Guides

Tremor and limited range of motion

Two problems, two sets of settings. A tremor means the stick shakes around wherever the thumb rests, so the pointer jitters and clicks land off target. Limited range means the stick never reaches the edge, so the pointer never reaches full speed and long trips across the screen are slow. InputConfig has a per-row answer to each, and this guide works through them with numbers to start from.

See the problem first

Open any preset's page and watch the Live Visualizer with the person's thumb resting on the stick. A tremor shows as a dot vibrating around a point near the centre; note how far out the vibration reaches. Limited range shows when they push as far as they comfortably can and the dot stops short of the ring; note where it stops. Those two numbers are the settings.

Tremor: the inner deadzone and the curve

1. Open the pointer rows for the stick and press Calibrate on one of them.
2. Drag the inner deadzone out until the vibrating dot sits entirely inside it. For a mild tremor that is 20 to 30 percent; for a strong one, 40 to 50. Nothing happens inside the deadzone, so a resting thumb no longer moves the pointer.
3. Set the curve to Smooth. Just outside the deadzone the pointer now moves slowly, so the first bit of travel is precise and the shake does not become speed.
4. Lower the speed on the four pointer rows. Tremor is amplified by speed; half the default is a good start.
5. Use the stick settings button in the slot header to apply the same deadzone to every axis row at once.

Tremor: clicking

Clicking while shaking moves the pointer at the moment of the click. Two things help. First, a hold-to-click: bind the click to a hold action with a 300 ms threshold, so the click fires after the button has been held still for a moment rather than on the press. Second, macOS's own dwell control in Accessibility, Pointer Control, which clicks when the pointer stops moving; a stick with a wide deadzone pairs well with it because letting go of the stick stops the pointer dead.

Limited range: the outer deadzone

1. In the same Calibrate plot, ask the person to push the stick as far as is comfortable and hold it.
2. Drag the outer deadzone in to that point. Everything past it now counts as full deflection, so their comfortable maximum is full speed.
3. If the range is different in different directions, the outer deadzone is per row, so set the short direction separately.
4. Raise the sensitivity multiplier in the preset's automation section if every direction still feels slow.

Timing

Hold thresholds and double-tap windows default to values tuned for quick hands. Open Options on rows that use them and lengthen both: 800 ms holds and 500 ms double-tap windows are comfortable for many people with slower movement, and nothing else changes. Turbo rates can come down to 3 or 4 presses per second for scrolling.

Alternatives to the stick

• The D-pad for pointer movement: four rows with Mouse Motion at a fixed speed. No shake, because a D-pad is either pressed or not.
• Motion: the built-in Motion Cursor preset moves the pointer by moving the whole controller, which some people with a tremor find easier because the larger movement averages out the shake. Give it a wide deadzone.
• Stick regions instead of pointer: corner and edge zones on the stick as commands, with haptic feedback, for someone who can flick but not aim.

The Steady Pointer preset

The download below starts with a 35 percent inner deadzone, a 75 percent outer deadzone, the Smooth curve, half-speed pointer rows, hold-to-click at 300 ms on A with a normal click on X for people who prefer it, and 800 ms holds elsewhere. Adjust from there with the plot; the numbers are a starting point, not a prescription.

Download

• Steady Pointer presetWide deadzones, Smooth curve, slow pointer, hold-to-click, and long timing windows. 9 KB

Open a downloaded preset with InputConfig, or drag it onto the app icon. It lands in the sidebar, ready to activate or edit. Any launch target inside a preset file is cleared on import; add one yourself in the editor if you want it.

Questions

Related

• Deadzones and sensitivity
• Variable sensitivity
• Hold and double-tap actions
• A controller for an older parent
• Deadzone visualizer