Is it possible to configure a Framework laptop with a touchpad that has separate buttons?
Dell once had laptops with a great keyboard with a trackpad and a touchpad with very comfortable, slightly rubberized separate buttons.
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Not currently, but you could make one. There is a user-made project with buttons at the top of the touchpad as well iirc
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That is the beauty of this open-source design, isn’t it? If you have a 3D printer and some basic electronics skills, you can build anything you want for this thing.
Hey @4bytecolor the touchpad by default allows you to press on either side of the bottom and click it down to create a single left or right click. I just verified that you could put a piece of paper over the touch pad and it still tracks your finger, and you can click. So, I wonder if you could take some grippy tape like electrical tape and cut 2 rectangles for buttons and stick them at the bottom of the pad to give you that tactile feel of transferring to a button? Just an idea to play around with. You could possibly even 3D print some kind of template to lay over it. Then when you click down on it then the pad will generate the click and based on your finger position should be right or left click. Not sure how well this would work in practice but might give you some ideas on how you could come up with a simple custom solution to feel physical buttons where you push down and feel a click. Give it a try!
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what?
Now I need to see this
That is a horrible idea.
But yeah. If you really dislike the input interface, you can always make your own, the mechanical is all out there.
iirc its somewhere buried in the forums… i don’t remember where I saw it
to be clear the buttons are only at the top of the touchpad and idk if whether it works on the 13 or 16
I’m glad I’m not the only one who developed a hatred for the trackpads where you have to double-tap the trackpad instead of have a mouse-button for it. Ever since the button-less trackpad has been on laptops, just moving your finger areound on it generates way too many false taps. I have to use a USB or blutooth mouse, because not having buttons on the trackpad is so annoying.
How many 3rd party companies are working on accessories/modules for Framework?
You’re not the only one!
just moving your finger areound on it generates way too many false taps
Yes, this is the problem!
I’m here digging in the forums looking for the same solution.
Will comment here if I find the other thread they are referring to.
I have seen this happen if your finger is wet or something.
Instead of asking you to make your finger less wet (which can be downright impossible to do), I can say this:
don’t use tap.
I have never used “tap to click” or “double tap to drag lock”, or any of the fancy madness. Only gesture that make sense, is two finger scrolling, with “down motion scrolls down”, no zoom, no rotate, two finger tap for right click, and three finger tap and four finger tap. Flicks are too finicky, as well.
It has gotten a lot better, but I think gestures is still just a torment nexus, designed to only bring pain. But I am getting ahead of myself.
It is I2C, not USB. But you should be able to grab USB pins off of the pogo interface, and make a USB trackpad sort of a thing, complete with separate buttons.
I on the other hand want to experiment with putting a Wacom Pen surface onto the palmrest…