E14 : Trackpad Discussion Only

Anyone else having trouble opening the link to download Reil's app? I keep getting a page cannot be displayed error.

Does Reil's app give fluid inertial scrolling? Or does it scroll just as choppy as the synaptic drivers?

 

I can't download it either. Can someone repost it please (including source!)

Reil: Thanks so much for this! I had wanted to modify the original, but I downloaded C++ builder and decided it was too much work to port it to VS.. I like you am a Java/Linux guy and have minimal MFC/Windows experience. Is there any chance you'd set up a google code site? I'd like to make some additions to it that are best handled via a VCS. Specifically I'm actually pretty OK with the Synaptics driver, but gesture scrolling is not currently passed into VMWare guests properly, so I'd like to add a foreground app filter to the program to only do its magic if a specified program is in the foreground.

 

Apparently mediafire was taken down by the feds, so if we could get a repost on reil's files that would be great...

 

Has any1 figured out a way to fix the two finger scroll near the white line? Mine doesn't scroll if you try scrolling right above the line. Only using latest synaptics drivers v15.0.24.0. Does reil's software fix this?

 

http://www.filedropper.com/envytouchpad1

That should work until someone comes up with something better - it may or may not be the most recent version, and it's just the program, not the code, but it's something.

For whoever was asking, I feel like the scrolling is smoother with Reil's app than with the Synaptics driver, for what it's worth, though I don't use inertial, so it might just be in my head.

 

it is smoother but still a tiny bit choppy. if you use firefox you can make it really smooth. firefox smoothing + reils = macbook pro status...

 

One more feature to add:

Turn off touchpad while typing.



It's nothing new. Synaptics decided to be a dumb fool by omitting it even though I've seen it on Dell and HP laptops since the Stone Age. The feature should include an option to turn off the touchpad for anywhere between 0-2 seconds each time a key is pressed. A 1/3-1/2 second delay would be ideal for most.

 

Paradisoft Touchpad Locker - Lock the touchpad while typing

 

You, sir, are pure awesome. Initial tests show that it is a success. I purposely tried two-finger scrolling while randomly hitting keys and found no scrolling movement whatsoever. Repped for the win!


Zeth

 

It works well ... been using it on my 1410T for over 6 months. Glad to help.

Bronsky

 

Umm on my bro's laptop he can just move 1 finger up and down the right side of the touchpad to scroll how do I scroll on an envy? and whats the best option to make this touchpad workable

 

Why can't I disable my touchpad anymore? I have touchpad locker to stop palm interfering with trackpad when typing, reil's app, and synaptics on.

edit: it was because i have tap to click disabled in synaptics, but when using reil's app one tap amounts to several clicks :S, any solutions?

edit2: don't worry guys, disable 1 finger tap on reil's app and everything is perfect with the touchpad now

Bronsky you are a genius for telling us about the touchpad locker app, my trackpad is perfect now.

 

can u post what u use? an settings

 

it's all in this thread

just go read back about 5/6 pages and you should find all the stuff i'm talking about.

on a side note, with reil's app on pinch and zoom in synaptics goes craaaaazy, anyone got any tips for this?

 

Use two fingers anywhere on the touch pad to scroll vertically or horizontal.

 

Has any1 figured this out yet?

 

sorry what do you mean by the 'white line'?

 

The horizontal line that separates the two button area from the upper touch area. When I try two finger scrolling upwards staring just above this separating line, the mouse just moves up and it doesn't scroll.

 

it works fine for me

 

this isn't completely true. the reason i re-implemented single tap is because the synaptics application will detect some two finger taps as a single tap, which made it difficult to have a reliable two or more finger tap.

if you read back a few pages, i mentioned this

so if you want pinch to zoom, don't use any third party applications that handle any two finger actions.

 

Couple of questions about Reils app. I am a newb here to the envy 14 community, but I have read through this entire thread. I have downloaded the latest version (I think) of Reil's app, and set it up per the general consensus of the thread. I have the latest symantec drivers from the HP site.

Two finger scrolling is now smooth, but some new problems have surfaced:

1. Before I used Reil's app, I could keep one finger on the "buttons" and one on the main touchpad, and it would work the cursor normally, now when I do the same thing, it just scrolls. Is there any way to fix this?

2. I cannot disable the touchpad by double tapping the left corner any longer.

3. Finally, I find that the number of fingers it detects is sometimes wrong. I have to space my fingers apart, unlike on a macbook to do 2 finger scrolling, and a three finger scroll requires almost painful stretching of my hand. Yet I notice that the W and Z values can clearly indicate how many fingers are on the pad. Is there a way we could override the finger detection and go with a system based on W and Z?

 

thanks for the info, so if I want to stick to using your obviously much smoother and better trackpad app, I'd have to give up touchpad disabling by double tapping and pinch-zoom is what you're saying?

 

An app can add back the double-tap disabling (my in permanent development app does), but none could do the pinch to zoom, I'm afraid.

 

so there's a few remaining features that i think people want but i probably won't do, unless something changes (SDK or otherwise).

double-tap disabling: the other day, Friendly0Fire explained how to do this and i'm not willing to implement the workaround that he had to to get it to be able to re-enable. i guess i'm a bit biased since i fight hacks a lot at work, i'm not willing to back down so easily.

disable touchpad on typing: a while back, i considered implementing this but i'm not willing to use or install global keyboard or mouse hooks. too many of these can have a performance impact on the system since everything you type or mouse, goes through the hooks before the system can process it.

other than that, the only other feature that i remember being asked for is fully customizable actions, which i need a keyboard hook to implement a nice settings dialog, so this probably won't happen.

however, my source is available for anyone who wants to mess around with it and add these features.

 

1) no. the sdk doesn't tell you where each finger is, so no one can do anything about this. all it tells you is some averaged point and that there are fingers.
2) see my previous post.
3) your idea doesn't work. put your various areas of your palm or arm or body part on the pad, it looks exactly the same as if you used multiple fingers pressed together. if you want better behavior, you have to ask synaptics to provide richer data in their SDK. also, i don't have any problem doing minor spacing between fingers, maybe half a cm between them? i don't know why you would have to stretch them so far apart.

 

for people who want the touchpad to be disabled while they type, try paradisoft touchpad locker that bronsky recommended. I think it's great and you can adjust the delay between when you stop typing and the touchpad gets enabled.

 

Yep. I had maybe 2-3 instances of my touchpad inadvertently scrolling while typing yesterday, and that's after spending 6+ hours on the Envy. It really helps a lot with my productivity. I've found I get zero problems as long as I START typing without my palms touching the touchpad. After that, I can continue typing without worrying about problems.

 

Hardly any problems with inadvertent clicking/scrolling here. (though as I typed that I clicked with my palm... )

I've noticed that horizontal scrolling does not work in some of my applications. (SciTE and Photoshop are the two I use the most)

Reil, can you please add ctrl+tab/ctrl+shift+tab as a three finger scroll action? (or custom keystrokes?)

 

I have a similar issues.. I've only used regular left clicks with mine so far, haven't did anything other than scroll on the trackpad... But, my left click doesn't sound 'normal', it's noticeably louder&different than the right-click which sounds normal.

I think I'll end up RMA'ing it even though I don't want to have to wait yet again. I waited almost two weeks to get it, and having to RMA it right-away sucks for lack of a better term.

--

I just got out the Envy, and it all over just like in the video. *sigh*

 

Well I know this might be a little late and most everyone is already using reil's app, but since I've most probably completed all the features I wanted on my own app I've decided to complete the UI and release it for whoever might be interested.

This is an update over my previous version (which is somewhere way back in this topic) and has a few additional features.

-Automatically disables taps in driver manager (since it overrides them)
-One-finger tap left-clicking
-Two-finger tap right-clicking
-Two-finger slide scrolling with inertia (and pretty smooth using Firefox's smooth scrolling)
-Three-finger slide super-scrolling
-1+1-fingers dragging (I don't like double tap dragging)
-Top-left corner touchpad disable
-Top-right corner "back" button

It should be more stable than previous versions, it's very customizable and simple to use. If I get time, I plan to add:
-Integrated touchpad disable when typing
-Customizable corner zones (for all four corners, adjustable sizes and actions)
-Making it play nice with the physical buttons (right now you can't hold a button down AND move around the cursor with a second finger)
-Absolute mode (top-left of the touchpad is the top-left of the screen, bottom-right is bottom-right and so on)
-Possibly a few simple gestures (most likely tracking finger movement from corner to corner)
-Auto-disabling when external mouse is plugged in

So yeah, feel free to try it out and give feedback. Requires .NET 2.0, though that shouldn't be an issue on Envy laptops.

Download from Rapidshare
Download from Mediafire

 

Mine is the same way, it sounds like Im sending morse code through out the house, Iv already order the beats, I just hope it not the same as this.

 

Hi, everyone--

I just got an E14, and although I really like it, I'm considering returning it because the trackpad seems basically unuseable. Whenever I try to click the left mouse button to activate something (it's a very hard click, but I can live with that) the cursor goes bouncing around the screen. It's simply difficult to interact with things in the normal manner, because pressing the left mouse button has the dual effect of clicking and moving the cursor.

I've seen a couple threads about the trackpad, but haven't found any information about this particular problem--do we know how to deactive the bottom of the trackpad so that it just works as buttons? I've tried tech support and they have not been helpful. Many thanks,

Missy

 

I don't think you can. There would probably be a way to do it through software, but that would quickly become very complicated to do and there isn't anything to do it yet.

Most people simply don't use the buttons and tap to click instead.

 

You need to install the latest and updated driver for the touchpad.

 

I don't see a driver on HP's site that's more updated than June or so. Is the Synaptics driver from their site better/more recent?

 

I did; didn't work.

I think I'm going to return it, which I hate since I really like the keyboard, screen, and power of the system. Just blows my mind that HP would make an awesome notebook with a totally unuseable trackpad. If you can't use the buttons, why include them?

Think I may give in and try my first Mac ever, after 20 years of PCs (first was a 386sx/20).

 

I don't really have a problem with the touchpad... Granted, I don't use the physical buttons. Going for a Mac wouldn't be much different considering there are no physical buttons, just a big clickpad with only one button

 

Except they work better with the same form.

 

Yes, as much as I'm not a fan of Apple (and I do own a MacBook Pro and used it for 18 months as my main home system), I have to say that this is the one area where Apple thoroughly beats up on HP. The touchpad experiences between Macs and the Envy line simply aren't in the same ballpark, and the trackpad is the only thing I really, really don't like about my machine.

 

I recommend you check these links....

August 13, 2010 new driver - http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...3-dv7-gen-4-select-edition-envy-17-intel.html


ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp49501-50000/sp49601.exe

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6468855-post6307.html

 

gods sake HP hurry up and release bios f.13 already!!! If that bios sorts out the cpu whine and lets me use my recovery disks as well, some longer battery life and I will have the perfect machine.

 

HP just released F.13 A. Not sure if it will give you everything you want though.

 

I find when I use Reil's touchpad app (which I love for its improvements over the basic drivers, particularly scrolling fluidity), tapping to click gets a bit wonky - when I tap on a word in a text editor or text box, for example, it highlights the entire word, like I double clicked it. If I click a drop box, it pops up and disappears in a fraction of a second. It functions like it's a very fast double-click, but at the same time, it will only select an icon on the desktop, rather than opening it (unless I actually click twice), so I don't think that's exactly it. When I actually click the button portion of the pad, it works fine, but I don't like doing so as it's more hassle than just tapping.

Pre-posting edit: I figured it out, and I'm posting this anyway just in case anybody has the same problems as I was having - I tried moving the single tap interval higher, and moving both maximum thresholds in both directions with no luck - increasing the single tap interval made the whole opening and closing of drop boxes last longer (up to about half a second), but it still didn't change the overall behavior. When I was about to give up, I realized I hadn't tried lowering the single tap interval. 50 and 75 both had the problem, but the drop boxes moved so fast it didn't even display on the screen, but dropping it to 25 has made taps behave like normal clicks.

So, if you've read this far:

Solution

Lowering Single tap interval to 25 in Reil's Envy Touchpad app fixed the problem. Tapping now behaves like a normal click.

 

Do you still have tap to click enabled in the Synaptics drivers?

 

I think you have to disable Tap to Click in the Synaptics control panel when using Reil's app, otherwise you'll get the effect you described -- the same as double-clicking -- because it look like both Reil's app and the Synaptics driver process the click. At least that's what worked for me.

 

Did this post just fly under the radar of everyone or is it just that nobody cares?

 

probably flew under the radar. I've gots me a freshly clean installed envy soooo *tosses twofingerscroll to the curb, tries out this thing from friendlyfire*

 

what is top right back active?

(edit nvm: was wondering why it did nothing on firefox only to see that this is a new tab with no previous pages so...yeah. Of course back won't work

also anyway to set the two finger right click to only activate if the fingers are closer together. 'cause that was my problem with twofingerscroll's version.

kept triggering it while typ(hey it just triggered)ing.

also for some reason two and/or three finger scrolling isn't working

edit: 'course the moment I post this they start working again

edit: also also what is 1+1 finger drag and what does it do?

 

I plan to try it out before too long. Reil's app has been working okay mostly, although I have run into a couple of issues:
1. After a while it just stops working and I have to exit the program and re-run it.
2. One certain windows, windows system programs usually, the Reil features don't work.
I'll try you app and see if it works any better.

 

If you double-tap in the top right corner, it triggers a "Back" action in the active window (usually browser back button).

I'm afraid that distinguishing between two fingers close together and just one finger is nigh impossible. The SDK doesn't give information on how far or close together the fingers are, only the position, pressure and "area". If you put the fingers close together, the trackpad will only see one large finger instead of two. Hence, it'd likely trigger the right-clicking with just one finger on the trackpad every once in a while, which would be just swapping the problem around.

I think the best thing would be to disable the touchpad while typing. I currently just double-tap in the top left corner, but I might implement a proper auto-disable while typing. In the meantime, lots of people seem to like this app to do just that.