Scrollwheel peripheral?

[ComputerWhiz_]

I was recently told that I made have early-stage arthritis in my index finger, which is pretty shocking because I'm only in my mid-20s. The theory was that it was likely caused by overuse of the computer mouse due to both my hobbies and career as a software developer. I've used a vertical mouse for many years to defend against certain long-term damage, specifically carpal tunnel.

 

My theory is that the majority of the damage is being caused by use of the scrollwheel instead of the actual clicking of the mouse, since I'm constantly scrolling through lines of code. Rather than getting a new mouse with a scrollwheel positioned at the thumb (which I honestly can't really find a good mouse for that), I was thinking that maybe having an independent scrollwheel that I can use with my left hand may be better. I remember in college that our school had some gaming keyboards that had a 2 inch wide scrollwheel in the top-left corner for volume control. Something like that would be great for scrolling.

 

As far as I can tell (with just a quick search online), there don't seem to be any additional peripherals that are just a scrollwheel and keyboards that have volume wheels like I described don't have any hardware method to bind it to the mouse scrollwheel instead of volume control. Does anyone know of any devices like this, bearing in mind that it must be a purely hardware solution since I cannot install software for rebinding?

 

I figure that I could probably DIY it using an old mouse and just disconnecting the laser and buttons, but I'd prefer an existing piece of hardware if possible.

[Hinjima]

7 minutes ago, ComputerWhiz_ said:

I was recently told that I made have early-stage arthritis in my index finger, which is pretty shocking because I'm only in my mid-20s. The theory was that it was likely caused by overuse of the computer mouse due to both my hobbies and career as a software developer. I've used a vertical mouse for many years to defend against certain long-term damage, specifically carpal tunnel.

 

My theory is that the majority of the damage is being caused by use of the scrollwheel instead of the actual clicking of the mouse, since I'm constantly scrolling through lines of code. Rather than getting a new mouse with a scrollwheel positioned at the thumb (which I honestly can't really find a good mouse for that), I was thinking that maybe having an independent scrollwheel that I can use with my left hand may be better. I remember in college that our school had some gaming keyboards that had a 2 inch wide scrollwheel in the top-left corner for volume control. Something like that would be great for scrolling.

 

As far as I can tell (with just a quick search online), there don't seem to be any additional peripherals that are just a scrollwheel and keyboards that have volume wheels like I described don't have any hardware method to bind it to the mouse scrollwheel instead of volume control. Does anyone know of any devices like this, bearing in mind that it must be a purely hardware solution since I cannot install software for rebinding?

 

I figure that I could probably DIY it using an old mouse and just disconnecting the laser and buttons, but I'd prefer an existing piece of hardware if possible.

That is actually a very interesting question. Is this something that could work? It sais it works on PC and MAC as well.
https://plusgear.ch/produkt/proscroller-scroll-wheel-for-controller/

[ComputerWhiz_]

14 minutes ago, oofki said:

Why can’t you install software?

I could install software, but it would need to go through an extensive review and approval process to follow our company policies and regulatory requirements, so I'd prefer not to.

[ComputerWhiz_]

20 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

That is actually a very interesting question. Is this something that could work? It sais it works on PC and MAC as well.
https://plusgear.ch/produkt/proscroller-scroll-wheel-for-controller/

That looks like an interesting option, since it looks like it could probably be easily attached to to the side of a keyboard.

[Hinjima]

2 minutes ago, ComputerWhiz_ said:

That looks like an interesting option, since it looks like it could probably be easily attached to to the side of a keyboard.

Indeed, looks like it can be mounted anywhere you want actually.  Have a dig around ProScroller V3 on google and see what you can find.  Maybe its something that could work.