kinesis advantage with contour rollermouse?

[autoturk]

Hi all,

apologies if this has been addressed. I searched but couldn't find much on this specific issue.

I'm in love with my kinesis advantage. Truly brilliant. Only issue is the fixed thumb cluster and the non-split design (and the fact that it sits wayyy too high off the desk... has anyone managed to hack and lower theirs?).

My mousing, however, has been less than pleasant. I've tried the kinesis dx2, the evoluent vertical mouse, a wacom pen and touch tablet, and all of it brings back the same burning sensation to my palm and fingers. I'm getting frustrated (I realize that I have lifestyle changes that I also have to make, so I'm trying my best to reform myself). I'm thinking of trying out a contour rollermouse. It looks especially attractive because it seems to require a very neutral hand to do navigate the cursor, so I'm looking forward to giving it a shot.

However, i'm worried that because the kinesis sits so high off the desk, the roller mouse will be a bit difficult to work with right in front of the keyboard. I would imagine that your fingers would jam against the keyboard each time you tried to "roll" the mouse.

Has anyone a) used both devices together and are pretty satisfied, and b) have figured out a way to use both devices together? Any insight would be appreciated!

[davkol]

I had a Kinesis Advantage for a while and still have a Rollermouse Pro. There was no way to make them work together [1], except… [2].

[1] Kinesis Advantage is indeed tall. I found the angle uncomfortable though, thus raised the front even further to get negative slope. Key wells were actually in about the same height as the ball of the trackball that I had at the time (CH Products DT225), which was nice; I only had to shift the hand less than 15 cm to use the ball. Other trackballs/mice had to be put on a thick book to avoid wrist extension. Trying to fit the rollermouse the normal way was pointless, because there were the keyboard palm rests in the way. A related problem with the rollermouse is, that you are expected to use it with a straight hand (see all their promotional materials), but you're already using your hand like that on your keyboard, thus the rollermouse (a) forces ulnar deviation and pronation, (b) requires moving the whole body away from the keyboard, (c) has to be used at an angle not anticipated by the manufacturer.

[2] A thought has occurred to me… What if you rotate the rollermouse 90 degrees, swap axis' in software and  and place it *next* to the keyboard? I've just tried it, and although the button position isn't optimal, it works surprisingly well.

[autoturk]

So I picked one of these up to try. For some context, I've been using the Evoluent Verticalmouse and am pretty happy with it, but after a day of use I'm still getting pain on my hands and my wrist. the outermost joint of my wrist also hurts now, likely because my desk at work is a bit too high so I'm probably bending it at a weird angle. Anyway, thought I'd provide a few of my insights:

It's a fantastic piece of engineering, and i'm in love with it from a technical standpoint. However, not sure if it's for me for several reasons:

1) With the Kinesis advantage, it's a bit awkward to use because your hand jams into the Kinesis palm areas which means you have to push the kinesis farther away, which messes with the ergonomics. If the kinesis were lower and didn't have the area right below the thumb clusters (kinda like the ergodox), it would be perfect.

2) it's a bit awkward and kinda uncomfortable to pull your elbows back to use the rollermouse when switching from typing, but this may be because of how huge the kinesis is.

3) Related to the above, it increase the distance that your hands have to travel to reach the keyboard. This is pretty obvious given the design, but may mess up further with your positioning if you have a desk that is slightly too high.

4) Lastly, this may just be an issue specific to me but I realized why I stopped using trackpads so long ago: whenever I turn my palm down (like you would on a trackpad), my hand starts to get warm. I probably have messed up nerves given years of terrible habits, so YMMV on this one.

Hope this is helpful to some. I'm thinking of trying out a tented ergodox to see if it helps with the positioning. I really want to love this thing!! I'm a sucker for slick engineering. I do wish the buttons were a bit softer to click though. They have a bit of 1990s hard-clicking-mouse feel to them.

[autoturk]

[2] A thought has occurred to me… What if you rotate the rollermouse 90 degrees, swap axis' in software and  and place it *next* to the keyboard? I've just tried it, and although the button position isn't optimal, it works surprisingly well.

Definitely an idea worth trying! Not very software savvy - do you know how one could do this?

[MajorKoos]

My RollerMouse is the reason I'm now a member of this site . 
Prior to getting a RollerMouse Red (Red Plus is too deep, so you end up pushing your kbd away) I was a happy user of a MS Sculpt Natural KBD - scissor switches - but the mouse arm was a different story.  The wrist rest on the natural pushed it too far away from the RollerMouse for any form of comfort, so I ended up ditching the MS Natural, purchasing a Novatouch and doing the elikekeyboards silencing pad mod. 

I suspect an ErgoDox would work providing you don't get a full hand case.

[pkircher]

i guess the question realy is now much hacking you want todo to the chasis of the kinesis .

the lowest point is the thumb cluster . if you get me the exact mesurments of that device ill check tmr if i can figure a way out where and how we could alter the case .. ( dremel time )

regardless of that its easyer to fit a slimblade in the middle if you replace the main controller with a teensy .. after that you have more then enough space inside ..

so the real question is .. do you have a steady hand , and are you ready todo some GRUNT work ?

[Kliwon]

hello, there has anyone around here ever tried Rollermouse used with Ergodox?
the position of the hands will be comfortable or not?

[mivanov]

Wouldn't the idea that the roller mouse is one piece defeat the idea of separation? Since it will be hard to mount it some non-standard way. I am thinking - we need small roller mouses per half.