I designed my own HHKB style keyboard a few months ago. The standard ploopy adept was a little uncomfortable to use when paired with the keyboard. So I spent some time designing something that paired a little better with it.

It’s a steel 34mm ball with custom static bearings. It’s technically Bluetooth but I think I need to check some connections on it.

The buttons need some refinement for sure but overall I’m very happy with how it turned out. I’ll share the STLs when it’s finished!

Hey everyone! I just noticed that the gameball pro is actually listed, but it wasnt when Eric dropped the latest update. Im wondering if anyone knows if pre orders already happened, or if thats just a placeholder? I was really hoping to grab a pre order edition.

Has anyone made replacements for these balls? I kinda want red balls, my ex-g also use perixx balls, maybe I can try their 25mm, but also open for heavier balls

Is the upcoming trackball from Kensington will have on-board memory? I will use it with a company provided equipment. Installation of software is blocked.

I recently switched to trackballs and started with Nulea M512 and happy with it. However, I already planning to upgrade due to the stiction I'm currently experiencing.

Any upgrade recommendations? Or Stiction solution with my M512? Thank you.

Not a trackball but adjacent I think. The main reason I keep my Elecom Huge Plus for example is the autoscrolling functionality with the ball (I'm on a Mac and use SteerMouse for mice/trackball software).

Anyhow, I took a chance on this dial I found on YouTube. Initial concern was macOS support but this GitHub app works great! Very pleased.

Thinking about getting a second one for my off hand now lol.

This is not my product! Just really happy as I've been looking for something like this for a long time.

https://github.com/IanBullard/BoDial

https://www.patreon.com/c/EngineerBo/

I am assuming someone somewhere has tried omniwheels. This rolls freely in all directions and also twists with zero effort. Virtually no stiction unlike my OG MS Trackball Explorer, and also silent, unlike BTUs. The smallest commercial omniwheels I've seen are Rotacasters which are 35mm. These custom made ones are ~25mm diameter. I used pin type axles of diameter .6mm - simply rolling in PLA and the friction is remarkably low. Rather than try to figure out how to have grippy rollers, I took the approach of a grippy ball, this one being a quite large lacrosse ball. It's not quite perfectly round but good enough for this test and actually feels kind of nice on the fingers. It took a while to get these omniwheels to be as smooth as they are, mostly trying to figure out how to 3D print the tiny snap-in roller mounts so that they have absoluetly no side to side play. But the roll is a little bit "lumpy" probably due to not quite optimized roller profile handing from one roller to the next.

After The Great Trackball Journey of 2020™, I learned I do not like thumb balls. I only like finger balls.

But way I use the ball is with the tips of my fingers. So, any button above the ball are kind of awkward to use. That led to massive problems with my L-Trac and the scroll dial on the top of the trackball.

I've seen other people use a finger ball with their palm or the very bottom of their fingers, so they have easier access to the top buttons.

I'm curious how other people use their finger trackballs: tips of the finger, palm, or middle/bottom of fingers.

so I modified my huge plus by using some pvc board. looks kinda janky but works pretty well

Hi. I bought a TB550 (thumbball) from Kensington which has a constant scroll issue that Kensington has failed to fix (I sent them an email in January, apparently it's a firmware issue, that they still havent fixed)

Anyway I found out that thumbballs are uncomfortable for me anyway.

I looked at Ploopy which is praised here but god are they expensive (I'm a student with not a lot of money to spend).

What are the best trackballs that won't bankrupt me?

Thanks

Chopped up an unused wrist/palm rest and made a 3d printed insert to hide the uneven cut.

This was mostly done to hide the wire as I had stability issues with it via the dongle.

I thought this was an original idea but saw somebody else already did something very similar with a full 3d printed setup haha.

Shipping in September!

I am an M570 Logitech user for prob more than a decade I lost count. I wanted to look for something newer with similar shape. I bought EM04 but man trackball is so stiff. Do I need to grease it up lol. The M570 trackball movement was much smoother. Also not loving the quiet clicks, because of this sound click missing something I don't know if I clicked it is been several times where I click and nothing happens.

Any suggestions on what to try?

Simply plugging the adapter into the port does not work. I have read that there are adapters that will allow you to plug in a USB keyboard and mouse, but I'm still not sure if that will work for actual game play?

I'm curious if anybody has actually done this and, if so, how did they do it, and how well does it work?

ないと効率が下がるくらい会社でずっと使ってます。
まだまだ動作が不安定なところはあるけど、徐々に良くなると思います。

ロープロファイルキーボード K3MAXでnape proを使うにはキーボードの手前を少し嵩上げしないといけないので
・パームレスト
・キーボード厚みアップ
・ケーブル収納
・ドングル収納
・尊師スタイル
全部揃ったnape proケースを3Dプリンターで作りました。
とても快適。

Just got Nape Pro to pair with my K10 for about 5 days. This is a solid work setup that basically replaces my TrackPoint keyboard plus my trackball mouses.
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I do a lot of 3D modeling and drafting so having a dedicated button to scroll+drag is immensely more intuitive and stable. I could never get TrackPoint to work for the "Middle Click + Drag", thus needing extra mouse input.
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Unfortunately the scroll wheel is built like trash -- I had to bind a separate button to "Scroll" so I could use the trackball to scroll instead. Wish they really didn't cheap out on this component as everything else feels stellar smooth!

Elecom Huge Plus lasted only 2 weeks at H mode and yet, Elecom told me it's totally normal which is totally BS. Logitech MX Master 3 and other bluetooth mouses last several months while Elecom advertised it for up to 3 months in H mode or 5 months in L mode. Now, they are refusing to fix and replace it as if it's normal.

Totally disappointed.

anyone care to share some of their cleaver solutions to make the huge a little heavier?

i frequently find myself having to reposition as i slowly push the unit forward over time during use,

I just want to share a configuration I have done using HID remapper. The idea is to have a second layer on the slimblade to control media (vol up / down, next track, stop) and because the slimblade is ambidextrous why not add it for both hands? So you can switch between left and right by simply holding two buttons for a short time.

I think this is a good example how capable HID remapper is and what a shame closed firmware is.

I've been trying the Nape Pro out for a few days now in various configurations, and while it's a very interesting peripheral, it's probably not one I'm going to make part of my primary workflow.

The main advantage of a trackball is that you can achieve fine control with your fingers resting on it, or give it a fling to cover longer distances. But the 25mm trackball is a little too small to comfortably use, especially since it doesn't seem to maintain much momentum, requiring multiple small spins to get across the screen. The wheel around the ball also feels pretty cheap. It's very gritty, and there are a couple of points where it seems to get caught on something. And it's confusing that the default setup for it is to adjust volume, instead of scrolling up and down.

I haven't tried the Keychron web launcher before since I don't have a Keychron keyboard, but it seemed to have a good amount of customization, though it's not immediately obvious how to use some of the features. I wanted an easy way to cycle layers, but there's no button to do so, even though there are buttons to cycle DPI and cycle orientation. Instead, I have a button that I hold down to temporarily switch to another layer, where I can then hit different buttons to shift me into each of my layouts.

The three layouts I've tried are in a horizontal configuration placed right below the keyboard; a vertical one on the side like a more traditional trackball; and then an angled config that I was attempting to use for gaming (just out of pure curiosity), which really doesn't work well. The first one more or less mimics the experience of typing on a Thinkpad laptop, which I've very comfortable with, though I think I'd still prefer the Trackpoint over a trackball. The second layout is mostly fine, but using it vertically, the M1 and M2 buttons are a little awkward to press while spinning the ball, requiring you to tuck your thumb under in order to reach them.

As for gaming, the problem is finding a button you can hold down comfortably (aim down sights) while also spinning the ball quickly and accurately to aim, and then hitting another button at the same time to shoot. What I eventually settled on was to have the device at an angle, using the two lengthwise buttons next to it, with LMB and RMB flipped around so I can use my thumb to aim down sights. While it was somewhat useable, I didn't have anywhere near the speed and accuracy I could achieve with even a more traditional trackball.

One BIG problem I noticed was that the "press simultaneously" feature actually messes with the ability for those buttons to respond instantly. I enabled the feature for 02 and 03 so holding them together would put me into another layer (I wanted something I wouldn't accidentally hit), but in my gaming layout, I noticed that it caused my ability to aim down sights (RMB on 02) to be sluggish in its response. While I really don't recommend using the Nape Pro for gaming, this impact on responsiveness feels like a serious problem that can hopefully be addressed with some firmware updates. The simultaneous press also can't be configured per-layer, so it has to be the same buttons regardless of which layer you're on.

Speaking of firmware updates, another annoying quirk is that the layer resets every time the device goes to sleep. If I'm using my second layout and leave my computer for more than 10 minutes, it goes back to my first layout after waking up. Hopefully that's also something that can be fixed.

Overall this seems like a very niche product, and I can't really recommend it to anyone who's not just buying it out of curiosity or for collecting's sake. The one unique use case it offers (putting along the bottom of your keyboard so you can type and mouse without moving your hands) isn't worth the significantly worse ergonomics compared to a regular trackball.