For me the big selling point of traditional trackpoints is that they're in the middle of the keyboard. There's less hand movement going back and forth from pointing to typing. And thus an external...
For me the big selling point of traditional trackpoints is that they're in the middle of the keyboard. There's less hand movement going back and forth from pointing to typing. And thus an external trackpoint feels a bit meh to me. It's probably better to have another pointing device (trackball?).
Lol, this seems a bit cargo culty to me. People like the track point because it makes the best of a bad situation. Its a passable pointing device for laptops where you want something integrated...
Lol, this seems a bit cargo culty to me.
People like the track point because it makes the best of a bad situation. Its a passable pointing device for laptops where you want something integrated into the chassis where you don't have to move your hands from the keyboard much.
When they came out, trackpads were truly awful, so people loved the track point as an alternative.
I still have a Thinkpad with a track point that I use regularly, but it's not a mouse. If I'm sitting at a desk, I'd much rather use a mouse.
I can't imagine why anyone would want a dedicated, external track point that can really only be used in the same situations where you could just use a mouse.
It feels kinda like having a high end bicycle seat as your main office chair.
Like, there are very comfortable bicycle seats, but bicycle seats have constraints that require them to be shaped a certain way; they're not optimized for comfort, they're optimized for riding bicycles. Same deal here.
I encountered my first (then IBM) ThinkPad in around 1994 and right away the IT team member I was with explained the iconic Centrally Located Indicating Tool. I'm very glad to see this tradition...
I encountered my first (then IBM) ThinkPad in around 1994 and right away the IT team member I was with explained the iconic Centrally Located Indicating Tool. I'm very glad to see this tradition continues here.
All their stuff looks like it was just pulled off a moderately capable FDM printer, without even any real cleanup. I barely consider SLA prints good enough quality to offer for sale, it blows my...
All their stuff looks like it was just pulled off a moderately capable FDM printer, without even any real cleanup.
I barely consider SLA prints good enough quality to offer for sale, it blows my mind anyone would consider selling FDM-made products except perhaps at a one-person stall at a craft fair (and to be fair, I've bought some very nicely designed trinkets from people with a 3D printer and a stall at a craft fair).
On the other hand if they offer their 3D files I could print my own decent quality enclosure for their hardware. Although at that point I would maybe question why I'm bothering to involve them at all.
Really depends on how comfortable with electronic engineering you are. They design the enclosures, the PCB, and customize the firmware (they dont write it whole cloth, they use QMK). To produce...
Really depends on how comfortable with electronic engineering you are. They design the enclosures, the PCB, and customize the firmware (they dont write it whole cloth, they use QMK). To produce one of these at home you at the very least need a decent FDM printer, a reflow oven, and be fairly comfortable with mechanical design and embedded device development+workflows.
That stuff is all pretty easy. It's basically just fancy Lego :) My point really was that I'm surprised Ploopy consider fdm printed parts as high enough quality to sell. Fdm printing is great for...
That stuff is all pretty easy. It's basically just fancy Lego :)
My point really was that I'm surprised Ploopy consider fdm printed parts as high enough quality to sell. Fdm printing is great for prototyping and making your own bits and pieces for home use, but it's nowhere near good enough for retail in my opinion. I occasionally include 3D printed parts in my work but I have an SLA printer and even then I hand finish them because they're still not good enough right off the printer. I'd never ship fdm parts to paying customers.
I have their trackball (adept), I printed the case myself because it otherwise didn’t fit within Switzerland’s de minimis. It’s a great device and because it’s open source I know I can repair it...
I have their trackball (adept), I printed the case myself because it otherwise didn’t fit within Switzerland’s de minimis. It’s a great device and because it’s open source I know I can repair it and mod it.
Unlike my CST lasertrak on which the rollers wore out and it’s around 50$ to get a new set sent over to me… and they fail every 5 years apparently (on a 200$ trackball)
For me the big selling point of traditional trackpoints is that they're in the middle of the keyboard. There's less hand movement going back and forth from pointing to typing. And thus an external trackpoint feels a bit meh to me. It's probably better to have another pointing device (trackball?).
Lol, this seems a bit cargo culty to me.
People like the track point because it makes the best of a bad situation. Its a passable pointing device for laptops where you want something integrated into the chassis where you don't have to move your hands from the keyboard much.
When they came out, trackpads were truly awful, so people loved the track point as an alternative.
I still have a Thinkpad with a track point that I use regularly, but it's not a mouse. If I'm sitting at a desk, I'd much rather use a mouse.
I can't imagine why anyone would want a dedicated, external track point that can really only be used in the same situations where you could just use a mouse.
It feels kinda like having a high end bicycle seat as your main office chair.
Like, there are very comfortable bicycle seats, but bicycle seats have constraints that require them to be shaped a certain way; they're not optimized for comfort, they're optimized for riding bicycles. Same deal here.
I encountered my first (then IBM) ThinkPad in around 1994 and right away the IT team member I was with explained the iconic Centrally Located Indicating Tool. I'm very glad to see this tradition continues here.
It doesn't look very special to me, it's clearly just the texture of a flat pei sheet?
All their stuff looks like it was just pulled off a moderately capable FDM printer, without even any real cleanup.
I barely consider SLA prints good enough quality to offer for sale, it blows my mind anyone would consider selling FDM-made products except perhaps at a one-person stall at a craft fair (and to be fair, I've bought some very nicely designed trinkets from people with a 3D printer and a stall at a craft fair).
On the other hand if they offer their 3D files I could print my own decent quality enclosure for their hardware. Although at that point I would maybe question why I'm bothering to involve them at all.
Really depends on how comfortable with electronic engineering you are. They design the enclosures, the PCB, and customize the firmware (they dont write it whole cloth, they use QMK). To produce one of these at home you at the very least need a decent FDM printer, a reflow oven, and be fairly comfortable with mechanical design and embedded device development+workflows.
That stuff is all pretty easy. It's basically just fancy Lego :)
My point really was that I'm surprised Ploopy consider fdm printed parts as high enough quality to sell. Fdm printing is great for prototyping and making your own bits and pieces for home use, but it's nowhere near good enough for retail in my opinion. I occasionally include 3D printed parts in my work but I have an SLA printer and even then I hand finish them because they're still not good enough right off the printer. I'd never ship fdm parts to paying customers.
For the ones desperately looking for the price on their site, it's 70 CAD (equates 44 €) which seems not super unresonable to me
I have their trackball (adept), I printed the case myself because it otherwise didn’t fit within Switzerland’s de minimis. It’s a great device and because it’s open source I know I can repair it and mod it.
Unlike my CST lasertrak on which the rollers wore out and it’s around 50$ to get a new set sent over to me… and they fail every 5 years apparently (on a 200$ trackball)
This is very cool, but for me personally this is the best pointing device
Ploopy does have an open source trackpad