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well its a free trial - nothing to loose. I have a MS strategic commander- not quite the same thing I know - but I have to say I find the body position of using 2 hands to be a bit unnatural and tiring after a while- I have been thinking lately I would benefit more by getting a USB numeric keypad for my left hand to enter numbers quickly than a special device for rotating etc which my intellimouse handles fine. just a thought....

I purchased a new 400flx spaceball off e-bay for $200.

Was pretty skeptical about if I would like it. Now, I can't imagine working without it. I notice I fine more errors in large assembly's because I'm doing a lot more moving around with more control than before without it. I also like the hot key's on the controller.

Jay

That's sort of what I'm wondering about. I'm very comfortable moving views using the mouse. At least I think I am. Also, I usea ton of hotkeys. I wonder if there are enough programmable keys on the controller thatI wouldn't miss having my hand on the keyboard.

How has driver stability been? I occasionally read of problems with drivers, but how can I know how many people have never had a problem?

Haven't had any stability problems due to the spaceball with the new drivers. Had a little problem downloading and installing them. Turns out I had to turn off my anti virus for both the download and install to get things working.

Seems like it has plenty of buttons to use with hot keys. Because you can use a shift key on the controller, you can double the number of combinations.

Also, I keep the controller close to the keyboard so it's not that bad to reach over and hit hot keys.

E-bay seems to be saturated with these things lately and prices look to be coming down.

Jay

We use the 4000 flx at work. Where it really shines is when you are assembling parts. With the new drivers you can rotate individual parts to get them close to proper orientation. Press a button and then you can rotate the assembly. Like it so much I bought a 3000 flx on ebay to have at home.

Now that's an endorsement. "I liked it so much, I laid out my own cash for another."

If you work more than 15 hours a week on a regular basis, spend your own money. After 1 month stop using it if you can... When I'm giving training without mine I find my left hand searching a round thing at my left without even thinking about it...

I find the Spaceballs to be a waste of time. I have about a dozen hot keys programmed on my keyboard. I am much more productive using them, than the spaceball. The hotkeys on the spaceball are crude compared to the feel of the keys on a keyboard. To move my hand from the spaceball to the keyboard uses enough time to make using the spaceball worthless.

There are many SW users who don't do anything with their left hand. To these people, the spaceball will be great. Personally I feel they would be better off using hot keys.

I don't think you will be productive if you try to use use the keyboard and spaceball simultanously. Use one or the other, not both.

I use the spaceball 5000 and couldn't imagine not have it when I sit at a station with I have no idea what do with my left hand. with 12 programmable buttons that are different for each mode i.e.. part/assy/dwg it was well worth the $500 I spent for work.

Dennis

What is the advantage of the 5000 vs. the 4000? I know the 4000 is mechanical and the 5000 is optical, but what is the low down in performance and is it worth the $300+ over the 4000 cost on eBay? I purchased a brand new IBM 4000 for $175 + shipping.

Keith

programmable

Once in a while you will get some "drift" and the spaceball will start to move things on it's own. Maybe happens once a week. All you have to do is hit the reset and it recalibrates things back to zero. It's really not a big deal at all to me. Don't think the optical model has that issue.

Jay

performance