Hiya all. I was wondering what pointing options there were out there for split ergo keyboards? Looking around, on the face of it there seems to be the Apple Magic Trackpad 2 and well that’s about it. There seem to be plenty of trackballs at various prices but nothing that looks particularly small and nondescript.
I will give mouse keys a try but I am really not convinced. If I could get my little Chromebook to display RDP colours correctly it may be that having a touchscreen would do just fine as an alternative.
I’m a huge fan of the Kensington Trackball in the middle in between my halves. It’s not especially subtle or cute but it’s very comfy to use. I think the slimblade is smaller, not sure. Also, I love mouse keys. I use them for all small movements that I can, and the trackball for larger movements. I would love an app that like, subdivides my screen into a grid that I can use to just automatically jump to a place with just my keyboard, that would be perfect.
TBH though, especially if you’re a frontend dev on Mac, you will still need the trackpad or Magic Mouse. Gestures are kinda not replaceable, as far as I can tell.
I would love an app that like, subdivides my screen into a grid that I can use to just automatically jump to a place with just my keyboard, that would be perfect.
So you have the cirque glide point trackpads, pimoroni trackball, a nornal trackball and a thumbstick as pointes devices.
All work with qmk and I think there are branches on zmk with some of the above at different stages.
That is if you want to go ergo / custom. Look or ffkb, bastard keyboards and similar sellers for something less custom and pre built.
Depending on where you are, there is also the ploppy trackballs and mice which are open sourced… but thise are devices on their own.
There’s a more active discussion in the ZMK discord on pointing devices: https://discord.com/channels/719497620560543766/845285481888743434 or click the discord link on https://zmk.dev/ See also the trackpoint_builders subreddit. All this said I’m still biased to just using a humble Magic Trackpad 2.
trackpoint!
The IBM … I’m going to say joystick … is so underrated. If I do go down the path of designing my own board I will definitely be looking into getting one on there in place of a switch or nestled in somehow.
Ok here is a slightly tangential answer to my own post.
Wacom Intuos Small
It’s a bit on the large side at 20cm x 16cm but it has bluetooth and supports Windows, Mac and ChromeOS, and can be used as a pointing device with advanced gestures.
That’s 4cm wider and deeper than the magic trackpad with probably the same active area (the outside edges of the Intuos aren’t touch sensitive) but it is almost half the price of the magic trackpad and fully supported on other operating systems.
I’m kind of tempted but it is kind of huge.
