The Ploopy A+ Trackball Is Here | Hacker News Reader

The Ploopy A+ Trackball Is Here

blog.ploopy.co

150 pointsbig_toast70 comments

Hugged.

https://web.archive.org/web/20260814114201/https://blog.ploo...

That's too bad.

The github[0] for it is kinda cool. Uses the 'CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Strongly Reciprocal'. The assembly instructions[1] give a bit of a hands on feel.

They had some more details on a reddit post[2] it looks like.

[0]:https://github.com/ploopyco/aplus-trackball

[1]:https://github.com/ploopyco/aplus-trackball/blob/main/docs/a...

[2]:https://www.reddit.com/r/ploopy/comments/1vo4y4r/this_is_the...

It always seems like a missed opportunity that trackballs don't detect when you twist the ball. It would be so natural for spinning a model in CAD or zooming.

The easiest approach would probably be to add a second optical sensor and do some math to calculate the twist rate.

This guy made exactly what you describe

https://youtu.be/u1v7TXViRi8

The Kensington SlimBlade scrolls when you rotate the trackball.

These have been made on and off since 1995 at the latest. They never work out even though you'd think they'd be super popular for 3d modelers at least. I first encountered one for SGI workstations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceOrb_360 as one example.

I love the SpaceOrb 360 and still have mine but there are no drivers for it anymore.

A lot of people who haven't seen one are confuse it with a trackball, but SpaceMouse and its kin aren't trackballs, they're double cascaded joysticks on a fixed mount shaped like a ball.

The stump om the base works as a 2 axis tilting joystick, and the stem of the ball works like its own 2 axis XY sliding pad with extra push/pull plus twist axes. There's a wire through the stem of the knob to get the readings. Together they capture the whole 6 axis deflections for the knob.

Trackballs OTOH is just rubbing a mousepad rolled up to be a ball to operate a Magic Mouse while charging.

Twist scroll requires two sensors and is patented by Kensington.

Do you know until when?

Why does it require two sensors?

With only one you can't detect rotation around the axis that goes through the sensor, and for rotation close to that axis the resolution will be very poor.

Okay, sure, but that's a very narrow and specific angle though? Not sure I could deliberately rotate the ball in that direction even of I wanted to.

Especially given the limited use kensington uses rotation for (at least to my knowledge)

Mouse sensors are usually ~16x16 CMOS cameras that just return signed int X/Y movements. Shutter speed is goverened by both luminosity and polling rates. There's no raw pixel output, and even in sensors that have it, it's for focus adjustment only and not useful in realtime sensing. They're also crazy cheap.

Therefore the cheapest way to do ball twist is to just put two sensors and use the error as the twist amount. You could use a singular high resolution highspeed camera pointed at the ball instead, but that won't be the cheapest way to do it.

Is it this one?

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050184962A1/en

> [..] and a plurality of Sensors located in the capacity Surrounding the track ball for detecting pressure directions.

...

> Status Expired

What about using 3 or 4 instead?

https://rotatrix.com/ Does pretty much that

Looks similar to my trusty Kensington Expert, only with more buttons:

https://www.kensington.com/p/products/electronic-control-sol...

Even the wrist rest, which I've never seen on another trackball, seems to have been copied from here. Anybody tested out both?

They really need to find a better name than "Ploopy" though.

> They really need to find a better name than "Ploopy" though.

The name reminded me of Kooky Plops, the fictional band from the brilliant animated skit[1] by David Firth (of Salad Fingers fame) about the state of pop music in 2009.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pehHOqx7JXg

> They really need to find a better name

They seem to be happy with extra engagement from people who hate the name. https://blog.ploopy.co/yall-need-a-new-name-48

I had the Expert briefly before returning it and the Ploopy Adept. The Expert doesn't have hardware remappable buttons, only software which IMO makes it no good. It is, IIRC a little bigger. The Adept does have QMK hardware remappable buttons, although mine had a button break and I never got it quite feeling right with the replacement case. I feel like they revised things from my early board and case and they didn't quite match up. I also think scrolling by holding down a button and moving the ball on the Adept is better than the Expert scroll wheel.

Generally I like the feel of Ploopy's trackballs and that are Canadian but I do kinda wish they moved towards offering better non 3D printed cases as an option.

Instantly couldn't resist clicking on some unknown thing called "the Ploopy A+".

Sounds similar to something from the Ricky and Morty realm; the plumbus.

It stuck out to me because it's I recognized it as a word used in Diary of a Wimpy kid of all things. After a quick search though that seems like a coincidence.

I bought the regular mouse and had a fun time assembling it. It works fine.

However the "ergonomic" design is extremely uncomfortable for me and caused hand pain. I let it ride for a few weeks hoping I'd get accustomed, the pain got better but didn't go away. Also the far-left and far-right mouse buttons are superfluous and detract from the core experience.

Please do a symmetrical version and maybe throw in a scroll wheel with steps/clicks, I'd happily buy another.

They have a countdown for the pre-order here[0]. Seems like it's available as a kit Wednesday, August 19th, 2026 at 10am ET to pre-order.

I love all I/O devices..

I think the main difference from the Ploopy Adept is they added two knob buttons?

[0]:https://ploopy.co/aplus-launch-countdown/

Around the 2000s I remember playing a match of Unreal Tournament Classic on a LAN party again a player of a major german UT clan of the time - he was using a trackball to play and slaughtered us so hard. To this day I can't imagine precise inputs with a trackball, but I saw it is possible.

My buddy had a Logitech Trackman and absolutely dominated in quake back in the day. So much so that it made me adopt a Trackman in 2001 and I consistently came in top 3 in counterstrike.

I’m sure it’s not the best ergonomic pointing device but I haven’t stopped using it and rock a Logitech ergo trackball these days.

I see we've reinvented the slashdot effect.

Not a trackball, but anyone else watch Engineer Bo, or tried their very nice Knob? https://youtu.be/ehd3Ue2fKKM

I dig that the Ploopy knob is QMK based, also high resolution. But watching how much effort E.B. has put into my favorite input device of all time, I can't help but want one of theirs.

The internal LED's are cool here. I like the indicator effect, especially with the partial transparency ball. I do wish this was bluetooh and ZMK based. Even though ZMK is lagging a decent bit behind QMK features. Zephyr is just so cool! Wireless is so great. In my opinion.

I spent my early years in an online tape edit bay. The jog/shuttle wheel has always been something that just seemed like the perfect fit. Even in today's NLE, there are multiple devices trying to fill this need, yet none have the same feel as the old edit controllers

I was able to buy one of the Full Scroll Dials, it’s fantastic! I even made a USB adapter for it using a Pi Pico W, which lets it work with a USB switch and fixes macOS compatibility by emulating a Magic Trackpad: https://github.com/timothyb89/bt2usb

> preorder a kit for $99CAD

What is a kit here? A trackball? All the parts needed to assemble a trackball? A populated circuit board, where the rest needs 3D printing? A pile of electronic components that need to be soldered together and the rest needs 3D printing?

For comparison, the regular adept had a PCB and came with printed parts. Some light soldering was involved.

Okay, so assembly and soldering required, but all parts included and I don't need a 3D printer. Can do. Weird that they don't mention any of that. The finished item looks like a good trackball.

It's a blog of a niche computer peripheral company not a store listing. And it's not their first product either, only blog is having problems rest of website is still wotking and in the store you can get a pretty good picture of what their typical kits look like. Most likely only sensor, the only through hole component needs soldering. They also ofer fully assembled versions, although initial preorer batch might be kits only .

Based on https://web.archive.org/web/20260727075248/https://blog.ploo..., it seems like some soldering is involved

I love the Adept trackball - it's got one of the best bearing setups and rolls really smoothly. However, the problem is that all their products are wired and that's awkward for using with a laptop unless you want to constantly move both laptop and trackball to one side when getting up etc.

Looking at the schematic it seems that this is a wired only solution. I'm quite a fan of wireless trackballs because you can velcro them onto flat sheets and compute from a couch. Has anyone experimented with a wireless USB hub?

I use trackballs since decades.

I heavily recommend mapping some keys on keyboard for left and right mouse click, to be used with opposite hand.

Instant upgrade for finger operated trackballs.

How is this useful?

Can it detect rotation?

Looks like it has just one mouse sensor, so no.

I have an adept, it does not. Hold button to scroll while turning

Speaking as another owner of the Ploopy Adept, I have found this feature to work very well.

I’m wondering if this would replace my trackpad placed between the two splits of my UHK

This paragraph is wild to me:

"The original Adept had six buttons. However, ever since we released the original Adept, the PCBs have contained two unpopulated lands for additional switches. Our intention was always to eventually move to eight buttons. The A+ finally lives up to the ambition that we set for ourselves back in 2023."

So they designed it to have 8 switches from the start - but then hid 2 of them so they'd have a "new version" once the sales of the old one slowed down. I don't know if that's genius or sad capitalism...

This kind of BOM variant stuff happens all the time so you can buy a bunch of bare boards and sit on them. You don't need to do another expensive board run if firmware development catches up or if you decide you want to depopulate some stuff for a cheaper model or populate more stuff for a more expensive model.

It's difficult to see greed being a motivator from a group that literally releases the source code for everything.

I'm really put off by the poor quality of the 3d printed body

I have a number of 3d printed peripherals, including two Ploopy devices. Nothing seems out of the ordinary to me quality wise.

They should really invest in an SLA printer. Everything on their site looks terrible.

fwiw I just received the adept trackball and I too was worried about the quality of the enclosure but upon seeing it in person I'm fine with it. As far as fdm prints go it's really well done.

I initially had the same concerns, but while it looks 3D printed, it feels great. I don't mind it at all.

What size is the ball?

Extremely cute design. I was going to compliment the bold color choices as well as the extremely-'90s jade-on-platinum, but…

> Adept, a unique trackball perfectly suited […] for 3D-printing

I guess this means it could be any color you want? And yeah their store page for the Adept confirms: https://web.archive.org/web/20260720095136/https://ploopy.co...

> Since the Adept is 3D-printed, your Adept can be as unique as you

I am fine with this in theory but would have no idea what to expect here since I'm not familiar enough with 3D-printing. How robust is this for something I'd be touching every day and would want to take apart and put back together multiple times?

The screw wells in the case parts they sell look like the are just plastic and get tapped by self-tapping screws: https://web.archive.org/web/20260720095151/https://ploopy.co...

Maybe the intention is to consider it disposable and make a new one if and when it gets fucked up? If I had one I would like to try adding some machine screw anchors, because for something that's going to get that much use I would probably be taking it apart and putting it back together a lot, fiddling with it until I got it perfect so none of the buttons rub up against anything, so there are no squeaks when I press on it or rattles if it gets moved around, etc.

Those are totally my own hangups of course; not trying to FUD the thing and would love to touch one first and see :)

Dual knobs sounds incredibly cool and are something that makes me want to try a trackball again. I loved trackballs in the '90s† when display resolutions were small and it was normal to click and drag a scrollbar thumb, but I haven't used on any machine in the last 15 years because, I dunno, just haven't vibed with the feel of them. My little 75% keyboard‡ already sold me on knobs by having just one.

† peep my Macintosh Quadra 700 with my favorite Sihlouette ADB trackball https://i.ibb.co/m5qctLzp/Quadra700-Stack.jpg

‡ peep my NuPhy Kick75 High Profile with my favorite Framework Laptop 12 <3 https://i.ibb.co/bjVTfq0m/P1111881-1.jpg

I have a ploopy thumb scroll and it looks a little bit yucky after 3 years, however it’s a very light gray so if you made it darker it would be fine I think. There’s some hand junk that gets in the layer lines, I’ve reprinted a couple of parts with a thinner layer and darker material and they’re holding up great though.

There are some trade offs but I wouldn’t go back because it fits my larger than average hand so well. Always found the Logitech ones to be too small.

"Error establishing a database connection"

Who the hell wants to solder their own trackball? Equivalent products exist at roughly the same price point, fully assembled and tested with a warranty.

I get it doesn’t appeal to you. Why do you think it shouldn’t appeal to anyone?

Because there is nothing to be learned or gained from it. This isn't a Heath Kit from 1975. Electronics are fully integrated components now. You're paying for an experience. Typically DIY implies a cost-savings.

It's like going to one of those restaurants where you have to cook your own steak at the table and realizing part-way through wtf am I doing?

> It's like going to one of those restaurants where you have to cook your own steak at the table and realizing part-way through wtf am I doing?

And yet, people keep going to these restaurants.

Perhaps it's just that people find enjoyment in different ways than you.

Do you also get upset when people buy Lego sets, model airplanes, or jigsaw puzzles? It's the same thing.

And FWIW, it's the exactly same reason most people were buying DIY electronics kits in '70s, '80s, and '90s.

I would never buy a kit that required soldering, because I'm terrible at it. But I like putting things together. I've assembled a couple of DIY keyboards, and I bought a Framework 12 laptop. It doesn't take too long (Framework estimated 15 minutes, but it was more like 45, because I am slow and methodical), and I like knowing what's inside it. The transition from “box of components” to “working system” always thrills me. And, though the repairability of a trackball is not a big issue, it's nice to know that what you put together can be taken apart, for example, to replace an SSD in a laptop.

Same.

You’re on Hacker News, lots of us like to solder our own devices and spend time tweaking things. I’m right now waiting for my e-scooter tire to complete its 3d print. It would have been cheaper and way faster to just replace my tubeless tire instead of designing a whole airless tire system, prototype, print, mount everything. But it’s a hobby

There are zero upfront no-questions-asked 3D printing services as well as such PCB/PCBA manufacturing services, but not a Buy Now style Mechanical Turk assembly line service, yet. So you'll have to do the non-scalable work and do the literal manu-facturing when it comes to tiny volume cottage industry products with no cash or volume to foot and amortize upfront costs. Which can be bypassed or minimized if it's supposed to be a kit and you only have to bag some parts. Also it blurs areas of responsibility in favor of the shop.

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