RollerMouse - your opinions?

rony123

11 Apr 2017, 00:25

As for me it is very handy. if someone know how to use it properly he will have much better experience!
HematomaDiseases

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Sugoi

08 Jan 2019, 23:12

It's a nice addition to my desk setup. However, it mainly acts as wrist rest as using trackballs is more more convenient to me.

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madrobby

11 Jan 2019, 15:56

Using it for a while now (carpal tunnel!) and it works really well even with my wrist brace. Can really recommend it. And forget about the wireless, use the USB cable (if you get the wireless RollerMouse you can do wireless or USB!).

I'm thinking about getting the optional elbow-length wristpad which looks to me that it works great for standing desks.
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snot

24 Jan 2019, 05:31

You all have got me very interested in getting a roller mouse now. If any of you still have one you are willing to sell send me a pm.

tucvbif

14 Mar 2020, 14:16

I have a little issue.
I got a used Free2 and recently I notice black spots on left side of the metal axle. When it happens, the roller feels sticky. When I remove this spots, it feels smooth again, but after 2-3 days spots come back again. Any ideas?

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Dingster

14 Mar 2020, 14:19

tucvbif wrote:
14 Mar 2020, 14:16
I have a little issue.
I got a used Free2 and recently I notice black spots on left side of the metal axle. When it happens, the roller feels sticky. When I remove this spots, it feels smooth again, but after 2-3 days spots come back again. Any ideas?
I think thats just regular grime, might be wrong. Same thing happens in trackballs that use metal rollers :)

tucvbif

14 Mar 2020, 14:30

But it didn't happen earlier. Maybe, I need to disassemble it and clean roller itself inside and metal axle under roller?

tucvbif

21 Mar 2020, 13:15

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It's like this.

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Keybug

28 Oct 2020, 22:47

I've had three (I think) Rollermice on and off over the years - that should tell you how much I wanted to like them, but have finally concluded they just aren't viable for any kind of serious computer user who isn't absolutely forced to use one due to some sort of handicap. Here's why:

- Clicking with the roller bar is just to prone to inaccuracy. Just navigating is fine, though nowhere near as accurate as any regular modern mouse, but if you want to use pressing on the roller bar as you click, the pressure you apply before the click registers will cause the mouse pointer to wiggle around and more often than not you will miss the target unless you take a lot of time to do it slowly. This is the main flaw of the whole design. The concept doesn't make much sense unless you use this way of clicking and it really is terrible in practice - while amazing in theory.
- To work around the problem above, you either have to use the thumb of the same hand to click one of the buttons while you are holding the roller bar in position or let go of it, then click. Both of these actions, again, are likely to wiggle your mouse cursor around, resulting in unwanted errors. The only reliable way to click is to use your primary hand on the roller bar and the secondary hand to click one of the buttons. I found this to be just too much of a bother - who wants to use two hands for mousing? It also requires a good deal of extra brain processing power to accomplish.
- To illustrate further, let me quote from some other reviewer (sorry, didn't take notes on the source): "The biggest problem with any Rollermouse is the precision of the pointer compared to typical mouse. Even the cheap HP piece-of-garbage mouse that I was using before the Rollermouse arrived was more precise than this. [...] Personally I was able to use this for smaller click targets with little success and double clicking a small target was simply not an option.
Clicking by using the rollerbar with any precision is next to impossible. But again you can use two fingers which significantly increase your chances of hitting what you aim for. However, using the buttons for clicking is much more productive. I would always use the buttons for clicking, but the rollerbar itself is clickable even though it is primarily reserved for rough selection and de-selection tasks."

My bottom line: Buy used if you want to try it - and prepare to re-sell quickly, hoping you can attain roughly the buying price!

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kbdfr
The Tiproman

29 Oct 2020, 07:31

I for one have absolutely no problem clicking with the roller bar. I simply do not use my thumb, but my middle and ring fingers together, and absolutely nothing moves when I press the roller bar.
And obviously not the mouse itself is not accurate enough to target a very tiny point - it is the thumb (by the way, that's why its use on a standard keyboard is restricted to just one over-dimensioned key).

So simply don't use your thumb with the roller bar. You'll have to move your hands a bit from the home row position, but you do that all the time when typing, and there is simply no comparison to having to grasp a mouse far away.

I should add that I do not play games and thus have simply no clue about using a Rollermouse in that context. But as a professional typist, I am glad I got rid of my mouse - and of the loss of time and the arm/shoulder strain and pain associated with its use.

I have a second Rollermouse in reserve should mine happen to fail :D

zzxx53

02 Nov 2020, 22:50

Agree that accuracy clicking is sometimes a problem, but the time savings for not having to move my hand away from home row to use the mouse outweighs this one flaw.
I also have a backup trackball for when I have to do mouse-intensive tasks (photoshop, etc).
Come to think of it, has anyone made a compact trackball that can be operated using thumb and placed adjacent to the spacebar?

davkol

03 Nov 2020, 00:20

Sanwa MA-TB42BK

zzxx53

03 Nov 2020, 04:19

Thanks davkol; exactly what I was thinking.
Would be perfect if it has a scroll wheel too.

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