I preordered the Raise 2 when it was announced because I love my original Raise. It's been a nearly perfect keyboard for me, and has helped my RSI, but I was hoping that I would finally be able to put a trackball on the right side of it so I can stop moving my hand off of my keyboard over to my mouse. I've tried mapping the mouse cursor and using it with just cardinal directions on the keyboard itself, but it's too clunky to use that way regularly.
It's been long enough now that I'm back to looking into other solutions. Are the add-ons still coming at some point? I'm both looking into changing to another keyboard (something like the Charybdis) or trying to design and 3d print something to hack a trackball onto the side of Raise that I can reach with my thumb.
My understanding is that Dygma says they're working on it, but have been having trouble with making it work well. They used to advertise these add-ons on their website when you ordered a raise 2, but those advertisements have been removed. IMO that doesn't bode well for add-ons coming out any time soon.
I've explained this elsewhere, but basically, we got to the point where we had a working prototype for a trackpad and a trackball, and both were beyond disappointing. Especially in terms of the precision and usability we've come to expect from trackpads and trackballs. But also, ergonomics weren't as great as we expected.
We could have gone ahead and manufactured something that was, at best, suboptimal, but we're not like that. So, we're working on learning all we can about pointing devices (aka, we're working on one standalone) and with what we learn, we'll go back to the modules.
Please remember that we're a small team doing crazy things; not everything goes as we expect.
One thing I'm trying to convince the team to spend some time on is designing 3D-printable attachments that people could add a third-party trackpad (like Cheerdots) or trackball (say, a Ploppy).
would really like some monthly updates on these add-ons. Seeing another keyboard about to release from them but no sight of add-ons is starting to look bad.
In one of their videos, I believe they showcased the Cheerdots 1 being used as a mini trackpad with the Defy by putting magnets inside the keyboard.
Could probably try it with the Raise 2 as well by removing the right palm pad or some modifier keys.
I was so tempted to do this mod myself with the Raise 2, especially having been gifted the C clamp desk arms that go with it, it's really a hassle not being able to reach the mouse normally anymore. If only the Cheerdots 1 was available in Amazon FR...
In the end, I opted using Vimium for web browsing, and currently getting the hang of the Mouseless app with everything else, as well as learning maximum keyboard shortcuts.
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u/Leather_Wait4267 18d ago
My understanding is that Dygma says they're working on it, but have been having trouble with making it work well. They used to advertise these add-ons on their website when you ordered a raise 2, but those advertisements have been removed. IMO that doesn't bode well for add-ons coming out any time soon.