Hi there!

[JRowe]

I just got an alpha grip 2 days ago, and I'm loving it. It will be a
week or so before I'm comfortable with it. I have a few comments about
usability, but for the most part, this has been an awesome gadget.

First off, the right side thumb keys and trackball are great. They're
easily and intuitively accessible.

The left hand thumb keys are good, but I think the 4 central keys
should be rotated 45 degrees. Having 4 keys mapped to cardinal
directions relative to the user would be a major improvement in
mapping game and other navigation configurations. Generally speaking,
reorienting yourself to accommodate directional navigation reduces
performance. This means that the side by side layout is going to
reduce the efficacy of the central keys as a functional d-pad.

I'm a hotkey user - I use alt-tab heavily, the function keys a lot,
and all sorts of ctrl/shift/alt combos across the various programs I
use. The alt/ctrl/win key placement is awkward, and since I use the
keyboard extensively for navigation, I'll be remapping them after I
become more comfortable with the device. Any key configuration is
going to require easy navigation hotkeys, or it's going to be
counterproductive for me.

I also was wondering about the reason for the weights. I've read in
this group that it's a good idea to remove them. Has anyone done a
breakdown/rebuild so we can see what's inside? (If not, I'll be happy
to, and I'll post images on my site.)

[Doug Sims]

Glad you are liking your new AG. A week was about what it took for me to her used to it as well.
I recommend that you adjust how and what hot keys you use. I found that since you have a mouse and keyboard there at your fingertips, your normal short cuts will change.
I feel you on the arrow keys. I wrote a auto hotkey script that rotated the arrows one position clockwise. This seemed to be more natural to me.
What weights are you referring to? The rubber in the bottom? Those are unnecessary and easily removed. Just be careful when disassembling it, don't let the top keys fall out without making sure you know where they go back.

On May 26, 2011 6:25 PM, "JRowe" <jro...@gmail.com> wrote:

[JRowe]

The breakdown is incredibly simple - 8 screws and 3 connectors that
are firm, but not too tight. I took out the weights, but will be
putting them back.

The initial feel of the device seemed a little bottom-heavy, but that
was more because of my holding my arms on the chair rests - this
caused my wrists to become tired. I've since tucked my arms in closer
to my sides and experimented with my feet up, leaning back. There's no
strain on my wrists, and the sensation of too much weight on the
bottom disappeared.

So, I'm practicing still, and I'll put together a review of my
progress starting tonight. It might be useful to be able to show
people a day-by-day report of how someone in the wild learns to use
one of these. I'm definitely sure that the left cykl keys need to be
rotated, but everything else seems perfect :)

[JRowe]

Replaced the rubber feet. I'd also misaligned the keys by the LEDs, so
they felt kinda squishy. After I reassembled the unit it fixed the
issue. So far, so good :)

[Matthew Jordan]

The only thing I would change is the size of the trackball, it needs to be bigger to play fps with decent accuracy, otherwise this thing has been perfect so far. 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "alphagrip" group.
To post to this group, send email to alph...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to alphagrip+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/alphagrip?hl=en.

[Cynvision]

I just got mine today. It's been a lengthy wait. But thank to
AlphaGrip peeps for quick delivery! It's taking some thought to get
started, but I'm hopeful of quick adoption because I have a half
keyboard.
Oddly, it's slightly larger than I'd pictured.
Cynthia