quit the program, can you share the stats with me?

                  --- 1.1.1.1 ping statistics ---
                  5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4018ms
                  rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 8.694/9.003/9.366/0.288 ms
                  
                  1. K@Klikong
                      2023-11-07 11:01:48.068Z

                      Hey @david,
                      you were right about the problem being a network issue, I think. I ran the ping command in cmd and as it turns out, whenever I experience the mouse lag, the message "Request timed out." pops up. What's interesting is that the ping was remarkably stable even during the mouse lags.

                      Here are the statistics

                      1. David @david2023-11-07 17:00:19.768Z

                        Thanks for sharing those details, @Klikong.

                        From you description, I'm pretty confident that this is a network issue.

                        Your ping times are little high (though they're fairly normal if you're overseas). It looks like the reason you're experiencing this lag is because the network drops out for a small period of time, meaning none of your input can reach your TinyPilot overseas.

                        Is your client machine (the machine you use to access the TinyPilot web interface) on Wi-Fi? If it is, is it possible to connect to the internet via Ethernet instead? That may help with network stability here.

                        ReplySolution
                        1. K@Klikong
                            2023-11-08 05:17:59.986Z

                            It runs over mobile internet actually. I have neither Wifi nor Ethernet here. Still, it's a huge help to know what the problem is. Thanks a lot for your help @david, customer support is really great for tinypilot!

                            1. David @david2023-11-08 12:03:01.356Z

                              Interesting! It's not often we see someone connecting to their TinyPilot using mobile internet. But occasional drop outs on a mobile network would explain this lag issue.

                              You're welcome! And thanks for the kind words! I'm happy we were able to find the cause of the issue.

                              Please let me know if you have any other questions.