Solve : Insulating a touchpad?

1.	Solve : Insulating a touchpad?
Answer» The touchpad on my new laptop does not have separate buttons; the buttons are integrated into the touch surface. This DRIVES me batty when I'm trying to navigate with one finger and click with a thumb, and the cursor moves away, or fails to click, or clicks on the wrong thing. I don't want touch-sensitive buttons. I've tried covering them with electrical tape, but even two LAYERS of it has no effect. Is there any way I can insulate the lower portion of the touchpad, while keeping the rest of it active?what is the make/model of the laptop? and who is the manufacturer of the touchpad? most touchpad drivers have their own, pre-installed software that may let you customise the buttons, does that exist on the laptop?It's an Asus E203MA. It had Windows 10 S preinstalled, but I'm running Linux Mint Cinnamon instead. I think the touchpad is just Asus brand. I don't see any option in the settings to make the buttons non-touch-sensitive, and it seems unlikely such a software setting would exist, for the buttons are physically part of the touch surface; as opposed to my big Asus G75VX laptop with Synaptics touchpad, on which the buttons are physically separate from and adjacent to the touch surface. See pics. So I'm wondering if there's anything I could put over the bottom section of the touchpad so it won't pick up the touch of my fingers.ASUS call it Smart Gesture. see here; https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1009613/ but I suspect your real issue is in getting an equivalent Linux driver. I've used those sort of touchpads before and I thought it still had the left and right buttons 'separate' but underneath the same touch plate, in other words, the buttons still needed a physical 'click' to operate. are you saying those ones on yours now do an action just from the heat of your skin if you get too close? I have an ASUS X401A that has same touchpad setup. I am using a free tool that locks out the mouse from my wrist or hand accidentally brushing across it while I am typing on the keyboard. But this tool is only for Windows OS. Not sure if Linux has a tool like that available (or) if you could run this tool through WINE to use it in Linux. Forgot the name of it right now to share, but can share it later tonight when I get HOME and fire up my laptop to get its name to share with you. My biggest issue was I'd be typing something important and the touch pad would think I moved my pointer and then as I am typing the pointer would select another area in the document that I am typing and then I have to stop and remove what I typed that got injected into an earlier portion of my document and then reread it to make sure its correct, then go back to the bottom of the document and start typing again for this to happen a few minutes later and then have to fix the mess again. I too tried to mask the touch pad to avoid this, and for a while for anything important I was using a USB desktop computer keyboard connected to my laptop to avoid this frustrating mess. However the tool I installed on it solved the issue for me. It works by watching keyboard activity and when the keyboard is in use it puts a lock on the mouse/touchpad so that it doesn't interfere. After about a second or two of no keyboard activity the mouse/touchpad then is active again. It will also show a small box in lower right when it stopped a touchpad/mouse event from happening which doesn't steal the focus while your typing but it tallies up how many times it saved you from your touchpad messing things up.Quote from: Mark. on August 11, 2018, 12:11:24 AM but I suspect your real issue is in getting an equivalent Linux driver. Actually it seems to do better in Linux than in Windows, i.e., the cursor seems to jump around a little less. Even in Windows there is no setting for what I want. Quote from: Mark. on August 11, 2018, 12:11:24 AM I've used those sort of touchpads before and I thought it still had the left and right buttons 'separate' but underneath the same touch plate, in other words, the buttons still needed a physical 'click' to operate. are you saying those ones on yours now do an action just from the heat of your skin if you get too close? The buttons require a physical click to operate. This is good. What's not so good is that if, while clicking the button, my thumb moves ever so slightly on the button, the cursor moves and I miss the click. I want it to respond to a physical click only, not to a touch.Quote from: DaveLembke on August 11, 2018, 05:58:12 AM My biggest issue was I'd be typing something important and the touch pad would think I moved my pointer and then as I am typing the pointer would select another area in the document that I am typing and then I have to stop and remove what I typed that got injected into an earlier portion of my document and then reread it to make sure its correct, then go back to the bottom of the document and start typing again for this to happen a few minutes later and then have to fix the mess again. I too tried to mask the touch pad to avoid this, and for a while for anything important I was using a USB desktop computer keyboard connected to my laptop to avoid this frustrating mess. However the tool I installed on it solved the issue for me. I have not had any problem with the cursor jumping around while typing. Linux does a good job of keeping that under control. It's only when I'm actually using the touchpad that I have problems. I would be curious to know what it is that a touchpad senses and responds to. The electrical field in your body? I found that my touchpad responds to a knife blade, if I'm touching any metal part of the knife. If I make sure my fingers are on the plastic non-conductive knife handle, the touchpad doesn't respond. It seems strange then that the electrical tape wouldn't block it.Switch to an external mouse...Quote Switch to an external mouse... Issue is the touchpad getting touched when typing by wrist etc, so an external keyboard could be a solution to avoid body touching the touchpad. Software solution I'm using with Windows 7 fixed the issue I had that is same as One Sock's, however given One Sock is running Linux, the software solution I have might not work through Wine to work for them. When I get out of work tonight I will share the name of the software in case they want to try running it through Wine.

Answer»

The touchpad on my new laptop does not have separate buttons; the buttons are integrated into the touch surface. This DRIVES me batty when I'm trying to navigate with one finger and click with a thumb, and the cursor moves away, or fails to click, or clicks on the wrong thing. I don't want touch-sensitive buttons. I've tried covering them with electrical tape, but even two LAYERS of it has no effect. Is there any way I can insulate the lower portion of the touchpad, while keeping the rest of it active?what is the make/model of the laptop?
and who is the manufacturer of the touchpad?

most touchpad drivers have their own, pre-installed software that may let you customise the buttons, does that exist on the laptop?It's an Asus E203MA. It had Windows 10 S preinstalled, but I'm running Linux Mint Cinnamon instead. I think the touchpad is just Asus brand. I don't see any option in the settings to make the buttons non-touch-sensitive, and it seems unlikely such a software setting would exist, for the buttons are *physically* part of the touch surface; as opposed to my big Asus G75VX laptop with Synaptics touchpad, on which the buttons are physically separate from and adjacent to the touch surface. See pics. So I'm wondering if there's anything I could put over the bottom section of the touchpad so it won't pick up the touch of my fingers.ASUS call it Smart Gesture.
see here; https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1009613/

but I suspect your real issue is in getting an equivalent Linux driver.
I've used those sort of touchpads before and I thought it still had the left and right buttons 'separate' but underneath the same touch plate, in other words, the buttons still needed a physical 'click' to operate.
are you saying those ones on yours now do an action just from the heat of your skin if you get too close?
I have an ASUS X401A that has same touchpad setup. I am using a free tool that locks out the mouse from my wrist or hand accidentally brushing across it while I am typing on the keyboard. But this tool is only for Windows OS. Not sure if Linux has a tool like that available (or) if you could run this tool through WINE to use it in Linux. Forgot the name of it right now to share, but can share it later tonight when I get HOME and fire up my laptop to get its name to share with you.

My biggest issue was I'd be typing something important and the touch pad would think I moved my pointer and then as I am typing the pointer would select another area in the document that I am typing and then I have to stop and remove what I typed that got injected into an earlier portion of my document and then reread it to make sure its correct, then go back to the bottom of the document and start typing again for this to happen a few minutes later and then have to fix the mess again.

I too tried to mask the touch pad to avoid this, and for a while for anything important I was using a USB desktop computer keyboard connected to my laptop to avoid this frustrating mess. However the tool I installed on it solved the issue for me.

It works by watching keyboard activity and when the keyboard is in use it puts a lock on the mouse/touchpad so that it doesn't interfere. After about a second or two of no keyboard activity the mouse/touchpad then is active again. It will also show a small box in lower right when it stopped a touchpad/mouse event from happening which doesn't steal the focus while your typing but it tallies up how many times it saved you from your touchpad messing things up.Quote from: Mark. on August 11, 2018, 12:11:24 AM

but I suspect your real issue is in getting an equivalent Linux driver.

Actually it seems to do better in Linux than in Windows, i.e., the cursor seems to jump around a little less. Even in Windows there is no setting for what I want.

Quote from: Mark. on August 11, 2018, 12:11:24 AM

I've used those sort of touchpads before and I thought it still had the left and right buttons 'separate' but underneath the same touch plate, in other words, the buttons still needed a physical 'click' to operate.
are you saying those ones on yours now do an action just from the heat of your skin if you get too close?

The buttons require a physical click to operate. This is good. What's not so good is that if, while clicking the button, my thumb moves ever so slightly on the button, the cursor moves and I miss the click. I want it to respond to a physical click only, not to a touch.Quote from: DaveLembke on August 11, 2018, 05:58:12 AM

My biggest issue was I'd be typing something important and the touch pad would think I moved my pointer and then as I am typing the pointer would select another area in the document that I am typing and then I have to stop and remove what I typed that got injected into an earlier portion of my document and then reread it to make sure its correct, then go back to the bottom of the document and start typing again for this to happen a few minutes later and then have to fix the mess again.

I too tried to mask the touch pad to avoid this, and for a while for anything important I was using a USB desktop computer keyboard connected to my laptop to avoid this frustrating mess. However the tool I installed on it solved the issue for me.

I have not had any problem with the cursor jumping around while typing. Linux does a good job of keeping that under control. It's only when I'm actually using the touchpad that I have problems.

I would be curious to know what it is that a touchpad senses and responds to. The electrical field in your body? I found that my touchpad responds to a knife blade, if I'm touching any metal part of the knife. If I make sure my fingers are on the plastic non-conductive knife handle, the touchpad doesn't respond. It seems strange then that the electrical tape wouldn't block it.Switch to an external mouse...Quote

Switch to an external mouse...

Issue is the touchpad getting touched when typing by wrist etc, so an external keyboard could be a solution to avoid body touching the touchpad. Software solution I'm using with Windows 7 fixed the issue I had that is same as One Sock's, however given One Sock is running Linux, the software solution I have might not work through Wine to work for them. When I get out of work tonight I will share the name of the software in case they want to try running it through Wine.

Solve : Insulating a touchpad?

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