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[T] 2.4mm vs 3.2mm ball chain

A project log for Tetent [gd0090]

An input device for quickly entering text and equations, gaming, drawing and cursor/6DoF movement.

kelvinakelvinA 07/08/2023 at 07:140 Comments

I've recently tweaked Tetrinsic for 2.4mm ball chain because the 3.2 chain has bend radius issues and the solution that might work is going to be a rather small sprocket:

Straight after writing the log, I bought a 2.4mm x 10m chain to properly compare, though I am wondering if I should buy a 3.2mm chain from a second source to see if this "used" chain is even representative of 3.2mm stainless chains in general. 


Anyway, I've made some before (3.2mm) and after (2.4mm) renders:

The 2.4mm chain looks closer to chainmail. Tetent looks looks fancy with 2.4, but the 3.2mm chain I have makes Tetent look way more premium because it's darker, more pronounced and less cluttered looking. It also feels more comfortable, likely because pressure from my fingertips are spread out over a wider area. 

The only benefit I can find for the 2.4mm so far is that it can turn on a 7mm diameter bend and that Tetent is 3mm thinner. It does kind of seem like 7mm is near the limit without a way to keep the balls close together during the bend (what the sprocket is for), so perhaps a different 3.2mm chain would still need the sprocket solution.

However, feeling better on the fingers has a higher priority than aesthetics or thickness (as long as the Tetrinsics themselves don't exceed 19.5mm in width).

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