Atreus with a TrackPoint pointing device?

Hardware hacking
1

I’ve been searching, but found nothing so far. Has anyone put a ThinkPad like pointing device (aka Nipple) in between the two halves of the Atreus? I’m working (oh so slowly) on a Tandy Model-100-esque laptop, using an RPi 5 with a 1920x480 8.8 inch display above an Atreus. I had thought about hanging a SwiftPoint GoPoint mouse on the right side of the case, but then remembered that I really liked the ThinkPad nub back in the day, and there’s already this gap in the middle of the Atreus…

I have learned over the years to use a right-handed pointing device, but mostly because all the best feeling ones to me are asymmetric ergonomic mice that only come right-handed. But the ThinkPad’s TrackPoint (I knew I’d eventually remember its name) always worked really well for me too. And thinking about the footprint of the device I’m trying to build, a pointing device in the middle seems almost optimal.

So, does that seem like a reasonable idea? Or was there some ergot in my beef barley soup and I’m losing my marbles?

2

That seems like a good idea. Are there TrackPoint clones that one could buy and mount in the middle of an Atreus? What kind of electronic device is a TrackPoint?

3

Yeah, there are replacements sold. They’re generally designed to hide behind the keycaps, so many (all?) are bare circuit boards.

They look like USB mice to the computer, afaik. But the ThinkPad might have a special driver. I don’t know for sure yet.

4

Nice :smiley: so this is buildable.

I used to use a Logitech G13 for gaming and its thumb mini-joystick was very convenient for moving around in 3D. I imagine something similar in the middle of an Atreus or Model 100 would be a good pointing device.

5

Still waiting on my parts to arrive. Maybe two more weeks? But I’m also a bit laid up at the moment, so it’ll be September before I make any progress on this, I expect.

6

The trackpoint replacement arrived last week, but I also had back surgery the week before that, so all I’ve managed so far is to verify that it was in the box. I’m hoping I can find time between the various appointments this week to chewing-gum something together and see if it will at least function.