Ploopy A+ (external trackball)
36 points by hawski
36 points by hawski
Very cool. Preordered one, will see if it (particularly with wrist rest) fixes some of the ergonomics problems I have with the Adept 1.0 I have sitting off in the corner of my desk, unused for the past few months since getting the Elecom Huge Plus. Drag scroll was cool but not quite it for me, but clickable knobs in thumb position? Now we're talking.
I noticed this in the description on the store page:
Roller Bearing Noise
Because this trackball has roller bearings, it’s noticeably louder that other trackballs. It makes a sort of scratchy grinding noise when the ball is moved. It’s a noise that you will notice during use. Please keep this in mind before ordering.
Did the Adept have the same roller bearings? Was the noise distracting?
I'm a big fan on the Nano 2. It's the one trackball that fits between the two halves of my keyboard, and while I do have a full-size trackball on my desk too, I've been reaching for it less and less.
The A+ looks very appealing; I can see the knobs being useful. Customs, tax & import charges ensure that it lies outside of my YOLO zone, but I'll be looking forward to the reviews. Always good to see more open hardware!
I haven't used a trackball in ages. I think the last one I had my fingers on was a thumb-ball design.
I wonder if the sensors used in these only measure two axes, or if they support three. The symmetric design makes me want to rotate the ball between a thumb and finger just to see what would happen.
The ploopy designs I use (classic and classic 2) have only a single sensor (doing the regular trackball detection but not rotation along the retainer ring). There are other trackballs that ship two, and people have made them into extremely cool spacemouse-like input devices: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u1v7TXViRi8&ra=m