Octopus Overlords

I thought I got carpel tunnel (my right wrist starts to hurt after gaming too much) and I am on my way to start a pointing devices collection.

Daily driver is a Logitech G500S, traditional mouse.

When that went wonky I bought a Logitech wireless, but turns out it's not the problem, so I went back to the G500S.

I bought an Anker "ergo" mouse but it apparently was too big for my hands. It just never felt right.

I bought a "finger mouse" but that turned out to be a major PITA to use

I bought "Ergo Trackpad" (external Cirque Glidepoint touchpad), and it just arrived, but it's behaving wonky. Touching the pad does move the cursor around, but the cursor doesn't stay still. It jumps around within a 1.5 inch circle randomly, making it impossible to click on anything. This is obviously NOT normal behavior. And that's without installing the driver (i.e. MS generic mouse driver)

Installing the driver made it worse... Now the cursor won't move, but somehow the taps are registered occasionally. Uninstalling the driver and we're back to jumping cursors.

The existing driver was for Win8 and was the same one that won't move the cursor. There are no Win10 drivers, PERIOD. WTF. Found something about trackpad Win10 update, but trying to install it manually got me "No driver found in directory"

The only conclusion I have is the hardware is defective. It came in an UNPADDED envelope through USPS.

Just wrote their support and hopefully they have some ideas.

This is what I used at my last two jobs, and will continue to use:

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:53 pm This is what I used at my last two jobs, and will continue to use:

Indeed, while it may lack the fancy bells and whistles of pointing devices specifically intended for gaming, it's hard to beat the Kensington Expert trackball for pure comfort, build-quality, and productivity. The scroll-ring is mighty handy, too.

I'm going with the old school, tried and true pointing device- I give this thread...

...The Finger!

Back when I was writing strategy guides and game manual (and doing reviews alongside them), I was sometimes gaming 12-16 hours a day. I managed to develop both carpal and cubital tunnel syndromes. It was miserable.

It was switching to a trackball that fixed it for me. There was absolutely a learning curve, and I sat down to play a game or two on easy just to get through that. Once I did, though, I was able to hold my own in competitive shooters with the trackball, and used nothing else for gaming for many years.

Is there a SMALL track ball that I don't have to move my entire hand to reach, i.e. place just below the space bar?

Kensington has a smaller trackball called Orbit, with the ring and 2 buttons, as low as $25.

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Sat Jan 05, 2019 1:16 am Is there a SMALL track ball that I don't have to move my entire hand to reach, i.e. place just below the space bar?

Kensington has a smaller trackball called Orbit, with the ring and 2 buttons, as low as $25.

Sorry, but that sounds like a daft arrangement. A trackball won't require moving your entire hand to use, that's the whole point. But don't cheap out; spend the money for the Kensington Expert and you certainly won't regret it.

Now I am confused as heck. The Ergo Trackpad (Glidepoint) works fine on a different PC... the alternate desktop my dad uses. WTF?! It's got Win10, but it's an old Pentium Duo, only good for watching online videos and little else.

If it's the drivers... but it can't be because it's using the generic Microsoft drivers. And why would installing the Glidepoint control center actually kill the functionality? (And that's with the built-in synaptic trackpad disabled. ARGH. I really *should* buy a new PC.

Drivers are black magic fuckery.

Kasey Chang wrote:Is there a SMALL track ball that I don't have to move my entire hand to reach, i.e. place just below the space bar?

Kensington has a smaller trackball called Orbit, with the ring and 2 buttons, as low as $25.

I'm not sure I understand,,,, can you tell. Us more of what you want?

I'm a fan of the Logitech m570. I have one on all my machines.

My "ideal" setup is where I barely have to move my hand to access the pointing device. That's why I picked the Ergo Trackpad, which is like 2 inch squared, so I can put it just below the space bar. I don't want to move my hand 12 inches to the right to access the mouse, which is what I do now. It doesn't quite help that the mouse is on a small desk with a monitor shelf that's not too tall, so vertical mouse actually makes my hand hit the shelf slightly.

A track pad like in a laptop keyboard sounds like what you want, although I've never found one useful. A quick search shows a couple of candidates. The logitech K830 has a pad to the right of the regular keyboard. Dell sells something called a candyboard that has a trackpad in the center of a regular keyboard. Well, regular isn't the right word. They split the keyboard in half with a trackpad in the center.
Oh ....type "wireless keyboard with built in mouse" at Newegg and you'll end up with a lot of candidates. Some of them are just places to put your mouse, but many are touchpads.
I had a Lenovo once that had a stub sticking up out of the keyboard that acted as a mouse. Never used the thing myself, but I suppose you could train yourself to use it.

Yeah, I'd say that with your criteria a keyboard with a built-in trackpad would be the answer, but it would be almost useless for gaming.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:57 am Yeah, I'd say that with your criteria a keyboard with a built-in trackpad would be the answer, but it would be almost useless for gaming.

It's mainly for typing and stuff. For gaming I'll go back to my mouse.

Something similar to this

https://www.ebay.com/i/123419221864?chn=ps

With a "infinite budget option" of this:

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/in ... list&c=515

or maybe this with one or two of the optional modules.

https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/

Got the Kensington Orbit in. It... doesn't quite work. It's a bit too big.

I have looked over most tips regarding the twitchy-jumping cursor. Most of them are about typing and touching the touchpad, which doesn't apply. I fear I have a conflict between the built-in touchpad and the secondary touchpad, even though they are completely different manufacturers. I really really need to buy a new system. *sigh*.

Oddly I had to get a cortisone shot in my left wrist a couple of months ago, apparently due to using an X360 controller too much in racing games so that my left thumb (steering) would go numb. Now in the past couple of days I've noticed my right thumb going numb when using the mouse, weirdly because my mouse has no functions for the thumb. Just the way my hand rested on my desk I guess. After looking at the various pointing options I've decided to go with the zero cost option, forcing myself to get used to using a mouse left-handed. Since I am mostly left-handed this shouldn't be as much of a challenge as it would be for a right-handed person I guess.

Still, for a long term solution I might have to look at a track ball or touch pad as being mentioned above.

Now this is... interesting.

I just got in a different touchpad... a cheap PeriPadd (from Perixx), and this one doesn't have the twitch-y problem of the other Ergo touchpad. The problem is this one is about 25% larger, But I can place it just below the space bar of my keyboard and not interfere in typing at all.

I've tried the other touchpad on an older machine and it doesn't have jittery behavior there. So I can only conclude it's peculiar to my laptop. ARGH! I like how small that thing is. But beggars can't be choosers. I got a touchpad that works, and I like how I don't have to move my hands very far to access the pointer.

I am almost certain now my previous Tocuhpoint problem is caused by my power supply or my USB hub of my laptop.

I got in a different touchpad and the Perixx touchpad doesn't have the problem of the previous one. However, every once in a while, the touchpad goes mad and I get random phantom presses. However, an unplug/replug at USB fixes that.

I suspect the hub, but I've already tried multiple hubs. *sigh* I need a new PC.

With that said, the Perixx touchpad is almost exactly what I wanted.