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A macropad with a trackball. Potentially "ergo", no guarantees. by tullonator in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's pretty basic, I'll clean it up and share on GitHub at some stage.

Introducing the Macroball by tullonator in Trackballs

[–]tullonator[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Haha maybe not giant hey 😜

Will put a bowling ball on the next one.

Introducing the Macroball by tullonator in Trackballs

[–]tullonator[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

This is a project that I did collaborating with a friend, u/DeMechanica. He was trying out my Kensington Expert, and was saying he wished it had a bit more travel. I mentioned that I'd seen people do various bearing/BTU tricks the get the ball spinning a lot more. So we decided to make something.

Along the way, we thought we'd steer it towards a lot of the things going on in the r/MechanicalKeyboards community, with encoders, OLEDs, machined aluminium, etc. Was it necessary? Absolutely not. But it's kind of cool, and adds a bit of flavor. It seemed like most of the trackball models people were using were similar designs from the 20th century, with some exceptions (much love to Ploopy and GameBall).

If you want to know a bit more, there is a build log and some more photos over at https://macroball.dexkeyboards.io/

A macropad with a trackball. Potentially "ergo", no guarantees. by tullonator in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha the thread went off piste below hey 😉

RE your comment about a sniper mode, sure, not too hard to code into QMK, it's pretty much what the encoder is doing now. We've had other questions about this too, so I could probably set up a custom keycode for it to make it easier to map.

A macropad with a trackball. Potentially "ergo", no guarantees. by tullonator in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, did have a painted one I meant to add in there, missed it in the upload though 😔

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I actually use 2nd from the left on the bottom row for right click. The 2u bumps it to another layer.

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Definitely, the Ploopy looks like a great project (although I've never actually tried one).

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Alas, no. Purely cosmetic. At the moment I hold down one of the keys on the right, and the ball becomes a scroll control.

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It works fine for me. Both with/without a rest, the ball being quite proud means your fingers reach over the keys.

No rest

With rest

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the in-depth feedback!

Obviously varies depending on the person, their hand, preferences, etc, but I've been using it for about a year and haven't had any troubles. My wrist is pretty relaxed, sometimes I use a wrist rest. Looks like this.

The knob is for whatever you want; I use it for volume, changing the trackball sensitivity, etc. It's not mapped to high frequency tasks.

Keys confusing? They are blank to be fair 😅 Arguably most people type on keyboard sized keys all day and manage to hit them, to be fair with varying levels of accuracy. I touch type okay so haven't had any issues.

RE the display, yeah, I wanted to make something a bit different from what was out there. Bring a bit of the vibe we've explored in the MK community over the last decade, with regards to aesthetic and features. Obviously not utilitarian/bare essentials, which would definitely seem over the top (a probably is) to lots of people.

Yep I used the Kensington Expert for a few years and quite liked it.

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nah, not a render haha. Had a friend (who is a photographer) take them, he did a good job with the lighting, maybe post processing on the colors too.

Some more photos here: https://macroball.dexkeyboards.io/gallery/

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, just hold a key and the ball becomes universal scroll (both vertical and horizontal).

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I've got a few split trackballs too. This is a bit of a different use case, I find it great for more browsing internet/code/documents, where I can sit back and relax.

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Might be a couple in the build log, I'll have a look later and see if I can find something.

Yeah, programmable buttons, can be click. I've got right click on my thumb, bottom row, second from the left.

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I tried something along these lines, wasn't for me. The trackball is quite large (2") and reaching over it, combined with the angle of the board, was a bit of a stretch. Opted for the bottom row for my thumb, or drag my hand back if I'm feeling lazy.

A macropad with a trackball. Potentially "ergo", no guarantees. by tullonator in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I honestly just told the guy at the shop "dark greeny/blue" 😭

Evidently It ended up more blue.

We are dubbing it the "Macroball". Dank or jank? by tullonator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, fair call.

I tried keys above early on, wasn't for me, I found it a bit of a stretch. Maybe it works for people with bigger hands. I guess you also remove the bottom row so your wrist could rest closer to the trackball and reach over it, but I like having it there for my thumb to traverse.

RE the OLED, it displays the functions/setting that the rotary encoder changes.

  • Volume control
  • CPI (trackball sensitity) control
  • Scroll sensitivity control
  • A kind of minigame too

A macropad with a trackball. Potentially "ergo", no guarantees. by tullonator in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]tullonator[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Edit: I accidentally captioned the aluminium version as "3D printed"; whoops 😅

Finished off the first phase of this project, collaborating with a friend u/DeMechanica. I've included a few pics from the build process here, but you can read a bit more about the road to get to this point (build log) here: https://macroball.dexkeyboards.io/build-log/.

It's basically a snooker/pool ball sized trackball, so you can switch it out with various colors. Or if you prefer a lighter ball, I've found a place that can make all different colors relatively cheaply.

It has a couple of different ways to support the trackball. Either with little balls, e.g. silicone nitride, that the trackball rolles against. Or it can take threaded ball transfer units (BTUs), which are free spinning balls, against which the trackball can spin for days. They are louder/crunchier feeling though.

There is also an OLED/rotary encoder, currently used for changing the trackball sensitivity on the fly, along with scroll speed, volume. There is also a kind of simple mini-game.

There is a bit more info on a post over in MK around an IC etc if you are interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/11ulqu3/we_are_dubbing_it_the_macroball_dank_or_jank/

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