(Photo credits from left to right, top to bottom: apexio, Dmytry, Jeff Li, RCHeliGuy, tigerflip, and VSVlab.)
For years I have played with the idea of creating a small business for trackball mouse accessories. Ergonomically, trackballs are a nice improvement from traditional computer mice, but they still have limitations. Their biggest issue is often how they sit on a mousepad or computer desk. It is unnatural — the opposite of ergonomic. Here are two common pain points.
The Logitech MX ERGO is a thumb-operated trackball with the ability to tilt from having your hand parallel with the desk to a 20° angle. With split ergonomic keywords, this concept is referred to as “tenting”. With trackballs, people usually describe it as using a “wedge”. The MX ERGO is different because the mouse itself is designed to tilt using magnets. Right now, no other trackball on the market does this (with or without magnets). If people have pain using a flat trackball mouse, they could try the MX ERGO, or a vertical trackball like the Kensington Pro Fit Ergo, or use a wedge. Some people use the MX ERGO and find the tilt isn’t steep enough and still need to use a wedge. All of this is to say that “side-tilt” is important. You might be wondering, “Why call it ‘side-tilt’ and not just ’tilt’?” That brings me to example #2.
The Kensington Expert Mouse is an ambidextrous finger-operated trackball. The back of the mouse is taller than the front, so if you allow the weight of your hand to rest on the surface, your fingers will sit higher than your palm. This forces your wrist back like you’re revving a motorcycle, into the perfect “I Want Carpal Tunnel” position. All similar finger-operated models with large trackballs also utilize this design, regardless of the manufacturer. I assume this is because the solution is to raise the front of the mouse, causing it to sit problematically high on the desk. If people are serious about ergonomics, that is exactly what they do though. They use a “negative-tilt” wedge and make other adjustments to their workspace if needed.
Trackball mouse stands are tilting solutions. Some tilt to the side, some tilt backwards, and some do both. There are other variables too — wedge vs. non-wedge, mouse-specific vs. universal, smaller for thumb-operated models vs. larger for finger-operated models, and so on. The one thing they all have in common is that they are rarely commercially produced, and the few that are don’t solve every situation.
Elecom is a noteworthy exception. They have three different designs in this product category, although all of them are only intended for thumb-operated trackballs.
Folding Flip Pad for Trackball Mouse (MP-TBM01BK) — A collapsible magnetic pad with notches creating an angled surface from 20° to 60° in 5° increments.
Trackball Angle Disc Pad (MP-TBM02BK) — A circular (and consequently rotatable) 20° wedge.
Tilt Adjustable Custom Stand for Trackball Mouse (MP-TBM03BK) — This design uses three pairs of silicon legs with increasing heights that connect to the mouse with 3M adhesive. It has been discontinued, but you can still learn about it on their Japanese site.
With that said, most trackball stands are homemade. I’ve seen people use cardboard boxes, binders, doorstoppers, and even Legos. They might not be the best looking, but they are simple, easily accessible, and affordable. 3D printed stands are also common, since there is demand for a duplicable solution but hardly enough to justify mass production. Fancy options exist too. I’ll describe them a little later on.
All of this information is hard to organize, but I will try to explain it in the way that I have come to think about trackball stand designs. Before I get to that though, there’s something that needs to be said.
Wrist Rests Can Hurt More Than They Help
Before I finally gave up and went to physical therapy for my wrist pain, I tried everything. Padded compression gloves, night splints, wrist / palm rests, and so on. What I learned through my weeks at PT was that many of the things I had been doing that were supposed to help were actually making things worse. By sleeping in night splints and allowing the weight of my arms, wrists, and palms to rest while working, I was making myself weaker. My wrists didn’t need to rest. They had atrophied from years of being babied and needed to get stronger.
The consensus on proper ergonomic wrist position at a computer is that your wrists should be neutral — in other words, flat. Whether or not wrist rests help do this is up for debate. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) sums it up well:
“On one side of the debate, it is known that leaning the wrists on a wrist rest or the edge of the desk for long periods can put a lot of pressure on the undersides of the wrists. This pressure may cause carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) to develop. On the other hand, evidence shows that wrist rests alleviate tension in the neck and shoulders.
Contact between the wrists and the wrist rest, if too frequent or too heavy, can indeed cause problems due to excessive pressure on the delicate tendons on the underside of the wrist, and has been known to result in CTS and tenosynovitis (inflammation of the sheath surrounding tendons). This resulting condition may be what has led people to believe that wrist rests should not be used. However, in other cases, individuals without a wrist rest would place their wrists on the sharp edges of the desk. In these cases, a softer wrist rest would help lessen the pressure.”
I subscribe to the philosophy that proper typing and mousing technique removes the need for wrist rests nine times out of ten. Hovering your hands in a neutral position and allowing your fingers to lightly touch the keyboard and mouse, although uncomfortable at first, is the correct method. You can either fix the bad habit of dropping your wrists preemptively or wait until the pain forces you to do so. If you do experience shoulder or neck pain, there may be another ergonomic issue involved with a different solution: Mouse placement too far away from the body, elbow angles too small, monitor height too low, etc. Cornell University Ergonomics Web (CUErgo) is an awesome resource to learn more legitimate, science-backed information on this.
So if wrist rests are controversial, why are they so popular? For the same reason diet pills sell so well — people buy them. But I’ll stop here and just say this: All of the following information disregards wrist rests, because they shouldn’t be a determining factor when considering a trackball stand.
3D Printed Trackball Stands
3D printed trackball stands can be purchased on marketplaces like Etsy and eBay, or if you own a 3D printer you can print your own at home. Free designs are common on websites like Thingiverse and Printables. The majority are made for specific trackball models, but there are some attempts at universal stands. Having explored both, the mouse-specific stands are preferable, both in terms of sturdiness and ease of printing.
This is because 3D prints have limitations. Model-specific stands use features like curved bases or only support the outline of the mouse. Universal designs use long, flat pieces with straight edges, which are necessary to be universal but likely to warp. A little bit of warping might be acceptable for a DIY solution, but you can’t sell them.
3D printed stands are customizable, but they’re not flexible. For whatever mouse you have, any angle is possible. If you want to change it in the future though, you’ll need to make another stand. More future-proof solutions cost more money.
Out of all the 3D printed designs I’ve seen, I think this one that uses a disassembled Logitech ERGO M575 trackball and converts it into a foot-operated mouse is the coolest. I’ve switched mouse hands before, but never thought to try feet!
Trackball Stands With Camera Equipment
If you want a stand capable of doing practically any position or angle while also being adjustable at any time, you can hack one together with camera / film equipment. Most guides that people have written in this realm are for split ergonomic keyboards, but they follow the same logic. Tripods, clamps, cheese plates, ball heads, and mini articulating arms are terms you want to know. Through a combination of these parts, anything is possible.
Unlike 3D printed stands and other wedges that sit on your desk, tripods and clamps free you from that limitation. If you want total separation from your desk, use a tripod on the floor. If you want more foot space, clamp to your desk. From there, ball heads provide a free range of motion to set the tilt angle you want, and mini articulating arms can extend reach if needed. Cheese plates act both as connectors between pieces and flat surfaces on which your mouse can rest.
Here’s an excellent tripod example and guide by Martin Körner.
Here’s an example with a clamp.
Using camera equipment is great because there are so many ways to make the stand you want. You could say that’s the downside too — no “trackball stand kits” exist because everyone builds them a little differently.
Trackball Mouse-to-Stand Connection Solutions
The last thing to think about when considering trackball stands is how they connect to the mouse. If the surface area is big enough and the tilt angle is gradual enough, nothing additional is needed. If either of those is a problem, there needs to be something that holds the mouse to the stand and prevents it from moving.
3D printed stands will often use a sort of appendage that inserts into a hole in the specific trackball model. Right now, that’s usually the hole to punch out the ball for cleaning or the spot that holds the wireless USB dongle. The latter may need to change as USB type-A plugs fade away and get replaced by Bluetooth.
When this peg-and-hole approach isn’t an option, hook-and-loop strips — specifically VELCRO and Command strips — work well. They’re easy to add, can be cut to the size you need, and are non-permanent. I use the same method for other electronics all of the time.
But for those who regularly connect and disconnect the mouse from the stand, magnets are a better solution. Thumb-operated trackballs can use multiple small neodymium disc magnets (~10mm wide x ~2mm thick) secured to the mouse casing with epoxy, then inset the corresponding magnets so they’re flush with the surface of a 3D printed stand.
Finger-operated trackballs are larger and can use MagSafe-style flat ring magnets, which end up being less time-intensive to set up.
My Trackball Stand
Knowing all of this, you can probably tell I’ve tried a few stands. My work setup is always evolving, but right now my home setup uses a Kensington Expert Mouse on a 10° side-tilt wedge custom-made by my father-in-law. Maybe you’ll find some inspiration in it for making your own.
