One of the nicest things about a trackpoint is that you don’t have to take your hands off the keyboard. One of the worst things about a trackpoint is its usual placement, which can force a weird hand position that can cause repetitive stress injury.
[notshitashi] has done an incredible job of adding a trackpoint to the Glove80 wireless split keyboard. It must have been really scary to drill holes in the palm rests of such a nice and not-cheap keyboard, but [notshitashi] soldiered on nonetheless, and the end result looks great.
Starting with a trackpoint module from Ali, [notshitashi] found that it didn’t fit the palm rest without being trimmed down, so they desoldered the business part from the main PCB and reattached it with wires. They had to go through a few of them to get it just right, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
[notshitashi] calls this “a bit of a cheat and dirty hack” because the trackpoint module is wired and, therefore, a separate USB HID. Yes, the Glove80 has GPIO connectors in both halves, but the problem is that stock ZMK has yet to support pointing devices. We don’t care; this is quite the elegant hack anyway.
Want to jazz up your mechanical keyboard with a trackpoint? Here’s a handy guide. Or, you can perform a transplant.
I still remember it’s predecessor (on laptops), the trackball.
Along with the light pen, it was an early competitor to the mouse.
Then the trackpoint trackpad/touchpad came along.
Trackball is still the best way to play some games (Centipede anyone?). I have a few external ones (mostly from RSI experimentation) but I still prefer either a giant trackpad or the Trackpoint.
I’m a trackpoint proponent. I’m using a Lenovo “ThinkPad” KU-1255 USB keyboard as my main driver, and I’m very satisfied with it. I still have an ergonomic mouse to use as well, but having the trackpoint available is very useful and efficient for keeping my hands over the keyboard when needed.
They should be in every keyboard, just as a backup if anything. And it should be the law that every mouse has at least three buttons.
Yes, tried an Elitebook. Points for the inclusion, but HP didn’t include the third button for scrolling. Which made a massive fail.
Also would really like a track point on the Framework. Seeing how modular it is, it should really be an option.
Plugging the trackpoint pinout repository:
https://github.com/alonswartz/trackpoint/tree/master/pinouts