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Jun. 8th, 2020 01:03 amSo, my elecom thumb trackball has given up the ghost. The switch under the left click is becoming less and less responsive.
As trackballs fall further and further out of favour with the general public and become increasingly niche hardware, the cost of replacement goes up, and the quality of contruction goes down. I'm pretty tired of having to replace mine every year or so. But I can't use a mouse: it irritates my shoulder to the point of paralysis.
As such, I decided to get a Ploopy. It's a very silly name, but for an excellent product. Some dude who really loves trackballs just straight up made it. The whole thing is opensource: if you have access to a 3D printer, a bit of pi-style circuit board, some screws, 3 ball bearings, and a USB cable you can make one entirely using the software provided on github.
I thought about going around it the long way, but our libraries are still only on reduced hours so 3D printing isn't really feasible right now. The dude sells assemble-yourself kits, which I also considered, but TBH I hate soldering and if I'm already paying for the hardware, I'd rather just pay someone else to solder it too.
So I ordered a fully assembled one, and now it's here, and I'm at a loss.
You'd think, having exclusively used trackballs for like a decade, this would be fine. But it's just like... woo, it is a Lot.
On one hand, the construction is amazing. I could kill a man with this trackball and it wouldn't even notice. The movement of the ball is so smooth and swift, it just goes and goes and goes. The ball bearings make a soft, pleasant sussurus similar to a high end fidget spinner, which is extremely satisfying.
On the other hand, every one of the shitty plasticky lightweight trackballs I've paid far too much for in the last decade has been thumb driven.
You move the ball (and thus the cursor) with your thumb, and you click the buttons or scroll the wheel with your fingers.
The Ploopy is finger driven. You use your index (and/or middle finger) to roll the ball, and your thumb to click the buttons. This lets you maintain a healthier wrist posture, in theory offers more precise movement of the ball, faster response time on clicking, etc.
I'm having war flashbacks to the time I tried learning Colemak typing, which was a similar feeling. Like, sure, I could gain a lot of benefits such as faster, more accurate typing and healthier hand placement/movement, but the unlearning of QWERTY makes me hurty.
Finger driven trackballing will definitely be easier than a whole new keyboard layout, but I also gave up on Colemak like 3 weeks in, and I am modesty concerned that my future in finger driven trackballs will be similarly short.
As trackballs fall further and further out of favour with the general public and become increasingly niche hardware, the cost of replacement goes up, and the quality of contruction goes down. I'm pretty tired of having to replace mine every year or so. But I can't use a mouse: it irritates my shoulder to the point of paralysis.
As such, I decided to get a Ploopy. It's a very silly name, but for an excellent product. Some dude who really loves trackballs just straight up made it. The whole thing is opensource: if you have access to a 3D printer, a bit of pi-style circuit board, some screws, 3 ball bearings, and a USB cable you can make one entirely using the software provided on github.
I thought about going around it the long way, but our libraries are still only on reduced hours so 3D printing isn't really feasible right now. The dude sells assemble-yourself kits, which I also considered, but TBH I hate soldering and if I'm already paying for the hardware, I'd rather just pay someone else to solder it too.
So I ordered a fully assembled one, and now it's here, and I'm at a loss.
You'd think, having exclusively used trackballs for like a decade, this would be fine. But it's just like... woo, it is a Lot.
On one hand, the construction is amazing. I could kill a man with this trackball and it wouldn't even notice. The movement of the ball is so smooth and swift, it just goes and goes and goes. The ball bearings make a soft, pleasant sussurus similar to a high end fidget spinner, which is extremely satisfying.
On the other hand, every one of the shitty plasticky lightweight trackballs I've paid far too much for in the last decade has been thumb driven.
You move the ball (and thus the cursor) with your thumb, and you click the buttons or scroll the wheel with your fingers.
The Ploopy is finger driven. You use your index (and/or middle finger) to roll the ball, and your thumb to click the buttons. This lets you maintain a healthier wrist posture, in theory offers more precise movement of the ball, faster response time on clicking, etc.
I'm having war flashbacks to the time I tried learning Colemak typing, which was a similar feeling. Like, sure, I could gain a lot of benefits such as faster, more accurate typing and healthier hand placement/movement, but the unlearning of QWERTY makes me hurty.
Finger driven trackballing will definitely be easier than a whole new keyboard layout, but I also gave up on Colemak like 3 weeks in, and I am modesty concerned that my future in finger driven trackballs will be similarly short.
