[HN Gopher] Tank Mouse: Wireless Amiga-inspired optical mouse
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       Tank Mouse: Wireless Amiga-inspired optical mouse
        
       Author : doener
       Score  : 56 points
       Date   : 2022-02-27 11:32 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.kickstarter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.kickstarter.com)
        
       | 999900000999 wrote:
       | Set a reminder to order it retail next year, looks like a neat
       | thing to have.
       | 
       | I wonder if they'll sell a similar keyboard with it.
        
       | colinhb wrote:
       | Very cool. Would love a similar project for old Depraz /
       | Digimouse design.
       | 
       | https://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/logitech/digimouse.shtml
        
         | floren wrote:
         | I've been working on one for a while now. I'll hopefully get a
         | writeup posted soon. However, I can't see it ever being
         | available for $40 like the Tank Mouse... the 3 switches alone
         | cost $12, and the Pixart sensor is $13 unless I manage to find
         | a cheaper source.
        
       | drcongo wrote:
       | I used to love the Amiga, but the mouse definitely wasn't
       | something I loved about it. This brought back memories of me
       | smashing mine against the desk in frustration.
        
         | detritus wrote:
         | Yeah, likewise - I remember getting a very sore thenar* from
         | those hard corners after the sort of stupidly-prolonged gaming
         | sessions teenagers are capable of. Then I got a Naksha, which
         | was borderline-futuristic.
         | 
         | .
         | 
         | * base of the thumb. I had to look it up, I'm not going to
         | pretend I knew that.
        
         | Keyframe wrote:
         | Exactly. Amiga was all these nice things, but mouse was
         | definitely not one of them!
        
         | TacticalCoder wrote:
         | Yup but back then they still used a ball. And that ball was
         | always filthy and both the ball and the rest required regular
         | cleaning (just as with other old mice).
        
           | drcongo wrote:
           | Yeah, that ball was definitely the thing that caused me to
           | smash it against the desk. I also have vague memories of the
           | almost meditative process of regularly cleaning the wheels.
           | Swings and roundabouts.
        
           | bbarnett wrote:
           | No kidding. And it tasted terrible too, I hated cleaning it.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | AmigaNews_net wrote:
       | Great project. Amiga forever! ;)
        
       | gwbas1c wrote:
       | Is the touchpad going to be a good alternative to a scroll wheel?
       | My NVidea Shield remotes use a touchpad for the volume, and it's
       | "just okay." Every time I adjust the volume on my TV it feels
       | like I'm doing something naughty to the remote.
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | I wouldn't want to be without a notched scroll wheel (for
         | discrete scrolling steps), something which can't be replicated
         | by a touchpad.
         | 
         | Also, the rocking motion and cogwheel-like touch of the finger
         | on a scroll wheel feels nicer and more controlled to me than
         | the sliding motion and friction on a touchpad.
        
         | Miraste wrote:
         | Nvidia doesn't have a good implementation. They took it off the
         | new Shield remotes.
        
         | wildzzz wrote:
         | I really like the mice that have a clutch button that lets you
         | unlock the wheel for free scrolling. It helps for scrolling
         | through long documents. I feel like a touchpad scroll wheel
         | doesn't really change the finger motions. Unless, they do
         | something clever like where you drag your finger down and hold
         | it at the bottom for constant autoscrolling. They could adjust
         | the speed of the autoscroll based on how fast your finger
         | moved.
        
         | boardwaalk wrote:
         | It works well enough on the Magic Mouse. I think it really
         | depends on the software: acceleration, touch rejection, etc.
        
       | croon wrote:
        
       | NikolaNovak wrote:
       | Awesome; happy it exists; can't imagine using it - we've learned
       | so much about ergonomics last couple of decades!
       | 
       | Personal preference as well - I prefer a scrolling wheel with
       | fairly distinct, discrete detentes that allow me to precisely
       | choose how much scrolling (or assigned function) is happening.
       | 
       | But I'm happy project exists; variety good :)
        
         | gigaflop wrote:
         | I've got a band-aid on my middle finger due to my cat
         | disagreeing about when to stop touching the belly. I can barely
         | feel my laptop keys with it on, but I can still feel enough of
         | of the detents in my mouse's scroll wheel!
         | 
         | Do you think some kind of haptic feedback on a touch-scroll
         | would make the difference for most people? I still don't think
         | so.
        
           | Miraste wrote:
           | A lot of Valve's hardware (Steam controller, Steam deck, VR
           | controllers) has heavy haptic feedback on its touchpads,
           | including when scrolling, and it makes much more of a
           | positive difference than I expected it would.
        
           | NikolaNovak wrote:
           | My gut instinct was "No", but honestly? I've experienced
           | vibrating haptic feedback work WAY better than I thought
           | physically possible, so "Maybe"?
           | 
           | Personally I did not enjoy the Logitech mice with
           | configurable detentes on the wheel, as they always felt
           | wobbly. But I can conceivably envision a configurable
           | sensitivity of touchpad to enable discrete scroll and haptic
           | feedback that is accurate and useful. Not sure if there's a
           | large enough market of course.
        
       | daneel_w wrote:
       | The ergonomics of the original Amiga mouse wasn't too bad - not
       | great, but not bad either. My gripe with it was how noisy it was,
       | and that the buttons often began exhibiting numbness after just a
       | few years of use.
        
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       (page generated 2022-02-28 23:02 UTC)