(untitled)

What kind of excuse do you have for not using this superior pointing device instead of some rodent that gives you RSI and carpal tunnel? The cheapest models are fine enough to use for DTP the more sophisticated laser models are more than enough to pwn n00bz in fast paced FPSes like Quake 3 (I'm speaking from experience, also you may see footages of player OWN-AGE fragging like there is no tomorrow on youtube). Not to mention that the sturdy industrial and military versions would last forever. Some interesting reference site with tests of currently in production models: https://www.trackballmouse.org/ plebbit sub https://reddit.com/r/trackballs/ I myself switched over 2 years ago and I cannot believe I were using mouse for so many decades. They save so much space, take tension away from your muscles and may be operated when you are lying on the bed which makes it real to do gamin from your bed without effort and with not that much lose in precision. I can play FPSes for hours now without the amount of hand fatigue I would get from mouse. And paired with DWM trackball feels like pure bliss.

>>27747 >What kind of excuse do you have for not using this superior pointing device instead of some rodent that gives you RSI and carpal tunnel? I love pain.

>>27749 >not using superior lenovo clit key pic rel I have used a variety of unknown trackballs at work, including those on proprietary equipment systems, aside from saving space there is no reason to not use a mouse for me, since I use an eye tracking system to manipulate my cursor. Not to derail the thread, but do you want trackball recs or just to brag about your trackballs? I would appreciate a trackball that does not require me to spread my hand like I am grabbing a hand full of rocks, can anyone help a brothaa out?

>>27750 What do you mean? I barely can recall any model that require your hand to take such posture.

>>27749 makes sense

I am too poor and lazy to get one.

>>27747 After many many years , my G502 is starting to double-click. I would take the plunge and get a trackball but I fuarrrking refuse to spend a ridiculous amount of money on dated hardware just because it's unorthodox. The sensors are garbage on trackballs. Honestly I despise mousing devices. Everything should be done with a keyboard. Software that supports full keyboard navigation is always more efficient, mice were a mistake. I might get a trackpad instead of a trackball to be honest.

>>27754 >The sensors are garbage on trackballs. The highest DPI seen on serial produced laser trackballs was 3200 DPI on discontinued L-TracX for finger models, thumb models the one I know about reach about 2000+ DPI. I don't feel my 1600 DPI of LTrac is holding me back in any way while performing trickjumping multkills in Quake 3 type games. The cheapest ones are still OKish for working with text. Picrel was drawn with a trackball.

And here one of guys presented in this vid - one with nickname OWN-AGE is using trackball in Q3 to pwn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNjFWLIQcP0

I am trying to either find the right one for me (because I have no money are rarely get any) or am trying to find a cheap good first trackball to try that i can modify if I want. Or its just me not knowing what to choose. I know I want a finger trackball but can't take the dive because I don't want to get the wrong one. I have been procrastinating for weeks.

>>27760 Depending where you live you may find old trackballs on auction sites or local variant of Craiglist. They are mostly of archaic sensing technology that predates optic tracking. If you just need a driver for moving pointer around screen without too big amount of precision you may be fine with them. And if they happen to be industrial grade ones - they will last for decades. From cheapest more modern solutions that are not pure Chinese sheisse you may be happy with Logitech Trackman Marble - it have kinda soykafty buttonswitches tho I killed after about a year of playing FPSes and switched to CST LTrac (laser sensor tracking). Trackman Marble has optical tracking of resolution around 320DPI (yes 300+20 three hundred and twenty) which is kinda low but usable in desktop and there are guys that are fine with them when playing FPSes too and don't feel in need to switch to anything of higher resolution. It has no scroll ring tho. Eventually maybe Kensington Orbit with scroll ring. These two are the most common finger ball trackball starters. Dunno about what to advice if you would want to try thumb trackballs tho. I never ever used any of them.

>>27763 I dunno anon, the more I read about trackballs especially side by side with the prices, the more they look like a giant meme. Maybe I'll get a vertical mouse or a very large ergonomic one, no gamer stuff. Better if Linux friendly, fuarrrk Logitech.

>What kind of excuse do you have for not using this superior pointing device instead of some rodent that gives you RSI and carpal tunnel? Is it just me or has there been an increase in /g/-like 'My tastes are objectively better than yours' posts lately? Maybe a link to lainchan got posted there recently or something. Anyway, I use a Trackman Marble. I find it very good for desktop usage (1920x1200 on a 23" display), though enabling scrolling while holding down one of the extra buttons is essential. I play some first person videogames with it (Portal 2 is the one that comes the closest to a shooter, though) and I manage just fine. I like it better than any mouse I've ever tried. >>27760 >>27763 >it have kinda soykafty buttonswitches tho I killed after about a year of playing FPSes Indeed, the buttons wear out very quickly. Mine started double-clicking after three years of usage. They're easy to replace with some basic soldering skills, however. The unit comes apart by undoing five screws, and the switches are standard mouse microswithes, through-hole mount. Construction inside is very simple: some boards, joined by standard 1.5mm pitch ribbon cables. Very easy to hack. >>27764 >especially side by side with the prices The cheapest ones are on par with low-midrange mice, and in most cases the build quality is far better. I know I've said the buttons on mine started acting up after three years of usage, but all the mice I've had in the past have also done this (sooner, even); save for a Logitech MouseMan, a Sun Crossbow and a Kensington two-button ADB mouse. >Better if Linux friendly, fuarrrk Logitech. The Trackman Marble uses a standard HID driver, shows up as any other mouse/pointing device. Rebinding the buttons is trivial via evdev or what-have-you. I suspect this to be the case with most other trackballs. I don't see how that fails to be "Linux friendly". I have not been paid or endorsed by Logitech or any other company to make this post, this is just my experience with this particular model of trackball.

>>27765 I would have imagined that setting up macros would have needed a driver (so I read about the G502 at least). I got it in 2015 so it's had a good run, but I'm tired of using cramped small mice and I got little desk space left.

>>27765 I didn't miss scroll wheel on Trackman to be honest it's just fractions of second to move cursor to the scrollbar, but I grew up using no scroll wheel mice back in the '90s. Funny thing I get accused of aimboting many times after i switched to trackball because of very rapid turns I am making with device and excellent tracking. After about a year I switched to CST because I liked using trackball and decided If I have to buy another one - then let's buy something solid for years. I', loving it, but I would vote for it to be little bit more rounded on sides and would rethink button switch placement as it tends to not register series of very fast clicks - I mean part of clicks don't get registered which may be annoying while using plasma gun in Quake and cost you getting fragged. Maybe I would try ELECOM Huge in the future for gaming. Or Gamerball if they are really going to sell these trackballs this/next year.

>>27778 Hmm I just tested speed of repeated clicks and seems like I dont have any missclicks. Maybe was just strange placement of my hand. that caused it in the past.

Why do you guys think it is superior. Show me some gameplay where you are using this.

I'm genuinely curious, have touchpads not completely superseded trackballs? I was mildly interested at first, until the preceding thought occurred to me. What benefits do they posses over a good touchpad/trackpad?

>>27792 I'm sure there are irrational reasons involved like associating touchpads with bad mousing on laptops, perceived size, or the idea that you need to move the cursor with something that looks like a mouse. Thing is, it's much harder to find a trackpad than a trackball.

>>27792 >What benefits do they posses over a good touchpad/trackpad? The main thing for me is the momentum of the ball. When you want to move the pointer with a mouse or a trackpad, you either have to stop constantly and restart the movement, or enable some ridiculous acceleration curve that will throw any resemblance of precision out of the window. With a trackball you just need to flick your finger and the ball rolls to wherever on its own. When it gets there, just put your finger back on the ball. Once you master this technique, it's pretty much impossible to go back to a pointing device which doesn't allow infinite pointer movement. Friction is also something that can be annoying for some. On a trackpad you're sliding your finger against a fixed surface, while on a trackball you're moving a ball which sits on very low friction bearings. Honestly, I think trackpads are toy pointing devices designed for the average consumer, which isn't willing to put in a few days worth of getting used to a more efficient pointing device just to browse facebook and check their email. Business laptops, POS and industrial systems, and most computer-operated devices designed for very long work sessions still include pointing sticks and trackballs, despite trackpads being more reliable due to the lack of moving parts. That should be enough of an indicator of what type of user trackpads are really aimed at.

>>27795 Trackball seller, enough of these games. Just kidding. Are the thumb operated ones as uncomfortable as they look?

>>27799 >Are the thumb operated ones as uncomfortable as they look? Yes. I tried a Logitech one once and I started getting cramps after fifteen minutes of use.

>>27750 Why not both? What you're describing I've never experienced. I would think this old-school trackman I use would be the closest to "grabbing a hand full of rocks", but I haven't encountered that discomfort with any trackball mice.

>>27791 OWN-AGE fingers trackball Quake 3 player MetalSlug - Battlefield thumb trackball player

>>27795 GTFO with your antiacceleration FUD. I am using acceleration in Q3 combined with railgun adn I don't even need to zoom in most of frags on players on 2nd end of map.

>>27792 touchpads are cheaper in production

>>27804 Nice piece of trackball. how long have you been using it? How is quality of that one?

>>27799 >Are the thumb operated ones as uncomfortable as they look? There are people who love them. There are people who swear they give you arthritis (thumb was not intended as a precision finger and you are using very unnatural movements of thumb while controlling device). I never tried any thumb trackball. In my country thumb trackballs are easy to get in popular store chains like Media Markt etc. Finger trackballs are rarity in physical shops. There are gamers who use finger trackballs for slow paced FPSes (MetalSlug of Battlefront) but all players I know about who play Q3 and clones on trackball use finger models (OverToad back in late '90s in Unreal, Own-Age in Quake3 in '00s). I personally get pretty good results when I play Q3 clone lying on my bed with trackball on my chest and keyboard by my side. When I ocassionaly sit by the desk I typically run on killingsprees and see constant accusations of aimboting.

>>27809 I find it kind of off-putting that so many people insist on the gaming aspect of trackballs. It makes me think that few people who buy them end up using them for extended hours doing office stuff (which means it's an impulse buy that people give 5 stars to and then forget about as they go back to using a mouse). Twitchy FPS gameplay is not the same as going through multiple monitors back and forth, and things such as holding down a click and moving the cursor to select text in a document are completely absent in an FPS. It only speaks about the precision of the cursor for twitchy gaming stuff, but says nothing about how comfortable it is when doing office tasks. I get that it means "you can use it to aim with a railgun so it's precise" but it feels like those infomercials where they hammer down a nail with a saucepan as if that meant it's a good saucepan.

>>27814 I don't get what is your point here - do you suspect that device that rocks for intense FPSes would suck for office? Despite it was mentioned few times already that it's more than great for such work?

>>27816 >do you suspect that device that rocks for intense FPSes would suck for office? Well if it really rocked for FPSs then a noticeable chunk of the specialized consumers would have preferred it to a mouse. That said, why couldn't it? There are mouse movements that you don't do in FPS, like I said, holding down while moving to select text. I'm not saying everyone here is a wage slave, but I find the gaming argument wildly off track. Personally I'm interested in trackballs for ergonomics and comfort.

>>27817 >here are mouse movements that you don't do in FPS, like I said, holding down while moving to select text. That's kinda strange as that one of the most common FPS pointing device movements.

>>27814 In the commercial shipping industry I used to see a lot of boats using trackballs because mice move a lot when boats rock back and forth. Also a specific use tho. I think setting a trackball into a desk for a minimalist feel would be a cool way to create a schway aesthetic along with a projected virtual keyboard, but that is probably more for a DIY thread.

>>27822 Yea, they are common on civilian boats, ships and in military applications. You can ocassionally see rugged military trackballs on auction sites. I also see them as part of internet kiosks here and there. Projected keyboards suck dongz as there is no any tactile feeback.

And medical equipemeny

An example of steel kiosk keyboard with trackball. They work on USB interfaces or PS/2 in older models.

>>27802 You do eventually build up the muscles for those cramps associated with thumb balls to go away, but imo it's still not worth it. The thumb wasn't meant to operate a pointer. I couldn't find my dream trackball with all the features I need. Wanted a scroll wheel that wasn't something stupid, like the ring around the ball or a wheel underneath the ball. I wanted it above and to the right, so my ring finger could operate it while the rest of my fingers rest on the ball. Also, I needed a very narrow solution 'cause I have a gigantic model F keyboard on a rather small rolling keyboard tray. I wanted a larger diameter, too. And I need a fuсking middle click, god damn it! Why is it so hard to find alternative pointer devices that have middle click? I blame Apple with their tyrannical minimalism. I can't use most of my CAD software without it—I hate that the middle click is seen as some kind of niche option. Found plenty of three-button trackballs, but what should have been the middle click was often a double-click macro instead. Which is beyond retarded. I hate it. Also got back and forward/programmable macro buttons that I operate with my pinky finger. It's all in a 3d-printed housing with an enormous industrial stainless steel ball bearing, which has fantastic mass and thus good inertia/momentum which I like for casting the cursor across my four-screen setup. Works great, never buying overpriced trackballs with lots of ѕuсky compromises again. My desk is filthy btw, sorry. Also that weird black box with the cables is my USB switch; I don't use a KVM switch because I want a separate monitor for each machine to keep watching movies, etc on ones that aren't focused. But I would rather have a single keyboard and mouse between them. Also have a wireless keyboard plugged in so I can be lazy and browse from the bed. The USB switch also accepts a flash drive, which basically acts as hot-swap storage for easily moving files between all the computers with a push of a button. I also have a module of the IBM nipple-clit mouse that I pulled out of a broken thinkpad, and I wired it through a ps2-usb adapter so I can use it as a standalone peripheral. I love the clit. It's a great device. I just found a real cheap contour rollermouse on ebay, which is an interesting throwback to a very old and obscure pointing device like the one used on GRiD laptops in the 90s, which was a sweetheart computer for NASA and the military. But for now I like my strange trackball creation.

>>27825 I love these, they're bulletproof. Can be had for a decent price if you order direct from the factory or salvage them. Super weatherproof as well, and imo in a superior way than those disgusting silicone mat keyboards. >>27824 I actually found a lot of like ten of these medical interface trackballs for sale for practically nothing; they're insanely expensive to buy new, because medical hardware is a huge racket. I think they originally belonged to an ultrasound machine. I ideally want to install them in a two-piece ergo keyboard, so each thumb has its own little trackball for different functions. >>27823 lolol damn, I own the same 2.4ghz wifi parabolic antenna that Kim Jong Un uses as well. Awesome. >>27822 Holy hell I love military and industrial interfaces. They're so gorgeous and utilitarian and well-made. I'll often camp around on auction or surplus sites to find these at about the same price as consumer electronics trash, but it's so worth it. Stuff you get at best buy or whatever is beyond cheap; it's overpriced plastic dogѕһіt made with slave labor. I don't get why we all still put up with any of this, it's disgusting.

>>27808 Probably a little over 2 years now. The scrolling felt a little awkward at first with pressing the middle mouse button down while moving the trackball with the thumb but it feels normal after awhile. Not much more to it though. It just a slab of plastic with 3 buttons and a ball. Simple and efficient for the job it needs to do.

>>27842 I imagine it works great and that steel ball bearing looks comfy, but why didn't you sand the parts that are in contact with the hand?

>>27848 Ha, shoulda taken a picture of my hand position during use ;) It's hard to tell the scale. I never really actually touch any of the printed parts, basically my wrist sits on the overhang of that foam wrist pad in front of the keyboard, and other than that all my fingers are on the ball or the scroll wheel, and my thumb just sits on the button cluster. It's surprisingly comfy. I expected to have to add some molded foam for ergonomics, but was pleasantly surprised to find I didn't need to add anything else. Had a whole case designed, but left it skeletonized because it already seemed pretty ideal. I can upload the 3d printing files and source models if anyone likes. The guts are scavenged from a Microsoft blutrack mouse, since the sensor is very reliable on shiny materials, very precise, and has a wide pickup range (like almost a full centimeter of spacing). I actually have another ball made of clear glass, and the sensor works just fine with it. Lets the light shine through.

>What kind of excuse do you have for not using this superior pointing device instead of some rodent that gives you RSI and carpal tunnel? I don't usually get pains anywhere, even after ~14h of daily computer use. I compensate for this mostly by fixing posture (chair+desk) and lifting. Any other ergo things I've tried (split/wavy keyboards, vertical mice) solved no problems and introduced new ones. All of the above has little to do with RSI, but I don't see why trackballs would be a different experience for me.

>>27849 guys on /r/trackballs would ejaculate if you would post files, they already have one design kinda MS Explorer clone circulating on that sub.

>What kind of excuse do you have for not using this superior pointing device Thinkpad clitmouse. More seriously, because last time i searched they were expensive, hard to find, and somewhat outdated in terms of features. For whatever reason it's especially hard to find a track ball that has more than just left and right click. Scroll wheel click is non-negotiable, but at least 2-4 extra buttons would put it on par with the cheapo logitech gaming mouse I currently use. The most mouse intensive thing I do (besides gaming) is image editing and 3d modelling, so it's not like I need one of those MMO mice with practically a full numpad on the side, but a couple macro switches is pretty much standard for all but the most basic mice. Actually, I'm curious how feasible it is to play FPS games on trackball. I know it used to be somewhat common, but that was before we had laser mice so there was a real advantage to manipulating the ball directly rather than dragging it along a mouse pad. If I bought one I'd probably still use a traditional mouse for the above reason, but if hypothetically I could find a trackball with modern feature parity I wonder what it would be like to game on it.

Interested in trackballs for multi-monitor setup, in a relatively small space, are they good for that? I do mostly use keyboard-centered software, but everybody needs pointing sometimes.

>>27849 >>27852 Here's my files. I need to find the BOM to link the non-PLA parts I used, such as the specific mouse whose PCB fits in the cradle, the single-point ball bearings I used to suspend the trackball, plus the ball diameter, etc. Units are in centimeters. I model polygonally, which I realize is kind of wack for 3d printing. But I come from a broadcast and game graphics background, so I already have a very fast polygonal workflow and I've thus far been too lazy to learn proper CAD for this particular use. Anyway, format is .obj: Base: https://pastebin.com/SkEXXGtG Bearing mount ring: https://pastebin.com/YTeyyBKd Cradles for microswitches: https://pastebin.com/LKR2Gt8Q Assembled them together with a sculptable epoxy such as sugru. Figured that would enable me to iterate and adjust for ergonomics more easily.

>>27859 Oh yeah, that's what I use mine ( >>27842 ) for. It's great for multi-screen setups, get a USB switch to control multiple machines. I control multiple machines with multiple screens each because I'm a goofball. Works great for small spaces; no need for a big mousepad area, much less multiple mice. >>27853 UGH yeah same here with 3d modeling and lack of additional mouse buttons. It's not enough to only have left and right click, those bastards. Hence why I built my own. I'd say FPS is alright, but it takes some getting used to. It's a different set of motor memories, so y'know... you will be starting from square one in a way.

>>27842 >I also have a module of the IBM nipple-clit mouse that I pulled out of a broken thinkpad, and I wired it through a ps2-usb adapter so I can use it as a standalone peripheral. Can you elaborate on this? It's not too hard to find overstock thinkpad (or dell latitude) replacement keyboards with the clit mouse even if you don't have an old one to cannibalize, so the idea of making some kind of bluetooth thinkpad keyboard sounds really interesting. I currently use pic related for the raspberry pi that's hooked up to my tv and it's a piece of soykaf.

>>27868 Yes indeed; I sourced a second one from a thinkpad replacement keyboard as well, which iirc was around twelve bux online. Here's a pic of my rig. The thing speaks ps/2, so you can use an arduino to translate it to USB HID with readily available libraries. Or, as I did, just buy a ready-made ps/2 to USB adapter on ebay. They are as low as $2 if you are willing to look around. I just opened up the case, cut the cables, and soldered it either directly to the trackpoint module or through a pigtail like in this photo. I know, it's silly to braid wires like this, I was just feeling obsessive and bored. Note the trackpoint module exists on its own little PCB that is mounted to the back of the keyboard, so usually you can remove the rest of the keyboard just by removing three screws and a ribbon cable. If you wanted to make something wireless, you could possibly set up an ESP8266 or something along those lines to interpret the ps/2 signals via the same arduino library and bridge it across bluetooth using that board's radio. I'd also recommend maybe using a teensy if you need to incorporate it into a keyboard/trackpoint combo without having to run two USB cables to the computer. But if it's standalone, the ps/2 adapters are the cheapest and easiest route imo. The hard part I've found is to track down what pins on the trackpoint module do what. They aren't often labeled. You can pretty easily find the +5v pin by looking for the thickest trace, and gnd by testing for continuity between the pins and an easily identifiable ground plane. But then you have to find the data and clock pins, and you can also hook up some buttons of some kind to a few pins for left/right/middle click. All trackpoint modules I have found have had three buttons, even if the laptop itself only had two. There is always at least an unpopulated middle click pin. They just short to ground through a switch, and the module sends the input signals over the same ps/2 interface. This site has some more info and also some pinouts for various models: https://github.com/alonswartz/trackpoint/

>>27868 >>27869 Side note: why is it totally fuсking impossible to obtain a finished, standalone trackpoint module as a commercial product? You can only rip them out of various keyboards and laptops. I've never ever found a mouse by itself using trackpoint, kind of like a ball-less trackball if that makes sense. Wonder why that is. Anyone else ever found that before? I bet if it does exist, it's probably ludicrously expensive.

>>27869 cool, thanks for the info >>27870 i mean, today it's because everyone wants multitouch track pad things on their laptops. little standalone touch pads are even getting popular as a desktop peripheral, and not just for imacs and soykaf. idk why people never really seemed to want trackpoint in their desktop keyboards though. i get that it's awkward at first but if you do most things on your keyboard but occasionally need to point your mouse at something it's nice to not have to move your hand (and it's not like you can't also have a regular mouse on the side for when you need the accuracy). there used to be that ibm keyboard with the trackpoint, and i'm sure there's a bunch of weird third party stuff out there if you look hard enough but that's it.

>>27870 >like a ball-less trackball if that makes sense like a joystick?

>using trackball >not numpad IIRC alt+shift+numlock works on both KDE and windows. On windows I won't ever need a mouse. Though the former/KDE is already broken (can't be customized) when they started using gnone code (the reason is gnome wants to be the only DE much like systemd toxicity). Thoughts on low DPI? I think 800dpi is perfect for FPS/RTS on 96dpi screen. Also, tablet pen masterrace.

>>27873 >Using numpad as a pointing device Ugh, revolting. If you're at that point, just use a CLI and abandon the cursor entirely. >>27872 I mean yeah, actually. A clit mouse is essentially a tiny analog joystick. Uses four force cell sensors that vary in resistance and pipes it through an ADC just like most joysticks (but they usually use potentiometers instead).

Well I managed to play FPSes on a trackpoint with help of pointer acceleration settings, yet I prefer trackball. Trackpoint is just too big stress for a finger for longer period of time.

>>27804 I see one on local auction for around 25$ - do you think its worth that price?

>>27901 Which, the usb keyboard with trackpoint or the trackball mouse? But honestly, both would be worth $25 imo. If you think this is the input system you'd like. Trackball mice are strangely often very pricey, 25 is not bad for them (they shouldn't be pricey, but that's supply and demand for you with a niche product). Trackpoint external keyboards are pretty easily available for less than that, but they're still well worth it at $25. I love a compact all-in-one keyboard and pointing device, it's good for interfacing with embedded systems when you'd rather assume direct control rather than SSH into it.

>>27965 And by "less than that" I mean less than a new trackball; not less than $25. I'd say $25 is a below-average price for that keyboard as well, idk for sure but hey. You could always look on ebay and see what the average asking price is for comparison.

>>27966 I ment that model in particular. For example MS Trackball Explorers are like 700$. They are NOT worth that amount quality/price wise.

>>27969 I bought my trackman for a little under 15 dollars. They seem to be going for 20 to 25 dollars on ebay now though. I see some offers for $18 even.

>>27753 >too poor I got mine for $10. >and lazy it's a few keystrokes and maybe 5 clicks. there's no excuse to be lazy on the internet, anon.

Why is this soykaf so goddamn expensive for what it is? Why are the majority of them thumb operated? >>28050 Where? I can't even find something in the 30$ range. Is it some chinese thing from AliExpress?

>>28092 Going on eBay and filtering for "used/pre-owned" is your friend. You have to cull the tens of millions of new, overpriced plastic Chinese drop shipper garbage products first. If you can't find it right away, try doing it once a week until you get it or your patience runs out. Side note, anyone ever tried the Contour rollermouse yet? Mine came in. Works fine. Found a lucky bargain at fifteen bucks, when most sell for like $2-300 for some bizarre reason. Utter robbery.

>>28095 The absolute lowest I could find used on eBay is 30€, for the soykafty kensington orbit with no scroll wheel.

>>27747 >What kind of excuse do you have for not using this superior pointing device instead of some rodent that gives you RSI and carpal tunnel? muh vidya

>>27747 I got me one of those actually recently from a thrift store with a lot of other cheap mice. Ngl its pretty nice to use when playing minecraft but its kind of annoying since there's not a third button for scrolling. Also I had to buy like 3 adapters lmao.

do track ball mice have a niche "maker" community like keyboards do? there are so many options for weird DIY 60%/40%/ortho/ergo/split/etc. keyboards but it seems like most track ball people are either using a 10 year old consumer model that lacks modern features (scroll wheel/click, macro buttons, etc.) or else they've come up with a custom design totally from scratch. is there no middle ground where someone could e.g. order a PCB/microcontroller, a 3d printed case, and some electronic components and simply put them together then flash with open firmware like you can do with a teensy board and QMK?

>>29489 >do track ball mice have a niche "maker" community like keyboards do? I don't think so. Probably because trackballs are devices centered around utility, rather than show-off value. So-called "Enthusiast" mechanical keyboards are the exact opposite of that.

>>29494 >trackballs are devices centered around utility, rather than show-off value I don't understand how that makes them different from keyboards.

Nice ones

Are trackballs a meme? Isn't moving just a thumb even worse than the whole hand?

>>29502 he's probably disagreeing with your characterization of custom keyboards as "for show-off value".

>>29502 I did read your whole post, it doesn't change the fact that keyboards are also centered around utility and not show-off value. Also, I've been here for a while, and I've barely been to 4chan or reddit in years.

>>29504 >it doesn't change the fact that keyboards are also centered around utility and not show-off value. The only point of "enthusiast" mechanical keyboards is to show off. If you want utility, you buy an off the shelf board with whatever specs you want. You don't build a 7-way split ortholinear 5% ergo kit with a solid gold case and artisan spherical translucent keycaps with menstrual blood from your favorite anime seiyuu embedded in them. You "make" (read: follow some idiot-proof lego-like instructions which don't even explain why you're doing what you're doing) those kinds of things to get cred on mechanical keyboard circles, and you lie to yourself so as to believe you did it for productivity, ergonomy or some other sciency-sounding reason.

>>29507 i'm not sure why you're grinding this axe here. the point of the original question was that track ball mice lack a few key features that have become standard in contemporary laser mice, and if there aren't any mass market options that have those features it's possible that hobbyists will have made kits, which aren't as easy as buying a full product off the shelf but still preferable to having to figure out how to put it together from scratch.

>>29507 None of that stuff is what keyboards are "centered around" though - that's all just extra stuff on top of what's still a utility device at its core. As far as I can tell, there's nothing about trackball mice that makes them any less suitable than keyboards for adding "show-off value" features on top of the core utility.

>>29508 >point of the original question was that track ball mice lack a few key features that have become standard in contemporary laser mice... Have you read the thread? The cheapest non-crap trackball on the market, the Trackman Marble, has four buttons. You can use software to enable 360° scrolling, and even chording for macros if you so desire. More expensive models have scrollwheels or scroll rings. Some have dedicated macro buttons. This doesn't just meet expectations set by "contemporary laser mice" (by the way, most mice these days don't use laser light sources), it exceeds them. Of course $30 trackballs don't have the same features as $150 mice. Parts cost the same be they installed on a mice, a trackball or whatever other electronic device. Trackballs in the higher end of the price scale do have an insane niche tax, but so do higher end mice. >>29509 >As far as I can tell, there's nothing about trackball mice that makes them any less suitable than keyboards for adding "show-off value" features on top of the core utility. Yes, there is a factor, which I already mentioned: The audience they're targeted at. People looking for a pointing device to show off get gaming mice with speed holes, RGB lights and enough macro buttons to make some full size keyboards blush. Most people buying trackballs get them because they're no-flares devices which get the job done and that's it. This is evidenced by most trackball designs looking aesthetically unpleasing to many people, as they're designed with a determined efficiency/looks/production cost ratio in mind. Now that I think about it, why do you even want a "maker" community around these things if you already have these brilliant ideas to improve trackballs? Why not just roll your own (no pun intended)? Soldering equipment is cheap, used trackballs with tinkering value are cheap, electronic components are cheap or even free, and 3D printing can be outsourced to a company for very cheap too in the case you don't own a 3D printer. Hell, you can even make casings out of metal or wood yourself, without the need for any fancy tools. Hell, if you're so keen on having a "Maker" community, start one yourself!

>>27747 using this for a while now, really happy. looking for a second one with Bluetooth for traveling tho

>>29508 I can see where he's coming from because the boundary between an objective upgrade to a tool you use every day and the world of consumer fetishism is very, very thin. I bought a mechanical keyboard and it's definitely an upgrade over rubber domes because of how mechanical switches work, but people in the MK community seem to look down on having a basic MK more than being a complete stranger to their hobby. >Ughhhhh, you got THAT keyboard? Outemu switches?! What a pleb, you should use Navy Box Blue Iced v.2.4 >There are these [extremely niche new switches] on the market, can someone compare them to [extremely niche switches] >The activation point is 0.00003 micron further on these, I can def feel it >Hey I assembled my 9th keyboard and made a photo of it that looks like a beauty pageant >Amazing anon, It looks exactly like every other 60% keyboard but I can FEEL that you spent a lot on those plastic keycaps Not as horrifying as the EDC meme but still disgusting.

>>30004

>>30108 It costs like 90 dollaroni to get it shipped here. All this for 80s technology, just because it's niche? I'd rather get a cheap mouse and use it as little as possibly, rely on keyboard mappings as much as I can.

>>30177 got mine for 50/60 bucks and its not only niche 80s technology, its way more comfy to use than a regular mouse and ironically enough takes way less space because you don't have to move it around. keyboard mapping is neat but there are cases where a good mouse is important >video editing >Music production >Graphical design >Strategy games i guess idk, i just like playing the genre with that mouse to name a few you can also get the ones produced in USA/Europe for cheaper than that but i really like the layout of that specific model

I got an Elecom EG-X and its very comfy, i thought using it would be harder since i've been using a regular mouse for three hundred years, but nah, i got to it in 15 minutes, recommended if you don't know what trackball to get, i got it for 34£ Only bad thing is that i'm not too good at selecting text. Fortunately, this mouse has a button to reduce the DPI while you hold it, very useful!

>>30108 Hmm this looks pretty ideal. I take it the index finger control is generally the way to go? I see on the Amazon listing it claims those macro switches are configurable. Is it like Logitech where you don't get access to all the features if you don't use their special software, and if so does that software work on Linux?

Real master race checking in.

>>31379 As it name says, the thing is HUGE as soykaf, it wouldn't fit on my hand...

>>31697 so am I and I use trackball exclusively.

>>31383 Case sat in the loft with the dermatrodes strapped across his forehead, watching motes dance in the diluted sunlight that filtered through the grid overhead. A countdown was in progress in one corner of the monitor screen. Cowboys didn’t get into Simstim, he thought, because it was basically a meat toy.

>>31383 Been thinking about finding a used old generation consumer EEG and trying to set up HID cursor control. Found some repositories on github for this. Any experience getting that to work?

>>27760 my previous post After months I spotted a good deal for a trackman marble. Arrived yesterday and am loving it so far. I will mostly likely paracord the cable for looks and replace the bearings with steel ones sometime in the future but for now I am happy with what I got. >>27763 Replacing buttonswitches will be easy but I don't use the trackball for anything fast gameplay wise so hopefully it will last longer but thanks for the recomendation I'm happy with what I got.

>>33073 imagine buying something this expensive and having to worry of not using it for anything intensive so it doesn't break in 2 months

>>33353 >something this expensive It's like 25 bucks brand new.

>>27747 >What kind of excuse do you have for not using this superior pointing device Owning a touch screen, you luddite.

>>33374 enjoy your rsi, you caveman

As mentioned earlier in this thread, I don't use any pointing device.

>>31746 One thing that would be important for me as a prospective user of an electroëncephalographic (nice! first try spelling, only one letter off) computer-control device, the obvious bandwidth or psychological concerns aside, would be to be able to comfortably use it in any bodily position e.g. head against hard surface i.e. so the encephalography electrodes don't specially press against my head.

here's an idea: eyeball tracking. Usually its done to track user behaviour in UI design studies but you could use the output to steer the mouse where the user looks.

>>33416 keyboard and mouse can cause rsi too though (depending how you use them)

>>33374 I just got a loaner laptop from my university with a touch screen and honestly I use it more than the touch pad thing under the keyboard. I was surprised how well it works on linux. On a small laptop just poking things with my index finger is a lot quicker and more natural than moving my hand down to the track pad, finding the mouse, and clicking on something. I'd obviously still prefer a regular mouse or track ball for some mouse-centric software like games, blender, gimp, etc. but for a mostly keyboard workflow with the occasional mouse click I'd put it on par with the clit mouse. The clit is a bit easier to reach and works better for interfaces which aren't optimized for touch, and you also won't e.g. scroll when you mean to right click or zoom instead of scrolling, but on the other hand click-and-drag is easier with the touch screen, and not needing to worry about where the mouse is makes navigating some larger interfaces faster (I'm using gnome/fedora.... again, it's a loaner). Overall I think touch screen+clit is the best portable mouse input setup.

>>33447 I used to do this, it takes some getting used to, does not work particularly well with certain glasses, though it has improved, and the major downsides are not too bad. Having a larger screen helps, but having multiple people in front of the screen can fuarrrk it up sometimes. The only part is that there is no reliable way to "click" but I guess if there was a "hover-to-click" feature that might get rid of it. Protip: you need to look at what you want and not the cursor or you get an insane feedback loop. Also most commercial systems are designed to run on windows 10 or windows exclusively.

I have used one of these for a very long time. I switched from this so I had a mouse with better DPI for PC gaming (that I don't even do anymore). I use it as a spare mouse for if I am working with other computers.

>>27747 im just used to having to deal with my hand dying from time to time