It’s not that bad regarding the size since you don’t need to move it around and wireless let you place them anywhere you like.
I am also in a terrible desk setup that i think is contributing to my RSI.
@polynut how’s your Elecom holding up? And your RSI?
During the holidays I had an overdose of Diablo 2 Resurrected which initially gave me a sore index finger, now my whole forearm goes numb and tingly whenever I use my mouse for more than a few minutes. So I’m considering switching to a trackball as well and the Elecom Huge does seem like a good way to get started.
For anybody with and RSI and on the look for a solution, I would recommend to give this Microsoft mouse a try. I have gone through most of the trackballs and vertical mice on the market. Finally, I landed on this pebble from MS. It was a game changer. In addition to comfort, the mouse also stands out for longevity. The oldest one I have still runs strong after 4 years of daily use.
The trackball, big or small, I feel, just moves the problem to another area, whilst also incurring a massive hit to speed/productivity. The MS mouse will also take some getting used to, but it is just a couple of days, instead of weeks/months.
I used that mouse before I bought my trackball. The only bad thing about it is that once you get used to it, all other mice feel flat.
So true. May I ask why you have stopped using it?
I eventually wore the left mouse button out, and it’d miss clicks every once in awhile. Figured that was a good sign to go ahead and retire it.
Last summer i had quite some what i believe was rsi. I got a vertical mouse and it helped a bit. But not enough.
Then i got one of these standing desks and it got even better.
But what did the trick in end was installing a little treadmill under my desk.
Now i walk for about 3.5 hours per day while working and the pain has finally gone away. It is fantastic.
I’ve been curious about standing desk treadmills for a while but I can’t get my head around how one’s supposed to do precise work while walking or pedaling. I guess it’s totally fine during online meetings or reading documents but how would you do modeling like that?
As for standing desks in general, I had one both at home and and the office for about 2 years and I think it is a complete waste if you just replace motionless sitting with motionless standing. I couldn’t concentrate on work as much any more and my back began to hurt eventually. Motion is healthy. I guess we have the wrong job.
I’ve got a vertical mouse (inexpensive Cherry) since yesterday. It does feel more natural and I’m sure I could get used to it but it still feels like a bad compromise. The click buttons are hard to press as well which is counterproductive.
I can not do precise work like modelling while walking. I can not do work where I have to concentrate a lot and am not all that well versed in either, like scripting.
But stuff like handling CAD imports, lighting, shading, animating and stuff like that works perfectly. It takes a couple of days to get used to it and to get up to speed and even after using it for a while I am of course not as precise with the mouse as when sitting but the benefits of having the back pain go away clearly outweigh everything else.
Yes, if you only stand you will not benefit that much. You have to get a desk with a motor which makes it possible to easily switch from standing to sitting. And then you just switch position every 30 to 60 minutes. Dont get a table with a hand crank. It is annyoing and you probably won’t use it.
I got one of these at work
It’s got a gas spring assist to raise and lower the unit, it’s pretty well balanced, even with 2 27" monitors. So it is pretty quick and easy to go from sitting to standing. My biggest complaint is it has a little bit of flex, so your monitors wiggle a little when you are typing.
I also have a round wedge of wood to stand on. It’s shaped kinda like this:
Having an organic shape to stand on gives you the opportunity to stand in a lot of different positions.
2 Likes
As a hard surface modeler where a few geometry dense cages require some degree of precision but personally, really not able to control a trackball peripheral worth a damn. I’m a ‘righty’ with increasingly pronounced carpal tunnel so my master hand occasionally devolves into a claw like appendage, typically after 5 - 6hr sessions, pretty much of late basically unusable for extended periods.
Anyway in the hope of at least providing a medium term remedy, I’ve been looking into Logitech’s MX vertical:
now, just wondering whether anyone has any experience working with it, either good or bad? although the user reviews generally do seem fairly positive.
I have a coworker that uses one of those, he likes it a lot. Mostly doing CAD work, so a lot of precise clicking and dragging.
I would suggest the MS mouse instead. Personally, I found the tilted design a bit more comfortable than the full vertical approach. Especially, when needing to perform a click in a precise operation. A vertical design has nothing to brace against while clicking, so the mouse moves a little during execution.
Also, I would be weary of Logitech’s reliability. They had some poor record regarding their mice buttons for a while now. The button would fail within a span of a year or so from purchase. It would either not register or register as a double click. I have bought one of their mechanical keyboards about a year ago, and some of the most frequently used keys have developed this same issue as well. Quite disappointing as I also have some off brand mechanical keyboard that is over 5 years old, yet working without fault. It was also less than half the price.
Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback 
I’ve used a trackball with Blender for the last ~5 years, and have a little suggestion to add to this thread (see below), in the form of a custom mouse acceleration driver called “RawAccel”. Regarding equipment, I’m using the Kensington Expert Mouse wireless (the one with the big red trackball). I do probably 90% of my work, including inorganic modelling, with my Wacom Intuos Pro (medium) tablet - as that’s what I find most comfortable. But sometimes I need a bit of extra precision (or a scroll wheel!), so that’s where I’m using a trackball.
Anyhow, for the last year I’ve been using “RawAccel” with my setup. What it does is allow you to define custom acceleration parameters for your input devices, which I find very useful in dialling in my trackball for modelling tasks. I set RawAccel up to use its whitelist feature, which means it will only affect usb devices that you specifically choose. In my Windows mouse settings, I disable acceleration completely, as I would never use it with a normal mouse (or most devices). However, I do find that I need to use some acceleration with my trackball because I’ve got 2x HiDPI 27" monitors, and navigating them with a trackball is a pain without some acceleration, or turning up the sensitivity too high for modelling. The Windows mouse acceleration settings feel awful, imo. With RawAccel, I’ve set up the curve so that I can spin/gesture the trackball quickly to rapidly navigate my multimonitor setup, while mid-speed trackball manipulation is a much more linear / “average” type of 800 dpi mouse feeling. But, when moving the trackball very slowly, I’ve reduced the acceleration curve to slow movements to a very fine resolution for precision modelling tasks. The feeling is great and very natural now that I’ve become accustomed to it - a big improvement over stock Windows settings.
RawAccel was designed for gamers who wanted to define a custom acceleration curve that was consistent between all of their games and software so that they could develop muscle-memory in the same way that disabling acceleration has always allowed. It just so happens to also work beautifully for trackball users who need precision control.
2 Likes
Since you’re talking about a scroll wheel, are you referring to the ring around the Kenstington’s trackball or are you actually able to ‘map’ the trackball input as scroll wheel input using RawAccel?
I’ve been using the same Wacom tablet for a few months now exclusively and I love it but I really miss being able to scroll by physically turn something with my fingers. I thought about using my old small wireless mouse and disabling its sensor but using an actual trackball for scrolling would be a blast.
I’m referring to the ring around the Kensington trackball - which is mapped as a “scroll wheel” by default. It’s not the greatest design admittedly. It’s a bit touchy and the scrolling feels pretty low-res - also, years ago when the device was new, it felt “notchy” which a lot of reviews complain about, but that’s since kind of smoothed out.
I really wish Wacom pens (or the tablets themselves) had a physical scroll wheel. I disable all the touch features on my tablet because they feel rubbish and imprecise to me. So many important features in Blender are reliant on good scroll wheel usage. I’ve looked seriously into the possibility of finding a device that behaves as a dedicated USB scroll wheel device for my PC, but there are very few options out there. Also, between my 3D mouse, keyboard, trackball, and Wacom tablet, I have very limited space left for ergonomic, left-hand access (right hand is always holding Wacom pen) to another dedicated peripheral. After hours of exploring, I’ve found this device which looks like a possible contender. It’s called a Pikatea Macropad, and it’s quite simply just a few mechanical keyboard keys and a dial, which are all fully programmable and attach to the front of your desk. It’s some kind of Arduino device, I think - could probably hack one together myself if I had more time. Anyhow, it’s small enough that I’m thinking I could find an optimal place to mount it so I’ve always got a proper, decent scrollwheel at the ready. A great ergonomic setup is such an effort (not to mention expense!).
1 Like
If you’re looking for a good drawing tablet that has a scroll wheel, i would highly recommend the XP PEN Artist Pro. They’re cheaper than Wacoms but I’ve been very impressed with the quality
2 Likes
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve never taken the plunge on a tablet with a built-in display, though. With RSI, I’m concerned about the ergonomics of my head tilting down all day, every day. One of my coworkers uses a giant Cintiq and is happy with it. Two of my other coworkers have used those in the past and abandoned them for ergonomic reasons. In any case, I’d need a large one and those are expensive. Also, I’ve been using the normal/“classic” style tablet combined with multi-monitors mounted on arms for so many years I’m not sure how well I’d adapt. As gadgets are concerned, though, I am quite tempted to pick one up some day and see how I get on with it.
1 Like
That’s my only complaint about display tablets. I love them, just not for hours at a time. I should mention, I’ve had much better results with neck pain using a display tablet working at a standing desk
1 Like