Aliens exist… and they made this keyboard

[ivycomb]

Split ergonomic keyboards have been increasing in popularity in recent years as use of computers and the internet has become more frequent. Options like the ErgoDox EZ, the MoonLander, and others have sprung up in the craziest of mechanical keyboard collections, but this may be the one keyboard to rule them all.

 

[Kay_so]

You guys should really look into the CharaChorder. I found it like a year ago but the price and lack of reviews has made me hesitant to pull the trigger on it. Would be great to see it in a future video

[Luscious]

Ergonomics has always been a dead end street and this is just another example of classic American marketing BS from the 90's... at the most incredibly absurd and unashamed ripoff prices.

 

And you can go back over the decades to see, for example, how many left handed mice were produced. Nowadays the manufacturers have figured out that making devices "neutral" caters to both. Still the majority of mice out there (especially high performance gaming mice) are going to be right handed.

 

The situation is worse for trackball users like myself. For well over a decade now I've been on a Logitech Trackman/Trackwheel with my current one a wireless version. It's been pretty bulletproof, save for issues with their switches that Logitech have since rectified. But a left handed model would not only help lefties out but also be useful for gaming, more so if your right hand sits on a dedicated joystick like a Thrustmaster.

 

If you can imagine a Logitech G13 gamepad with a proper trackball instead of the silly joystick that would be an incredibly useful and customizable input device. Now add silver switches and double shot PBT key caps for all the macro keys and a customizable LCD like Corsair offers for their K95. I'm really scratching my head why Logitech discontinued it and not developed it further. This is the kind of thing that has such potential not just for gaming but also production environments where time and money is critical, custom software manipulation where a traditional keyboard and mouse don't cut it, and last but not least, people with ergonomic needs.

[leoc]

There is the Azeron Keypad which is commercially available and seems to have some good reviews

(though I've never used it myself, so buyer beware). The prices are pretty reasonable by custom-keyboard standards. It does drop some of the keys of the original Datahand, though, and it's sold as a one-handed gameboard though I assume you could get a double-hand setup going. It includes a gamepad-style thumbstick (like the old Logitech G13) which with the right software and configuration could be an ok (though probably only an ok) mouse-pointer controller.

(Of course one board on its own has its uses too, especially since you can use the board with one hand and mouse with the other at the same time. That should be good for gaming, and for gaming uses the problem of relearning how to type mostly doesn't arise. Similarly a fair number of people apparently used the G13 to enter commands and shortcuts for photo and graphics software while keeping the other hand on the mouse. You could inflict the Azeron Keypad (or some other far-out gameboard) on one of your video editors and make a video about how he gets on ...)

[Radium_Angel]

16 hours ago, Luscious said:

trackball users

They take some getting used to, but man are they a wonderful alternative to reduce RSI.  The vertical mice also seem to hold promise there (I have a cheap-o one and it's not bad, but gaming with it is out of the question if you need super fast reflexes)

[Luscious]

6 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

They take some getting used to, but man are they a wonderful alternative to reduce RSI.  The vertical mice also seem to hold promise there (I have a cheap-o one and it's not bad, but gaming with it is out of the question if you need super fast reflexes)

Yep, definitely takes a learning curve but I will say this - it's been perhaps 20 years since I last had a wired or wireless mouse, and I'm NOT going back. It's been a few years now since I got my latest trackball (MX Ergo Plus) and other than one battery swap in that time I've never had to take it apart or had any issues with it. Cleaning regularly is a given, but it just works so well and is so good to use.

[ivycomb]

1 hour ago, Luscious said:

Yep, definitely takes a learning curve but I will say this - it's been perhaps 20 years since I last had a wired or wireless mouse, and I'm NOT going back. It's been a few years now since I got my latest trackball (MX Ergo Plus) and other than one battery swap in that time I've never had to take it apart or had any issues with it. Cleaning regularly is a given, but it just works so well and is so good to use.

Genuine curiosity, do you ever play games? And if so, do you use the trackball? How does that compare to a mouse?

[Luscious]

8 hours ago, JBee said:

Genuine curiosity, do you ever play games? And if so, do you use the trackball? How does that compare to a mouse?

That's probably the most difficult question to answer because (A) I haven't used a mouse in a VERY long time and (B) I have played a lot of games from FPS to strategy to browser based garbage. I wrote a pretty good roundup of the benefits of trackballs here and here but those are lengthy/detailed articles so I don't want to rehash all of that. You are of course very much welcome to visit and read  And despite it being a "dated" piece, it still gives a pretty good rundown of the benefits and advantages trackballs have over using a mouse - factors that will still be relevant today.

 

The games I play have changed over the years, but the use of a trackball to wrangle them hasn't. Accuracy in FPS for example is far better since instead of moving my entire arm I just move a thumb to aim/shoot. That means better precision. Single pixel accuracy is certainly achievable especially if zoom is involved (aka sniper rifle in the original Far Cry LOL). On the flip side of that are games like Civ that I can pretty much play zoomed all the way out as I use a 3440x1440 monitor and still get all the details. A higher end 3840x1600 monitor would improve on that even better.

 

For 3D games where you need to "look around" a lot (flight sim, golf games, World of Warships, truck sim) using a ball with a thumb to do that is going to be far better. Likewise those 2D games where you are constantly moving a cursor between buttons/blocks on the screen a trackball makes easy work of it. There are some online games that I play where I have FIVE instances open each in its own window and fly between them with a flick of the thumb with ease. That also demonstrates the awesome productivity/multitasking benefits trackballs provide.

[Rhynri]

On 8/3/2021 at 5:44 PM, JBee said:

Genuine curiosity, do you ever play games? And if so, do you use the trackball? How does that compare to a mouse?

Hello, Dvorak-arrangement Datahand owner and lifelong trackball user here: I agree with Luscious, gaming on trackball is awesome.  I've been playing games on trackball essentially as long as I've owned games that could use the mouse input.  I still own my original 90's MS Trackball Explorer (which still works, even), but now I use an Elecom HUGE, which is very similar.  I use an app called "Intercept Mouse Accell Config" which was originally designed to mimic classic Quake / QuakeLive mouse acceleration.  I found that between that and the trackball I can get precise aim and fast twitch movement in my games.  I used to be on the ladder for the original RTCW: ET back in the day and did well there so you could absolutely do well at competitive gaming with one even without the Accell app.

 

I tried a Steelseries Sensei for a bit when that came out but I never quite got the hang of it.  Not a fan of non-trackballs minus Anker's vertical mouse, which is cheap and works well.

On 8/3/2021 at 4:27 PM, Luscious said:

Yep, definitely takes a learning curve but I will say this - it's been perhaps 20 years since I last had a wired or wireless mouse, and I'm NOT going back. It's been a few years now since I got my latest trackball (MX Ergo Plus) and other than one battery swap in that time I've never had to take it apart or had any issues with it. Cleaning regularly is a given, but it just works so well and is so good to use.

 

I have an MX Ergo Plus as well - solid unit, love the magnetic wedges.  I don't use it quite as often as the HUGE because I prefer my trackballs at the pointer/middle fingers (RSI in my thumb) but a great unit and goes in my laptop bag for on-the-go use since the HUGE is... huge, as you might expect.