From: baer@uwovax.uwo.ca
Subject: Re: Portable pointing devices
Organization: University of Western Ont, London
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 02:58:53 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.120838.28667@cis.ohio-state.edu>, grichard@swimming.cis.ohio-state.edu (Golden Richard III) writes:
> 
> I'd like to conduct an informal survey to see what sorts of portable 
> pointing devices notebook owners are using.    I'll summarize responses 
> sent to me in email or we can just fire the discussion up here.
> 
> I looked at the new Logitech Trackman (not the portable) and it seems
> really slick.  While it doesn't pretend to be a portable device, it
> seems like it would serve as long as you had some desk space.  I
> haven't played with the portable version yet nor with the Microsoft
> portable (which seems incredibly expensive).

I own a Trackman, the portable version, and don't like it. I'll list my
complaints below.   About 98% of my laptop use thus far has been at
locations (often out of town) where I have access to a desk large enough
to use a regular mouse, and I've just purchased a regular Logitech mouse
for that purpose (same brand to make sure all my mouse drivers still work).
I'll still use the Trackman for the rare instance where I need a pointing
device on the train or plane, or for presentations (where there usually
isn't enough room on the presentation table for a regular mouse alongside
the overhead projector).

Complaints:
  1) Quality control, mostly.   When I first got the thing, the ball would
  stick from time to time.  A good stiff push would get it rolling, but
  by that time cadence has been broken and the pointing device becomes
  more of a hassle than a help.   
  2) Ditto, this time what appears to be an internal mouse electronics
  problem.  After about 9 months of use, I now find that the mouse 
 doesn't properly move the cursor in the right direction under the 
 following conditions: a) mouse has been in use for between 45 min. 
  and 1 hour.   Other axes sometimes stick a bit too, but not a major
  problem.  Here, "sticking" refers to a situation in which the ball
  moves fine, but there is no response on the screen.   (Works fine
  for the first hour or so each use).  Often, it is necessary to move
  to the left or in some other direction before a right-direction
  response can be obtained.   A real pain.
- on the above, have been trying to get my dealer to replace or repair
under warrantee, but no luck so far.  Have receipt for notebook system +
trackman, but no separate warrantee card for Logitech (though I routinely
mail any such cards in).
  3) General complaint, outside quality control: with a mouse, I can 
make sweeping movements to get the cursor across the screen, or fine movements,
just with my wrist.  With the trackman, this sort of discrim. is not possible.
While you can adjust the "speed" , once set this speed is constant (as it is
with a regular mouse), and with a roller-ball that limits you.

In all fairness, some positives:
 - clip on devices (2 supplied) work well on almost all keyboards, laptop
 units.  There was a complaint in one of the PC mags about how it will
 cover up a floppy drive if the floppy is mounted on the side of the machine,
  but on my machine I'm able to slip the floppy underneath it on the
  rare instance where I need to use the floppy drive (this may not apply
  to some really ultra-thin notebook models, though).
 - mouse buttons well located for "grip" action -- no real complaints 
  about the transition from a 3 button mouse to the trackman with a mouse
  button curling around the edge.



> Golden Richard III             OSU Dept. of Computer and Information Science
> grichard@cis.ohio-state.edu                                   (614) 292-0056
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas Baer, Department of Sociology,
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada N6A 5C2
Internet: BAER@UWOVAX.UWO.CA   

Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops