15

I've a new iMac with Apple keyboard and Trackpad 2. I'm coming from my old MacBook Pro to this new system and wanted a similar keyboard and trackpad arrangment, so I got one of these enter image description here

I love it, BUT the trackpad is so very sensitive. I swear it can detect my finger when it's a hair's breadth from actually touching it. So, every time I accidentally bump it with my palm or wrist the cursor jumps while I'm typing.

Is there a way to configure it so that it's less sensitive? I think this is called "palm rejection", but I haven't found anything about how to configure the trackpad to NOT be so sensitive yet.

Improve this question
6
  • What is the name of that product, i wish to buy it also. thanks
    – Goran Radulovic
    Mar 21, 2018 at 17:24
  • Here's a similar product: bullettrain.com/products/express-keyboard-platform, though I haven't tried it.
    – mm2001
    Jan 8, 2019 at 11:14
  • @Michael Prescott I've been looking everywhere for exactly that specific product, so far all I've found are things like the bullet train that are massively bulky. I did a reverse image search but nothing comes up for that. Can you let us know the name of the product or where you go it?
    – TechRemarker
    Aug 25, 2019 at 13:30
  • If you're willing to disable sip and do kext level meddling, you can do something like github.com/cocoahuke/shrink_trackpad. As far as I can tell, with the magic trackpad palm rejection is done on the trackpad itself not on the host macbook. If you dump the frames between multitouchdriver and hid interface you will see that palm is usually interpreted as thumb for some reason. (Caveat: it's possible multitouchdriver is doing processing, but i didn't see any evidence and the frame structure matches the linux mt2 driver's packet layout).
    – 1110101001
    Dec 22, 2021 at 8:49
  • Since I saw palm was usually interpreted as thumb for some reason you could feasibly do something similar to above linked, but more selectively
    – 1110101001
    Dec 22, 2021 at 8:51

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
8

I'm actually one of the 'studs' from the StUDS Collective that designed The Wedgie. The challenge you brought up is one we've wrestled with trying to find a good solution for without over-complicating the design of the tray. I use the tray daily, but don't use 'tap to click' so it's less of an issue for me, but here are a couple of low tech solutions we've come up with.

  1. Turn the trackpad around backwards and use the "better touch tool" mentioned above to invert all of the functions on the trackpad. This makes the top edge recessed enough that it avoids contact with your palm. I also regularly use this configuration for charging the trackpad without removing it from the tray. enter image description here enter image description here

  2. We've also developed a little silicone bumper that helps with the problem too. This is still something we're playing with so it's not listed for sale anywhere.

enter image description here

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    Is this still available somewhere?
    – Roberto Franchini
    Apr 22, 2020 at 21:52
  • This is really really cool. I didn't even know this existed and made my very similar one using Fusion 360 and turning the touchpad upside down make it PERFECT.
    – kolrie
    Oct 15, 2021 at 0:22
3

I don't think it's possible to enable palm rejection in software, for the Magic Trackpad. I've been trying to find a way to do the same thing, with no luck. I found a feature request for the Better Touch Tool (BTT), where a developer closed the ticket as not being possible — even for such a robust app:

Poor Palm Recognition on the external Magic Trackpad 2 #1448 | BetterTouchTool | Github

However, it may be possible to solve with some physical changes to the keyboard/trackpad tray. I have considered building up a small rim around the top corners and along the sides of the trackpad on the similar keyboard/trackpad tray which I use, The Wedgie (I bought my tray from an Etsy listing by the same "StUDS" merchant, which has since been removed; appears that they still sell it directly from their site, as I've linked to here). I have not yet done so myself, but I think that I may be able to add a ridge of Sugru (same color as my tray), on the tray right next to where the trackpad sits, to prevent my palms from resting on the trackpad.

Improve this answer
1

You can combine a userspace multitouch callback (via MTRegisterContactFrameCallback) with a CGEventTap to block tap events. From experimentation, the poor palm rejection seems to stem at the hardware level since if you look at the finger id reported in the multitouch frame it seems to think the palm is a thumb many times. By contrast the internal trackpad correctly and consistently distinguishes these two. So I just filtered based on fingerId (I never tap with my thumb anyway) and it works to filter 95% of clicks. If you'd like you can also play around with other parameters such as size, orientation, etc. (the contact frame format is well documented, see e.g. https://gist.github.com/rmhsilva/61cc45587ed34707da34818a76476e11 for sample code on how to use that)

You could get fancier and consider the position as well, which is how I believe BetterTouchTools does when you enable the "filter tap-to-click at magic trackpad edge feature." I'm not sure why the BTT dev said this was infeasible (as one of the other commenters linked in a github issue which has been deleted), since BTT already does have a feature to do this (the aforementioned prevent tap-to-click at the edge of the trackpad). But that's not implemented very well since it seems to apply to both the internal and external trackpads.

You could also extend this to pointer movement which can be similarly blocked with a cgeventtap. But the difficulty there may be in correlating between the raw trackpad event and the subsequent cgevent, which may be why the BTT dev hesitated.

By the way, you ever wondered how BTT is able to flip magic trackpad orientation even on 10.11 and above? It uses the MTDeviceSetSurfaceOrientation call in private multitouch framework. Amazing that I found 0 references to this on the web. After 5 years you'd think someone might have gotten curious...

Improve this answer
0

AFAICT, there's still no way to enable palm rejection on the Magic Trackpad 2. However, to build on the other workarounds, I use the Wedgie's sequel, the tré. I've added six large 3M Command picture-hanging strips to the palmrest areas.

tré keyboard and mouse dock with picture-hanging 3M Command strips

These strips have a raised, textured surface which adds a little clearance and airflow. Despite the spiky appearance, they have a comfortably smooth feel. They stick tight, but can be removed with the little tabs on the bottom.

It's not the prettiest solution, and YMMV depending on your hand geometry, but it's cheap to try and has been working pretty well for me.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .