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geekhack Community => Input Devices => Topic started by: lowpoly on Mon, 26 January 2009, 15:33:00

Title: Endurapro question
Post by: lowpoly on Mon, 26 January 2009, 15:33:00

In case you have an Endurapro: How much can the pointing stick be pressed to the side? It has been said that you need to move it a lot before it reacts. How much can you move it for full displacement (not sure if that is the right word)?

Could anybody with an Endurapro measure this, please?

Thanks.

Title: Endurapro question
Post by: lal on Mon, 26 January 2009, 15:43:16

I can only hope you're not intending to use that pointing stick in your Trackpoint-Mini!? That would be a shame. I can't give you exact numbers due to my Endurapro having been returned. Rough guess from memory would be about 4mm full travel distance from side to side.

Title: Endurapro question
Post by: lowpoly on Mon, 26 January 2009, 15:58:04

Quote from: lal;19749

I can only hope you're not intending to use that pointing stick in your Trackpoint-Mini!?

No, I'd rather make sure I get something different. There are not too many suppliers though. Were the 4 millimeters the problem or that you'd have to move it a lot before it would react?

Could you tap on it for click/double click?

Title: Endurapro question
Post by: wellington1869 on Mon, 26 January 2009, 16:04:21

Quote from: lowpoly;19751

Could you tap on it for click/double click?

nope. would have been a nice feature though.

Title: Endurapro question
Post by: bhtooefr on Mon, 26 January 2009, 16:12:26

From center, it will move slightly with barely any touch. I don't think it's linear, though, and you do have to throw the stick around a bit.

I'd have to say that it's about 1.5mm or so from the center to the end of travel.

PLEASE don't put one of these on the Trackpoint Mini, though. :eek:

Title: Endurapro question
Post by: lal on Mon, 26 January 2009, 16:33:57

No tapping, have to press the mouse buttons for any clicking. I can not clearly distinguish and say what was the bigger problem of the two. I use the trackpoint in my Thinkpad X60 quite a bit, which is supposed to be some kind of state-of-the-art trackpoint I think, and after two years I still don't like it. I'm far more exact and faster with a mouse. But I can say the pointing stick in the Endurapro is another (worse) league alltogether. I can imagine one could grow accustomed to the dead zone where you move the stick and nothing happens, but once it starts reacting it's hard to control the pointer speed. A little more pressure (and it needs a lot in the first place) often results in the speed jumping from slowest to maximum instantly. Maybe this can be made better by setting the OS mouse preferences to maximum sensitivity as some suggested here, but I think this is just an ugly workaround as it makes a real mouse used in parallel de facto unusable. And it still can not hide the fact that it's *not* a trackpoint but some cheap lookalike.

In my case the collision with the surrounding keys made the situation much worse, but even without that I would have settled for a return in exchange for a model without this damn pointing stick. There's just *no* joy in using it. I think. IMHO and all. Trackpoint enthusiasts - feel free to disagree! :)

Title: Endurapro question
Post by: bhtooefr on Mon, 26 January 2009, 17:02:40

My order of preference is...

IBM TrackPoint IV >>> Alps StickPointer > Mouse > EnduraPro pointing stick > Touchpad with multifinger support > Trackball >>>>> Touchpad without multifinger support

Title: Endurapro question
Post by: lowpoly on Tue, 27 January 2009, 06:32:53

Thanks. :)

Did we have any pics of the Endurapro pcb? I vaguely remember I've seen it here.