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  • > preorder a kit for $99CAD

    What is a kit here? A trackball? All the parts needed to assemble a trackball? A populated circuit board, where the rest needs 3D printing? A pile of electronic components that need to be soldered together and the rest needs 3D printing?

    by mkl
  • For comparison, the regular adept had a PCB and came with printed parts. Some light soldering was involved.
    by arcanemachiner
  • Based on https://web.archive.org/web/20260727075248/https://blog.ploo..., it seems like some soldering is involved
    by rogerrogerr
  • The repairable, open hardware angle is the real sell for me. Nice to see a trackball designed to be kept instead of replaced.
    by deadcatfound
  • Don’t know what you have been using, but my Kensington Expert Mouse is over 20 years old now, and is still going strong.
    by rekabis
  • Not a trackball, but anyone else watch Engineer Bo, or tried their very nice Knob? https://youtu.be/ehd3Ue2fKKM

    I dig that the Ploopy knob is QMK based, also high resolution. But watching how much effort E.B. has put into my favorite input device of all time, I can't help but want one of theirs.

    The internal LED's are cool here. I like the indicator effect, especially with the partial transparency ball. I do wish this was bluetooh and ZMK based. Even though ZMK is lagging a decent bit behind QMK features. Zephyr is just so cool! Wireless is so great. In my opinion.

    by jauntywundrkind
  • I spent my early years in an online tape edit bay. The jog/shuttle wheel has always been something that just seemed like the perfect fit. Even in today's NLE, there are multiple devices trying to fill this need, yet none have the same feel as the old edit controllers
    by dylan604
  • I was able to buy one of the Full Scroll Dials, it’s fantastic! I even made a USB adapter for it using a Pi Pico W, which lets it work with a USB switch and fixes macOS compatibility by emulating a Magic Trackpad: https://github.com/timothyb89/bt2usb
    by timothyb89
  • I see we've reinvented the slashdot effect.
    by walrus01
  • Around the 2000s I remember playing a match of Unreal Tournament Classic on a LAN party again a player of a major german UT clan of the time - he was using a trackball to play and slaughtered us so hard. To this day I can't imagine precise inputs with a trackball, but I saw it is possible.
    by littlecranky67
  • My buddy had a Logitech Trackman and absolutely dominated in quake back in the day. So much so that it made me adopt a Trackman in 2001 and I consistently came in top 3 in counterstrike.

    I’m sure it’s not the best ergonomic pointing device but I haven’t stopped using it and rock a Logitech ergo trackball these days.

    by grepfru_it
  • They have a countdown for the pre-order here[0]. Seems like it's available as a kit Wednesday, August 19th, 2026 at 10am ET to pre-order.

    I love all I/O devices..

    I think the main difference from the Ploopy Adept is they added two knob buttons?

    [0]:https://ploopy.co/aplus-launch-countdown/

    by big_toast
  • I bought the regular mouse and had a fun time assembling it. It works fine.

    However the "ergonomic" design is extremely uncomfortable for me and caused hand pain. I let it ride for a few weeks hoping I'd get accustomed, the pain got better but didn't go away. Also the far-left and far-right mouse buttons are superfluous and detract from the core experience.

    Please do a symmetrical version and maybe throw in a scroll wheel with steps/clicks, I'd happily buy another.

    by branon
  • Instantly couldn't resist clicking on some unknown thing called "the Ploopy A+".
    by malloryerik
  • Sounds similar to something from the Ricky and Morty realm; the plumbus.
    by RationPhantoms
  • Looks similar to my trusty Kensington Expert, only with more buttons:

    https://www.kensington.com/p/products/electronic-control-sol...

    Even the wrist rest, which I've never seen on another trackball, seems to have been copied from here. Anybody tested out both?

    They really need to find a better name than "Ploopy" though.

    by decimalenough
  • I had the Expert briefly before returning it and the Ploopy Adept. The Expert doesn't have hardware remappable buttons, only software which IMO makes it no good. It is, IIRC a little bigger. The Adept does have QMK hardware remappable buttons, although mine had a button break and I never got it quite feeling right with the replacement case. I feel like they revised things from my early board and case and they didn't quite match up. I also think scrolling by holding down a button and moving the ball on the Adept is better than the Expert scroll wheel.

    Generally I like the feel of Ploopy's trackballs and that are Canadian but I do kinda wish they moved towards offering better non 3D printed cases as an option.

    by chocochunks
  • > They really need to find a better name than "Ploopy" though.

    The name reminded me of Kooky Plops, the fictional band from the brilliant animated skit[1] by David Firth (of Salad Fingers fame) about the state of pop music in 2009.

    [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pehHOqx7JXg

    by magicalhippo
  • > They really need to find a better name

    They seem to be happy with extra engagement from people who hate the name. https://blog.ploopy.co/yall-need-a-new-name-48

    by Karliss
  • It always seems like a missed opportunity that trackballs don't detect when you twist the ball. It would be so natural for spinning a model in CAD or zooming.

    The easiest approach would probably be to add a second optical sensor and do some math to calculate the twist rate.

    by waterproof
  • https://rotatrix.com/ Does pretty much that
    by stoobs
  • The Kensington SlimBlade scrolls when you rotate the trackball.
    by InsideOutSanta
  • Twist scroll requires two sensors and is patented by Kensington.
    by lachiflippi
  • These have been made on and off since 1995 at the latest. They never work out even though you'd think they'd be super popular for 3d modelers at least. I first encountered one for SGI workstations.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceOrb_360 as one example.

    by foobiekr
  • This guy made exactly what you describe

    https://youtu.be/u1v7TXViRi8

    by yonatan8070
  • Hugged.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20260814114201/https://blog.ploo...

    by imglorp
  • That's too bad.

    The github[0] for it is kinda cool. Uses the 'CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Strongly Reciprocal'. The assembly instructions[1] give a bit of a hands on feel.

    They had some more details on a reddit post[2] it looks like.

    [0]:https://github.com/ploopyco/aplus-trackball

    [1]:https://github.com/ploopyco/aplus-trackball/blob/main/docs/a...

    [2]:https://www.reddit.com/r/ploopy/comments/1vo4y4r/this_is_the...

    by big_toast