deskthority

I'm getting more into my cursor input devices, is there anywhere that this can be discussed or should I just do it here.

Just do it!

The cursor input device discussions, not the EPO.

I've found myself more into, well, mice, really. Not gotten into the more freaky input devices, just regular old mice.
Usually I find the input section of GH to be nice, it's slow enough that I can keep up with it and they don't nerd out like the guys at overclock.net. I do wish the section here was more lively.

vun wrote:I've found myself more into, well, mice, really. Not gotten into the more freaky input devices, just regular old mice.

How many did you collect?

Mrinterface wrote:

vun wrote:I've found myself more into, well, mice, really. Not gotten into the more freaky input devices, just regular old mice.

How many did you collect?

I have 11 proper mice at the moment with another one on order.
Nearly half of them bought after I got into mechanical keyboards.
Only other input device I have is a tablet, I don't really consider the Xbox controller a proper input device as it only works with certain games. Unless I use xpadder or something, but that's just clunky and unwieldy.

Edit: I almost went into trackballs, but they're so expensive and ordering one is a bit of a hassle.

Here is my thought on the main type of pointing devices.

Mice: Never got on with them too much. They are good for accuracy but at the extent of comfort.

Trackpads: I like trackpads and used the filco one for quite a while. The main problem with them is that you build up a callus and then you finger is rough and starts rubbing more and more, you find yourself in a cycle.

Trackballs: They are good, more ergonomic than mice. There are some being better than others (CST L-Track X) but non of them are 100% kind on my wrists.

Rollermouse: The rollermouse beats anything I have used before, and by quite a way. It's natural to use and very ergonomic. You can use both hands without having to change the side that it is on. You also don't have to move your hand away from the home row that much. It is by far the best.

I want to also try the mousetrapped, it seems to have the benefits of the trackpad without the friction.

I just wish TrackPointed keyboards were more common.

(And I wish Unicomp used real TrackPoints.)

Never used a trackpoint. Never will I guess as they are all on rubberdomes (except the m5) and thinkpads are overpriced.

I'm getting a couple of these through work, I can order an extra one if you want to try it as well?

Looks interesting, how much would postage be? PM'd.

fossala wrote:Never used a trackpoint. Never will I guess as they are all on rubberdomes (except the m5) and thinkpads are overpriced.

M13 (the M5 is the trackball one, and the M4 is a rubber dome).

As far as ThinkPads being overpriced, depends on whether quality is worth anything. They're coming down in price, too. (And quality.)

vun wrote:I've found myself more into, well, mice, really. Not gotten into the more freaky input devices, just regular old mice.
Usually I find the input section of GH to be nice, it's slow enough that I can keep up with it and they don't nerd out like the guys at overclock.net. I do wish the section here was more lively.

This place is quite slow I must say.

I'm a huge fan of Rollermouse, I'm currently using Rollermouse Free 2.
Big trackball fan, using Kensington Expert Mouse Pro...would like to use a CST.
Trackpads are always great, I use the Apple Magic Trackpad.

The Ergonomic Trackpad in the link works well also...good for modding.

How do you find rollermice vs trackballs.

Ergo: Rollermouse....I've had the original, Rollermouse Free, and now the Free 2.
But large trackballs have a lot of merit. The Kensington Expert Mouse Pro has a wrist rest, 4 buttons, a scroll wheel and 6 direct buttons to webpages across the top of the housing...and can use their excellent MouseWorks software. But there are other very excellent software programs to make any mouse an outstanding input device...like BetterTouchTool, etc. Also, Contour Designs has very good downloadable software. I have a CST on my list...

I want to try the Mousetrapper...someone sold one a few months ago on GH and I contacted first, but with my well-known drama the last 6 months I needed to drop out and not spend money/get involved in transactions. I'm disappointed

The Apple Magic Trackpad is awesome because of all the 'Fingerworks' multi-touch gestures you can use...and it's an exceptionally smooth surface. When it came out I immediately ran to the Apple store and bought one. No regrets.

I also want to try a mousetrapper. Won't own apple products so the Magic trackpad isn't an option.

Looking and thinking about how the Mousetrapper works seems that it would be possibly a very ideal item. I'm thinking it would be very important for the action to be very smooth. But I don't know. I'll admit that I'm feeling particularly cheap with the $200+ price tag, even though I would fork over $200 today if my RollerMouse Free 2 broke.

The rollermouse is overpriced. It doesn't feel like a $200+ item. It feels sub $100.

It would be sub $100 if they could make and sell millions of them.

Yeah, guess it's not that mass produced.

Agreed. I think my RollerMouse Free 2 is a $125 item...no offense to Contour Designs...I love the damn thing...that's why I pay $200 for it. But for the extra $75 for something I use constantly and am happier with than anything other mouse. (overall)...I have no issues with that...especially the stupid things I have thrown my money at..

EDIT-

Also always wanted to try an ITAC Evolution with its 6 programmable buttons all ergo!

http://www.trackballworld.com/40-821.html

fossala wrote:I'm getting more into my cursor input devices, is there anywhere that this can be discussed or should I just do it here.

FWIW I restructured and expanded the pointing devices section of the wiki at the weekend: http://deskthority.net/wiki/Category:Pointing_devices

There's also a new Pointing Devices block on the wiki main page to increase its prominence.

Pointing devices haven't been getting enough love as far as the wiki's concerned.

Daniel Beardsmore wrote:

fossala wrote:I'm getting more into my cursor input devices, is there anywhere that this can be discussed or should I just do it here.

FWIW I restructured and expanded the pointing devices section of the wiki at the weekend: http://deskthority.net/wiki/Category:Pointing_devices

There's also a new Pointing Devices block on the wiki main page to increase its prominence.

Pointing devices haven't been getting enough love as far as the wiki's concerned.

I could do some wiki work on mice because as I mentioned earlier I do have a collection of 11 mice atm, although they're all just regular gaming mice so not really that interesting I'd imagine. Seems like people here are more interested in ergo stuff and alternative mouse shapes.

vun wrote:I could do some wiki work on mice because as I mentioned earlier I do have a collection of 11 mice atm, although they're all just regular gaming mice so not really that interesting I'd imagine. Seems like people here are more interested in ergo stuff and alternative mouse shapes.

I don't know, it just occurred to me that that part of the wiki needed work. I put up a set of disassembly photos for a vintage Apple mouse to show what the insides of an opto-mechanical mouse look like, amongst other changes. Personally I just need to replace my MS IMO 1.1s with something that does what the IMO does (side buttons etc) but without all the bugs inherent to MS's rubbish attempts at designing mice. Maybe a Roccat Kova+ …

I don't feel comfortable without knowing why I seem to be the only person on earth with broken IMOs — I've even connected my work mouse to a brand new out-of-the-box Dell tower and I still get the random cursor jumps on mouse-up/down, so it's not XP or all my third-party software I've installed. I didn't test the new PC for the random wheel events it throws around. (Bad batch maybe? Both mice came from the same stupid 5-pack MS demand you buy if you want a black IMO …)

I've been a mouse enthusiasts for many years. But I've stopped.

Logitech Mouseman - my first LED mouse (played TFC and CS beta through CS 1.5 with it (middle-highschool)
Logitech G5 - Played CS 1.6 through CS:S (2 years)
Logitech G7 - used interchangeably with the G5 (months)
Ikari Laser - I started using 1.54 sensitivity in-game in CS (2 days)
Ikari Optical - This is currently my work mice (1 month)
Razer Deathadder - CS:S (1 year)
Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 - (5 months)
MX518 - Everything (4 years)
My CS in-game sensitivity is now 1.23 and the DPI I've always used it 400, except for the Mouseman, which was 800dpi.

What I've learned:
Laser mice skip/jump/lag
Never buy a laser mice for FPS.
MX518 trumps all.

Never had any hop/skip/jump with my Logitech MX400 Laser — I just hate it because the wheel is so hard to click. Maybe it only affects gamers? I just use it for navigating the Mac GUI.

Nah, I've used plenty of laser mice at different levels of sensitivity for gaming, I can't say I've had any skipping issues, I had some jitter issues with my Naos 5000 but that was fixed by simply adjusting LOD in the driver. I've played various precision FPS games over the years with a variety of mice, laser and optical sensors have performed equally well.

My Razer skips sometimes but probably mostly because it is Razer

If it's one of the Twin-Eye Razers try cleaning the sensor, in my experience the Twin-Eye can be overly sensitive to dust.