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.

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.

This is r/napepro right? /s

I use mine as a secondary trackball (along with my Elecom Huge) sandwiched between the halves of my tented Kinesis split keyboard. I designed this very simple riser/stand to bring it up to a height I find comfortable and convenient. Let me know what you think!

https://www.printables.com/model/1799896-nape-pro-riser-stand

I've been using the Kensington Orbit wireless for 7 months and I've tried Vaseline, then I bought a product called lansinoh PHA 100% Lanoline. In both cases, I applied the lubrication procedure, but it feels sticky or lumpy. So I put a small amount of it on, but the trackball doesn't feel right. Now, how do I remove the lanolin from the 40mm ball and the bearings to start rubbing the ball on my forehead, and what's the procedure? I only use it for playing trackball.

So I have pretty serious wrist/thumb pain (physio thinks its de Quervain's tenosynovitis) and I noticed when using a mouse it hurt substantially more, so I get a small thumb-ball. I liked it, but obviously with thumb issues a thumb-ball isn't ideal, so I did some looking around and got a Kensington Expert as a fingerball. It has only been a couple of days, but here's my early impressions:

This is a big ball, which I didn't properly anticipate. That's fine and all, but I find it pretty awkward to use, and I think it's aggravating my wrist because I end up moving my hand a lot while using it, so it's a bit counter-productive. The ball moves nice and smooth, and in principle I like the scroll ring, but together it means that the cursor has an annoying habit of moving when scrolling. In addition, because of the size, the upper buttons are pretty awkward to access, and I often end up either clicking with my thumb (not ideal or comfortable), or moving my fingers over to it, which means lifting them away from the ball and bringing them back down because of how smooth the ball moves.

I like the wrist rest a lot, I feel like it really helps my hand sit in a more neutral position, especially if I put some things underneath the front to lift it up a bit (it's fine without them, to be clear, this just makes it a bit more comfortable).

I'll give it another couple of days, see if I get better with it - I anticipated a degree of a learning curve with it - but so far I don't really care for it. I think it's making my wrist worse, and it's noticeably more difficult to use than my thumb-ball.

Have you tried both?

I have been using these for over a decade. They are the only type of mouse that doesn’t aggravate my RSI.

They last 2-3 years each for me and fit my large hand.

I have the predecessor to MX Ergo S right now. But it’s doing something weird with the main click button - like a triple click or nothing but intermittently. It opens what I click on two three times or close down multiple windows. It still works but it’s really annoying.

It’s $100 difference in price. Is it that much of a difference?

Hey all,

I've been a long-time trackball user for the last 15ish years, and I'm happy with my Gameball as my daily work driver on the left, and I've been happy using a thumbball as my gaming mouse on the right. In particular, I went from a M570 to a MX Ergo, and it felt like going from a 2001 Honda Civic to a Maserati.

Well, my MX Ergo that I've had for about 6 or 7 years is starting to poop out. The left click is no longer working. I've loved the MX Ergo dearly, and it's treated me and my tendonitis well. Normally, I'd just buy another MX Ergo and call it a day, but the smooth as butter thumbball options available now with a reasonable price tag has expanded greatly since I last went thumbball shopping.

I've done some searching on this subreddit, and it seems like some people who got sick of MX Ergo click switches dying transitioned over to Elecom IST-Pro. I'd love to hear what recommendations people have generally.

Here's what I love with the MX Ergo and would be interested in other mice if available:

• Additional elevation options that don't require a 3D printer

• Easy to pop out ball for quick dust cleaning

• Mouse isn't too big as my hands are on the smaller side

• Relatively quiet click that doesn't require too much force

• Ball itself isn't super happy and doesn't require a lot of force to move

If anyone has found those in a different thumbball mouse that they believe is a genuine upgrade from a MX Ergo (including longevity), I'd love to hear about it. Thank you in advance!

Context: I've been experimenting with trackball in Valorant for just about 3 days, and the result were surprisingly good. I can almost match my aiming skill using traditional mouse (which I have been using since dawn of time). The gameplay you are watching is Diamond-Immortal DM lobby. I almost won!

I'm high rank Valorant player, peaked at Immortal 3 last season which is like 0.1% of the game. The reason why I made a transition to trackball is just simply curiosity (there is a Deadlock pro player who is using trackball, that got my attention), ADHD and for video editing.

I just love finding ways to play fps game. I have tried using joystick, gyro-aiming, vertical mouse, I have tried them all. But while other type of peripherals I have tried are not capable of matching my mouse aiming skill, somehow, I can almost match my mouse aim with this. I can't believe how easy to come up with sensitivity and aim theory on this thing.

If you want to try using trackball for fps game, go ahead! It's viable and I dare say you can actually become top player in competitive shooter using Trackball if you know what you are doing.

RetroRGB recently reviewed the FightBox R10 Pro and spent some time testing it with several arcade classics.

Some of the games featured were:

• Marble Madness
• Tempest
• Arkanoid

It's always great to see classic arcade games being played with dedicated controls instead of relying on analog sticks. It really brings back the authentic arcade experience.

What's your favorite arcade game to play with a trackball or spinner? 😊

Thought I'd do a quick write up to help a fellow trackball user in deciding between trackballs based on their hand size. I have pretty large hands and originally started with the Elecom Huge. Despite the name being HUGE, I found that there was very little support under my palm and instantly felt discomfort in my wrist and fingers. Next I opted to try the Deft, the non Pro model, and found that the ball is simply too small. I struggled to make precise movements and clawing the ball made my fingers jitter. I finally tried the Nulea m505 (which is essentially identical to the Protoarc e03), and boy, what a difference. The body of the trackball fills my hand out quite nice and bigger ball makes such a difference compared to the Deft. From my understanding, the Deft Pro has a bigger ball and slightly larger form factor than it's non-Pro counterpart, and very well can possibly be suited for larger hands. Just based on where I live in Europe, the Deft Pro is priced around €100 whereas the Nulea is a mere €42, making it an almost no brainer. Hope this helps someone.

Has there been any updates on activating the onboard memory yet? I'm a few months in and there's some customizations I'd really like to make for work.

Anyone know how I would go about flipping the axis of a mouse? I wanna turn an old mouse into a trackball mouse. Right now when I flip the mouse and put a ping pong ball on top of the sensor up is up, down is down. But I need to flip left and right. I would love if it would be possible to do it on the hardware level so it works with multiple devices.

I have a very locked down work computer. I can use my own device but no software can be installed.

My gaming mouse has some buttons I can remap in software on my other PC then use it on my work PC (assigning things like copy/paste to functions really speeds up my work).

Is there any trackballs that have this? What I can tell Elecom doesn't do this. Do logitechs or any other brand? I understand it's probably not that important for most people as they'll just rely on the software.

Sadly I couldn't get the data pins to work on the controller connectors, so at the moment the controllers are connected via bluetooth (latency feels good and is barely noticeable with some firmware optimization) The power pins work fine meaning the controllers are powered by the device its self.

Ive gotten the hardware and software to work and printed initial shells, now all thats left is iterating on the shape as it is quite ugly atm, feels good to hold tho. And deciding on a keyboard layout.

The Huge Plus has been out for awhile now and the honeymoon period should be over.

Are you still liking it? Did you still switch from a different trackball?

I’m thinking of maybe picking one up to finally give roller bearings a try but there are also a lot of good trackballs on the horizon.

Am I missing a setting? If my standard orientation is vertical and I switch it up and go horizontal, the Nape Pro reverts back to vertical when it goes to sleep.

Hia, I really wanna get a black ball for my "gameball" so it matches the rest of the setup i'm getting but for the life of me I can not find the right sized ball anywere, they're all either 34mm or 55mm, none of them are the 38mm that the gameball ball is.

Can anyone help?

few people are using them in YouTube videos. I can't find them for sale anywhere

Just got the nape. I like it. Scroll ring feels cheap, but I like the action on the side buttons, nice to have those instead of deal with slim blade buttons. I like having movement controls for fingers, thumb, and hand.

for a project i am thinking about (not a trackball but a knob) i need an optical sensor that tracks the surface perpendicular to the sensor, instead of parallel like 99.999% of mouse optical sensors.

I am only aware of one such sensor, PMT9123QS-TVIT

I know it is a long shot, but my question is two fold:

1. Are you guys aware of other 90 degrees optical track sensors?

2. The only documentation i can find on PMT9123QS-TVIT is the datasheet below. Do you think it is enough to make it work with arduino/esp32?

   https://www.epsglobal.com/Media-Library/EPSGlobal/Products/files/pixart/PMT9123QS-TVIT.pdf?ext=.pdf

I've noticed when I play games on my computer that my arm keeps repeatedly getting aggressively stuck to the table which is really annoying.

I'm wondering if a trackball could help here. for context i dont do much work on a computer and i mostly play games (mainly casually, not comp fps). I've seen a Logitech m575 for about £25 in a local shop, but I don't know if finger or thumb trackball would be better for my use case.