[Showcase] Single piece touchpad module

Hello everyone,

Here is a project I’ve been thinking about doing for a while. It’s a single piece touchpad module. You unscrew the touchpad module and attach it to this piece.



My Prusa MK4 3D printer isn’t big enough to print it as a single piece. But, the part is designed to be printed as a single piece to remove all seams on the touchpad modules.

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Nice work.

I dunno about you, but my experience has been that, as much it bothers me aesthetically, the touchpad is best centered under the space bar, i.e. offset to the left. At first I had it centered like you have it there, but I quickly found that when I type my right palm always landed on the touchpad. Do you feel differently?

Nice work nonetheless!

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*e.g. offset to the left.
Some people may have a keyboard that’s centered or on the right.

In my experience, if I’m going to be typing and using the trackpad it’s best centered under the spacebar. If I’m gaming, then sometimes I’ll move the trackpad as far away from WASD as possible if the disable-while-typing doesn’t seem to be playing nice.

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I’m running the number pad with the keyboard and I have my mouse full centered. I prefer it there honestly even though it looks different from most standard 10 key type setups on a laptop

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You two side pieces still look like they sit up too high on the left and ride sides. Is that right? One of my issues with the uneven pieces is also that the far sides also sit higher than the frame of the laptop.

The design can be easily adjusted to create left and right aligned trackpad positions.

Ehhhh I think I’m right on this one! e.g. = “for example”, i.e. = “that is” or “in other words”. I think i.e. is right because there’s really only one way to center the touchpad under the space bar, and that is by offsetting to the left. If there were other ways, then I guess it could be an e.g. situation.

Well…I guess theoretically it’s physically possible to put the numpad on the left and the keyboard on the right, in which case the way to center the touchpad under the mouse would be to offset it to the right, but only a monster would do such a thing! Actually, does that even work? Isn’t there some sort of interference somewhere with that configuration? I’m not at home so I don’t have mine to play with.

Nonetheless, I was referring to OP’s specific configuration so I stand by my i.e.!

My apologies then, I misunderstood. I thought you were saying the one and only best way to align the touchpad and keyboard on the left, and not that the only way to align the trackpad centered with the space bar when the keyboard is on the left is when the trackpad is also on the left.

Are you going to make the files avaiable for download anywhere?

Here is the model. I made it available for purchase on Printables.

https://www.printables.com/model/937413-framework-laptop-16-single-piece-touchpad-module

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I tried on mine, unfortunately it doesn’t seem like you can have the trackpad to the left of the keyboard, as the connector of the keyboard overlaps with part of the trackpad module that is not flat.

So you say lefthanded People are Monsters?

Certainly not. Unlike the English language, I don’t actually think anyone is a monster because of the hand they write with. It was but a joke, an exaggeration, hyperbole for the sake of humor.

I also don’t think it’s a handedness thing. I’ve known many left-handed people, yet never seen anyone with a keyboard with the numpad on the left. I think anyone who does prefer that simply prefers it, regardless of hand-dominance. I’d wager most left-handed people are more comfortable with the numpad on the right because they learn on them because they are the default.

Regardless, I think we should all enjoy typing however we like. If the numpad in the center of two half-keyboards makes you happy, I hope there’s a company out there making it. Just keep it out of our schools!

Ah sorry, did it again. Ok, I’ll stop now. I apologize if I’ve offended anyone, and that is not a joke!

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Only way I thought of it.

Hi OperationCWAL,

Maybe i misunderstood your Joke because English isn’t my First-Language.

Maybe that’s because Industry tend to ignore lefthanded People.

In the following Thread you can see a Framework 16 with Numpad on the Left:
Constant microstuttering, buzzing coil whine sounds from Framework 16 dGPU

You didn’t offend me, because i am righthanded, so no Problem here. :peace_symbol:

Oh certainly. I’m sure it comes down to a cold calculation resulting it being not profitable enough for manufacturers to build or retailers to stock left-handed keyboards as readily as right-handed keyboards. Mice too!

I’m all for more options, which is why I love the modularity of products like the Framework 16. I do see the example in the thread you linked, but I am still under the impression that there is a problem with something not fitting right, possibly with the touchpad offset to the left and the keyboard to the right? I’ll have to confirm this when I get home instead of just saying “I think.” If it is actually the case, I actually think it’s an area for improvement because it seems in a product such as this, all configurations should be possible. Even monsters deserve to be comfortable when typing! :wink:

In that spirit, and to bring it back to the point of this thread, I actually hope Framework can better implement the modular input deck so that we won’t need solutions like the one OP created. Better fitment, and more flexibility. Heck, I think we should be able to put the touchpad ABOVE the keyboard if we wanted to! Why? I don’t know, but I bet there’s someone out there who would appreciate that!

Again, apologies for any confusion on my part.

[quote=“OperationCWAL, post:17, topic:54210, full:true”]

If I were likely to ever travel with the laptop, I would much rather the tracker pad went above the keyboard. The hand position feels unnatural to me. The keyboard at the bottom allowing thewristes to sit at a lower height than the keyboard would be much more natural.

I have made my reverse engineered touchpad module free and open source on Printables.

https://www.printables.com/model/937413-framework-laptop-16-single-piece-touchpad-module

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