I needed another corded mouse and this time around I thought of @[email protected] and @[email protected] instead of Logitech’s shareholders. These guys make open source mice among other open source hardware under the brand Ploopy. You can order one from them, assembled or as a kit, or you could print and build it entirely by yourself.
The mouse itself is pretty great. Coming from a long line of Logitech (MX518/G5/G500/G502), it’s a bit larger than what I’m used to but I think I’m getting accustomed to it.
Here’s another shot of it:
Those layer lines look like a perfect place for all sorts of shit to gather and stick to.
If one has sweaty hands - stay away from 3D-printed / soft plastic shell mice.
I couldn’t agree more. I also hate when mice or keyboards can not be easily disassembled to be properly cleaned. In this case I guess it’s a matter of printing precision and/or material (don’t have my own printing experience, so maybe somebody else can comment on it)
Many people will say “just sand it down”. But the extruder-printed plastic is still going to be porous as heck. A perfect place for germs.
Personally, I’d use the 3D model to create a negative mold of sorts, and then cast it out of something more human-friendly. But I haven’t looked at the complexity of this model, this would have to be designed accordingly.
Your mold idea makes me wonder if cast aluminum could be practical for a shell for this.
How do you usually do that?
Do you create a negative of the model digitally or take a mold of the printed parts?
What kinds of human-friendly materials do you use? And do you need any special equipment for it?
The adult toys community would have some guides. You print the object, cast the mold around it and then fill the void with silicone afaik.
Is silicone rigid enough? Adult toys have slightly different requirements from many other 3D printed things.
Maybe you could vapour-smooth it.
I’ve got to say “Ploopy” is one of the absolute worst names I’ve ever seen. Before I even saw the picture, I thought “I bet it looks like shit.”
Opensource projects often have terrible names.
Gimp, libreoffice, lemmy, Apache… just the ones that come to mind.
Gimp is a funny acronym that explains exactly what the software does. Libreoffice also tells you exactly what the product is. Lemmy is quick, catchy, easy to remember, and has a story behind it. Apache is… pretty bad.
Ploopy is literally “poopy” with an extra letter.
Gimp refers to sexual exploitation. Often the “exploited” is a willing participant but often not. Regardless it’s “funny” the way a 12 year old finds drawing dicks on things funny.
Libreoffice only tells geeks exactly what the product is. My team, who uses Libreoffice, couldn’t explain what Libre means, and no one can pronounce it.
Being quick and catchy is a pretty low bar. No one knows or cares about the story behind Lemmy. It sounds silly in conversation.
Gimp refers to sexual exploitation.
Like CBT and dozens of other terms, those damn psychologists and their Cock and Ball Torture.
Libreoffice only tells geeks exactly what the product is. My team, who uses Libreoffice, couldn’t explain what Libre means, and no one can pronounce it.
Not sure if this is serious or not ?
If they’re illiterate perhaps wider reading beyond Manga would help?
Gimp refers to sexual exploitation.
No, it doesn’t.
Libreoffice only tells geeks exactly what the product is.
The target market is primarily geeks.
no one can pronounce it.
Sounds like your coworkers should expand their horizons. Libre is a common word in (at least) 2 widely spoken languages.
Being quick and catchy is a pretty low bar.
Not when you’re naming a product. You think its hard to get people to use Lemmy, imagine trying to sell them on “Federated Link Aggregater Website.”
It sounds silly in conversation.
As does Google, Instagram, and Tiktok but they at least managed to pick silly sounding names that don’t sound like a child trying to describe a loose bowel movement.
Yeah, as opposed to weird shit like Apple, Google, Facebook, or earphones like the Sony Model EA-JX1000JT
It’s like an alien name out of Rick and Morty. 😂
you mean you dont like my plumbus? what about glorp?
Ploopy fills my hand really well
“I like resting my hand on my Ploopy”
It almost sounds like a vintage game sound, like “bleep bloop”, but worse, fecally worse.
I’m sorry but that’s such a ploopy take. You can’t just judge something by it’s name 🙄
it gives me a general “its probably entirely shit”. that’s really a bad name.
After reading up it sounds like a decent product but they should definitely consider rebranding.
Super cool and I totally see the appeal, but at nearly 3x the price of my Logitech g502 for a 3d printed mouse with a technically inferior sensor, it’s a big ask.
I bought a Ploopy Thumb a few years ago. I assembled it myself, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was (when actually following the instructions).
The small button on the right has broken twice, which wasn’t a problem because I just downloaded the stl file and reprinted the button assembly.
I wanted horizontal scrolling, so I used QMK to make the trackball a scroll wheel when the right side button is pressed (that may explain the faster button wear). It was surprisingly easy, and there was even a comment in the source code pointing out which line I should modify for horizontal scrolling support. I guess they expected people to want this feature.
The price is high, but I don’t expect to buy another mouse unless my needs change. The open source hardware and software is excellent, making repairability 10/10. The edges of the buttons are slightly rough, but I have the 3d printing files, so I get to choose what material it’s made of and what post processing / smoothing is used. It hasn’t bothered me enough to do anything about it.
While I can’t recommend a trackball mouse to anyone, I can recommend Ploopy. It’s one of the few products that I feel like I actually own.
How do you use a trackball mouse? Does moving the mouse and moving the trackball both move the pointer? Or one moves the pointer and the other does something else?
The mouse stays in one location with grippy feet and the trackball moves the cursor. There is no sensor for mouse movement. It does take a while to get used to.
The reason I chose it was that I didn’t have enough desk space to move a mouse. I barely even had enough space to put the mouse. Now that I’ve moved house, I just like the novelty. It’s not as accurate as a regular mouse.
I would love a mouse that could do both regular movement and trackball movement so I could have 4 axis inputs. Sadly, I haven’t found any like that.
It’s not as accurate as a regular mouse.
This is not true of all trackballs. Some can be more accurate than a mouse with the push of a button.
That may be technically true, but what’s stopping someone from using the same button on a regular mouse?
A regular mouse can have a large amount of movement with your elbow and very fine control with your wrist. Your thumb on a trackball may have more range or precision than either, but not both combined.
My personal experience is that a trackball mouse is a little less accurate when trying to move a large distance precisely. Perhaps I just need more practice.
Do you have a button in your regular mouse that enables precision mode?
I don’t personally have a regular mouse, but most “gamer” mice have a DPI button.
I have seen several pro gamers use the DPI button on their mouse to rapidly change their precision while playing. I suspect it would take more practice than I’m willing to put in, but they seem to use it to great effect.
Ok.
I helped a user who exclusively uses a trackball and started getting used to it within seconds. My thumb was definitely not used to the trackball but I very quickly adapted and could navigate the computer normally
How’d you make the surface this smooth?
Overuse and poor lighting.
I know some people have used an acetone vapor bath with ABS prints. I’ve never looked into what works with PLA.
Just to save the heartache, acetone vapor does not work with pla.
LOL, makes sense. I’m considering using epoxy. Seems like there’s a product that can be brushed on. It fills the gaps. Can be painted if desired.
I’d be interested to see how well it works.
I’ll try to remember to post if I end up doing it.
What I really want is this, but with a trackpad instead of a trackball.
They do have a trackpad, but not in this shape.
I was surprised when I started using the Steamdeck. The Steamdeck’s trackpad felt almost identical to my trackball mouse, and it took effectively no time to get used to it.
The advantage of a trackball over a trackpad is that you can spin the ball for high movement speed, then stop it after a set time for fairly accurate distance. A trackball (or trackpad) will never be as accurate as a regular moue, but it is surprisingly usable (after a few months or practice).
I’ve used several trackballs, but they have all been seriously uncomfortable for me and my specific brand of RSI. My current “mouse” is a Steam Controller, but using it one-handed isn’t great due to the uneven weight distribution. I also have much better accuracy using a trackpad vs a trackball.
Ideally, I just want a Steam Controller cut in half with a more confortable grip that doesn’t dig into my palm.
Now do printers.
pretty stupid that we can print in 3 dimensions well, while 2-dimension remains locked behind capitalism.
I have written a more detailed comment on it before, but 2d printing is much more technically complicated than 3D printing, and the resolution is literally an order of magnitude difference (0.2mm vs <42um) and the printer has to print full color on any surface with microdots in a very very short time. People would throw the printer out if it took 10 minutes for a single paper like a large first layer takes in 3D printing.
We were ok with dot matrix printers. We are and will be ok with black and white prints. Open Source community will be ok with a slow and ugly print. The company just need to allow their monopoly to be broken. I don’t think they will.
I often wonder how difficult it would be to create an aftermarket control board for existing printers.
Yes please!
3D printed stuff looks so uncomfortable to hold.
Is it comfortable in the hand? The surface looks super rough
All Ploopy’s stuff looks rough. I think they’re 3D-printing them. Maybe one day they’ll progress to something that gives a nicer result.
I was looking at their trackballs but the ambidextrous ones look awkwardly tiny and have rattly bearings, in addition to the rough finish. I support what they’re doing but I wish the products were a bit less prototypey.
The whole point is that it’s open source and they want people to be able to print them themselves.
Yeah, definitely 3D printed.
I think they’re 3D-printing them. Maybe one day they’ll progress to something that gives a nicer result
Yes they are 3D printed
Poorly 3D printed.
The layering issue could be solved by orienting the object at a 45° angle
Or even smaller layer height. That looks like .2 or .24 minimum.
I could reprint the housing one day, when I get a printer myself. 😂
It looks rough, but it’s actually fairly comfortable.The only bit that bothered me was the edge of one of the buttons, and a nail file fixed that in seconds.
Theoretically, you can mold it to fit your hand but the tolerances and mountings make that a hassle.
As for the print itself? Most people just do a quick print and have the telltale ridges from layers. But you can futz with settings to improve the smoothness or just finish the print itself. At which point it is not going to be as smooth as injection molding but it will be more “different” than “bad”.
Stupid question from someone who’s never 3d printed anything - can you just sand these things smoother?
It depends how it was printed.
As a SUPER simplified basic: Any 3d print consists of walls/perimeters and infill. The walls are the exterior surfaces of the print. The infill is what is inside. And the vast majority of prints tend to be sparse infills. So rather than solid plastic beneath those walls, you mostly just have air and a mesh structure of some form.
So if the wall is thick enough (generally referred to as “number of walls”)? Sure. If it isn’t? You’ll just see the void inside the shell itself and make things much worse.
What is generally done to reduce “3d printed texture” is a mixture of smaller print layers (so the ridges are much thinner), printing with more walls, and actually lightly melting the exterior surface (either through chemicals or heat).
VKB are probably the kings of the mid-range sicko HOTAS market and I am like 90% certain they 3d print the shell of their sticks for the Gladiator (?). But they do such a good job that I genuinely can’t be certain. Whereas the vast majority of ploopy builds… aren’t that.
Looks like a bitch to clean. Gonna get all sorts of grease collecting in those grooves…
It feels good. I’m thinking of smoothing it with epoxy but it’s not necessary.
Only as good as your 3d printer and settings I’d say
its 3d printed so it has layer lines. it can be improved or processed to be smoother though.
Isn’t there severe issues with micro plastics doing this? Serious question. I’ve just heard in general on 3d prints that they’re more prone to shedding.
If you do the smoothing steps it can be OK, especially if you sand it in a sealed environment or with a HEPA vacuum handy to suck up all of the particulates. Once it is sanded you can do a short acetone treatment and the surface will be melted smooth. It can take some practice, but you can seal it up pretty well without sacrificing quality. Just be mindful of air quality and filtering at each step so you don’t undermine your goal.
Also, no matter what the microplastic impact on the environment is less than a mouse made in a factory thar doesn’t pay attention to any of its air quality standards.
Gotcha. Thanks for the type up!
I would literally eat a spoon of microplastics if it meant I got a mouse that was comparable to my G602. Not saying this mouse does that but there certainly aren’t any commercial options I could find.
need to take it real old, print it in abs and do a vapor smoothing in acetone.
You could also print this in a goo printer and not have the issue.
Interesting. I always wondered if the same rule applied to the ‘goo’ type as my friend has one.
They definitely don’t shed much when they’re new. They’re quite playable and don’t sand easily
Now you leave it in the sun for a year, they do get brittle, I suspect at that point you might be able to sand them on a table surface.
I want an open source mouse with electromagnetic resistance wheel like one in Logitech MX Master 3S.
Might not be too difficult to achieve by connecting a small electric motor to the scroll wheel axle. Then you could vary the resistance by changing a pot hooked the motor’s terminals.
I’ve been using this mouse for almost a year now. No complaints.
This stuff is nice. Are there any plans for a vertical mouse for those of us with cranky old man wrists?
I’m waiting for my MX to die to get one! I really like the idea of open hardware and this looks like a good mouse.
This is pretty cool. I make and 3d print pieces for my G502 to make it fit better for my hand/nubs. This seems like it has a lot of potential to design something better for me. That price is steep though but being disabled that’s nothing new to me.
I am also a big fan of the MX518 lineage mice, so I hope someone make a version that has that shape. When Logitech released an updated MX518 several years back I bought a couple of them, so I will be good for years hopefully.
