I just got a SpaceNavigator SE and love it so far. Here's some feedback on minor problems that it has, to hopefully help make the next version even better:
- rotations counter-act translations: for example, while pulling the cap fully to the left (causing fast leftward panning), twisting the cap from above will actually reduce the strength of the panning. Each pan axis is adversely affected by 2 of the rotation axes in this way. In a 6-DOF device, all degrees of freedom should be fully independent, so this interaction is not ideal and can be annoying when performing certain camera maneuvers in 3D space. Applications can correct for this to some degree (I added hacks to mostly hide the problem in my software), but I doubt you can rely on most applications doing so (I tried Google Earth briefly, and it did not correct for this problem at all).
- tilting is limited by the base: if you press the cap down, this limits your ability to tilt the cap forwards/back/sideways, since it collides with the base of the device. That's another unfortunate coupling between degrees of freedom which can limit certain camera maneuvers (e.g. moving downwards while tilting the camera up)
- I think the base could do with being *slightly* heavier, especially since there's a lighter notebook version for people who would prefer a lighter option. A heavier base would allow me to use the device slightly more comfortably; I could use fewer fingers, since I wouldn't have to prevent it from sliding.
- I find the buttons on the device hard to use, given how they are positioned. They would be much more accessible to me if they were semicircles built into the rim of the cap, so I could press them when my fingers are (anywhere) on the sides of the cap.
Great work overall, though. Hope this is useful feedback.
SpaceNavigator SE feedback
Moderator: Moderators
Every mechanism has limitations. The device is not meant to be used out at the physical limits where you encounter these mechanical limitations. If you keep your movements in the free part of the range these constraints do not happen. If you find that you are at the stops because you simply want to go faster, just increase the gain using the driver.