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Has anyone outside IBM/Lenovo ever managed to ship a TrackPoint that worked as well as the "real" ones? I love TrackPoints, but my experiences with them on non-
by smacktoward 8y ago
Has anyone outside IBM/Lenovo ever managed to ship a TrackPoint that worked as well as the "real" ones? I love TrackPoints, but my experiences with them on non-IBM/Lenovo machines have been disappointing at best.
(Which is bizarre, since the first TrackPoint machines came out in the early '90s, so you'd think any patents IBM/Lenovo lean on for their great implementation would have expired long ago by now. Unless there's some patented discoveries they made after the first versions shipped.)
- stonogo 8y agoLenovo have, in the past five years, stopped implementing the things that elevated the experience, and now use the same modules that Dell uses. It's a shame, but at least we can still get three buttons.
- rhinoceraptor 8y agoMy Tex Yoda 2 keyboard's trackpoint is really good. It's not identical to a standard trackpoint, it has much more "throw" since it needs to be a lot taller to clear the full size switches/keycaps, but you get used to it.
- darkpuma 8y agoI've been thinking about making my own with load cells, but I guess looking up those patents and seeing how IBM/Lenovo did it is a good idea before I start. It really doesn't seem hard though. It seems to me the trickiest part is getting the acceleration curves set correctly so that it feels nice to use. But that should be a matter of software/configuration, not hardware. High resolution readout from the load-cells seems essential, so that you can have precise readout of very low forces, giving the trackpoint a light and airy feeling without compromising precision.