Please, what is a good footpedal to use?

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Laruna
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 5:00 am
Location: Brighton, UK

Please, what is a good footpedal to use?

Post by Laruna »

I have bought a naturalpoint device. What beautiful ergonomic engineering!

Now, if I could find a footpedal that was designed with such care and clarity -- then I could continue to work and leave the symptoms of RSI behind.

Please, can any of the designers as naturalpoint suggest one?

Yours in serenity,
Sam

P. S. RSI has taught me many lessons; about obsession. Several months with no hobby or occupation to hide behind, it has been difficult. Revealing. If you suffer from RSI, naturalpoint will help you out, but please learn the lessons.
Jim
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Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2002 5:00 am
Location: Corvallis, Oregon
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Re: Please, what is a good footpedal to use?

Post by Jim »

Hello:

We sell a footswitch on our web site, it can plug into an EG or AT model, allowing you to click with your feet. You can also plug in any standard accessiblity switch as well. I recommend looking at www.tashinc.com for more switches.

Thanks for the kind words.
yerodin
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2003 5:00 am

Re: Please, what is a good footpedal to use?

Post by yerodin »

Jim,

i was wondering: have you ever considered supporting more than two switches?
I could imagine a three or four switch system would be pretty cool.

Just my 2 cents...
Jim
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Location: Corvallis, Oregon
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Re: Please, what is a good footpedal to use?

Post by Jim »

Yes, that would be cool, but we don't have enough room for them in the current design. Perhaps one day we will make this happen, it is on our internal list.
Laruna
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 5:00 am
Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Please, what is a good footpedal to use?

Post by Laruna »

The main difficulty I've been experiencing is that in between pressing and releasing a button my head usually move as a little. This makes clicks messy -- often I end up selecting text by mistake. Or dragging folders into other folders.

I've worked a solution -- but I don't know how to implement it. Who is on this forum? Any of the programmers? I would love to talk to if you're reading this.

Here goes: when the button goes down, freeze the mouse. And when the button is released, release the mouse. But there's more!

Some terminology:
L left button-down
L' left button up
etc.

So, with two foot pedals, we can create! There are six obvious combinations, and each can be mapped to a function. These are (together with suggested functions):

{L,L'} left click
{R,R'} right click
{L,R,L',R'} L' drag-drop, or select text
(L' raises event left-button-down and frees the mouse, R' raises event left-button-up)
{L,R,R',L'} double click
(R' frees the mouse)
{R,L,R',L'}
{R,L,L',R'}

The first action in each instance freezes the mouse.

Please take a moment to do this with your feet -- it is intuitive, I think. Certainly it would not take much learning.

Also, it would be amazingly accurate to have a left pedal which is pressure sensitive -- and the more you press on it, the slower the mouse pointer moves, until -- click! The right button could just be a simple click button.

This, I think, would also be easy to learn. There is something in asymmetrical configurations which facilitates learning.

There's a further advantage in the pressure sensitive pedal -- it could be used in all sorts of situations where it is handy to have an analog control -- scrolling through text, making music, etc.

If you like the idea, please make it -- you make the best stuff! If you would like to send me anything in return, tell me -- how do I tweak my trackIR into a smartNav? It has a socket for a footpedal, the same production run? A smartNav in disguise? Tweakable? I had a naughty peek inside

I've got no money to upgrade, and I'm getting a crick in the neck trying to position the cursor accurately. And I've got RSI. Honestly, it would make your mother weep

Light & Love,
Laruna
Donald
Posts: 58
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2003 5:00 am
Location: Naturalpoint

Re: Please, what is a good footpedal to use?

Post by Donald »

Hello Laruna,

I really like your suggestions, unfortunately I am not aware of a pressure sensitive, analog mouse button as you describe it. All the ones I am familiar with, have a specific click and release point. Nothing in between.

Also, you cannot make the TrackIR into a Smart-NAV. You are correct in that everything is identical, however it's the firmware programming that we do here the tells the unit what it is. Programmed as a TrackIR, it will not read the Smart-NAV software.

As for the crick in the neck issue, I know this is going to sound like the obvious, but the trick is to relax. Just move your head normally as if you are just looking around. Don't strain trying to make an absolute position, just look at the spot where you want it to go naturally. Basically, this is something that the flight simmers learned early on in order for them to play for hours on end.

Hope this helps and if you have any further questions, please feel free to send us email at support.
Laruna
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 5:00 am
Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Please, what is a good footpedal to use?

Post by Laruna »

Thank you for the informative reply. Just out of interest now, what is firmware? Is it hard encoded into the microchip, or is it updated through the computer? I am working now, and cannot afford to be without this pointing device for any length of time. So I cannot send it back to upgrade. But could I have the firmware upgraded.

How is smartNAV more accurate than trackIR? Is it just that the software is different? If so, what is this difference? Could I get mouse software from another place that would help with the accuracy? ... like a mouse driver with acceleration.
Donald
Posts: 58
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2003 5:00 am
Location: Naturalpoint

Re: Please, what is a good footpedal to use?

Post by Donald »

Hello Laruna,

Sorry I missed your response and there was no more activity so this thread didn't show up when I pressed the active button.

Firmware is a set of directly hardcoded instructions in the chip inside the device. This is done on a special jig and can only be done when we have the unit here. This firmware coding is what determines what type of unit you have. All units are the same except for this coding which will determine the rest of the capabilities of the unit.

The reason that the Smart-NAV is more accurate is because of the software a Smart-NAV programmed device can run. As a Smart-NAV, it can run the Smart-NAV software which has better speed and smoothing algorithms than what is currently available in the TrackIR software.

No, because our drivers are specifically written for our device and no one else has the code for them.
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