Limpwristed fn mis-presses causing mouse grief - Kensington Slimblade

Help and Getting Started
1

Does anyone use their Model 01 with a Kensington trackball?

I’m having weird issues when I happen to mis-press the fn key while I’m typing. Some combination of those mouse control keys will cause my mouse buttons on the Slimblade to stop working. It’s like the primary mouse button is being held down. I have to spam the Model 01’s mouse click buttons to get my mouse working again.

This is a used board. Did someone just pass off a defect or known issue onto me? Would it help to upgrade my firmware?

I’ve noticed this on both Windows (where I have Kensington’s special driver installed) and Linux (where I’m just using a standard pointer driver AFAIK), and I’ve never had this problem before using the Model 01.

I guess the best solution would be for me to stop being so lazy and lift my wrists off of the palm rests, so I don’t hit that fn button on accident. I get that. The doctor also tells me to eat better. But, accidental key presses also shouldn’t completely stop everything I’m doing while I mess with the keyboard and un-fsck its mouse state. One time it happened in a video game–it’s Very Frustrating to suddenly have no mouse buttons in an online shooter. The mouse mappings are cool and everything but they should never get in the way.

Are there example mappings for toggling parts of layers on and off? so I could, for example, turn off the mouse keys with a combo, while I play games. That would also be useful for meta on windows, which again stops EVERYTHING and brings up the start menu if you happen to misinput and hit meta while you’re typing. I go very, very long stretches on windows without ever needing to press meta.

2

You can add a gaming layer on top of all other ones, and decide which key you want on your keyboard (and by the way where to place them !), and lock all other ones (just don’t forgot to have a key to unlock this layer, or you will be stuck on it, and will need to unplug the keyboard :frowning:).

It is very efficient and guaranty you from strange combos :smile:

Happy hacking !

1 Like
3

When this happens does it act leke the left mouse buttons is constantly held down?

This is a used board. Did someone just pass off a defect or known issue onto me? Would it help to upgrade my firmware?

If the key that is used for the left mouse button has no other problems, I’d expect it to be a software issue. If you haven’t done so O would definitely recomment upgrading the firmware, this is relatively staight forward usint the kaleidoscope app.

1 Like
4

I’ve experienced the similar symptoms with my Model 01, which I use with a graphics tablet. I’m on Linux. I find that I can usually unstick things by pressing Fn + F to click the M01 mouse device.

I’ve never succeeded in reproducing the issue so it’s difficult to be sure, but it smells like a software issue to me. My keyboard is from the 01-Q batch if you want to compare.

1 Like
5

Mine too says 01-Q… Someday we’ll figure out a way to get it to happen consistently…