Mighty mouse scroll ball as pointer

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Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Guys/Gals

Has anyone managed to use the scroll ball on the mighty mouse as a pointer mover instead of just for scrolling - essentially making it a track ball ? This might help me not move my mouse too much - on a 23" screen to drag from powerbook lcd to the far corner of the screen makes the mouse drop out of the hopelessly cluttered table's edge a couple of times for me - and no, i don't want to set the acceleration higher due to other constraints.

Anyone taught the "old" mouse new tricks ?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    It's a novel idea.



    That said, if there is no space to move, an actual trackball would probably work better.



    I wonder what the constraints are that prevent you setting the acceleration higher.

    Modern high-dps mice from Logitech and Razer are very controllable at high sensivity, and also allow on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment, which might be a way around some constraints. I have personally been eyeing Razer Pro which has full OS X driver support and has an appearance much like a purpose-bulit Mac mouse (beautiful!).
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  • Reply 2 of 5
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,953member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by luvosx


    Guys/Gals

    Has anyone managed to use the scroll ball on the mighty mouse as a pointer mover instead of just for scrolling - essentially making it a track ball ? This might help me not move my mouse too much - on a 23" screen to drag from powerbook lcd to the far corner of the screen makes the mouse drop out of the hopelessly cluttered table's edge a couple of times for me - and no, i don't want to set the acceleration higher due to other constraints.

    Anyone taught the "old" mouse new tricks ?



    What other constraints would that be? You can keep your current fine pointing accuracy but increase the rapid motion speed. Maybe if you explain it, there may be a suggestion on how to solve it.



    What you want probably would require either hacking the mouse or its driver. It's not going to work well because the ball's sensors are very crude. USB overdrive seems to have options to allow you to set the scroll ball (Accelerate Up, Down, Right & Left) to cause pointer motion, but it doesn't work yet.
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  • Reply 3 of 5
    Marvinmarvin Posts: 15,558moderator
    Try controllermate:



    http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/



    It is very customizable. It would probably let you assign a mouse movement based on your scrollball movement.
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  • Reply 4 of 5
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,953member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin


    Try controllermate:



    http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/



    It is very customizable. It would probably let you assign a mouse movement based on your scrollball movement.





    If it does allow what the first poster requests, I can't find it.
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  • Reply 5 of 5
    Marvinmarvin Posts: 15,558moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM


    If it does allow what the first poster requests, I can't find it.



    I tried it with my M$ mouse and I got the mouse wheel to move the mouse pointer but it doesn't do it smoothly and it only seems to work after moving the mouse. If the mouse is always static, the control doesn't register. Ah well.
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