Trackball thread - track and ball torture

Turd Cow said:
Any good ball mouse for gaming
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I have great results with Elecom Huge with swapped bearings, but it took me around 8 months to get good at gaming with it. It fits nice in your hand and has plenty of buttons, the DPI is pretty good too. It's the default artificial ruby bearings that are not great, but they are easy to swap.

Also there is a specifically gaming trackball in the works right now. Check the channel, this guy is like Terry Davis of trackballs

 
Bought one a few years ago to use while I was sitting on my couch and got hooked. I use it for everything (except gaming) now, even when I'm sitting at my desk.
 
Trackballs are life. I have the standard Logitech M570 at home, and a left handed Elecom EX-G at work (so no one steals it).
 
I got the Elecom Huge a few months ago after seeing this thread and it's been really nice. I do think the mouse is objectively better when it comes to precision, but outside of gaming I'd wager most people don't need one unless they're doing graphic design/3d modeling/etc. It's less strain and more fun to use a trackball IMO, as the main motion is spinning the ball in the right general direction, then making corrections as it nears its target.

Some notes: The bearings in the Huge do wear down after a while and become tolerable, although I only found this out because the replacement bearings I ordered from a "US seller" ended up being some kind of Chinese operation that just took my money and ran (I got a refund eventually.)

I will say the name is misleading since it's designed for Asians, who I guess have smaller hands since my average-sized hand still misses the "hump" of the wrist rest by a bit. Regardless, it's a wrist REST, so your hand should only be on it when you're idle anyway - at least that's what I'm told. I float my hand over the trackball when in use, and I normally use two fingers.

The scroll wheel is fine, but inferior to binding a button to emulate middle-mouse scrolling via the ball. That way you can hold a button and just fucking torque the thing and go flying down pages. I bound it to the forward-most button on the side, which feels better than using one of the top buttons on the right.

I did pick up a Kensington Expert today and am surprised by the lack of resistance when moving the ball. It's a feather compared to the Elecom, which is good for per-pixel movements, but kind of a pain for more general movements. I'm still tweaking it quite a bit since the ergonomics are completely different. The scroll ring is a neat idea, but overengineered as shit. I took it apart and removed a magnet they'd put in there to keep it aligned with the sensor used to detect scrolling, but it still feels a bit stilted. Might have to lube it up somehow.

I'm curious to try one of the CST trackballs next since they're held in such high regard, but the used market is through the roof after the maker retired. Apparently they were bought out and are restarting production in Q1 2020, though.

Thanks for making the thread, OP. Really been fun learning about this stuff.
 
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Reviving this dead thread because I want to get the Elecom Huge. Anyone have opinions on it?
 
break these cuffs said:
Trackballs are dope. I had one that looked kinda like this, just way older, and loved it. I've been thinking about getting another one since I don't vidya anymore. I've also seen a rise of them in offices. 5-10 years ago you'd seem them everyone once in a while, but now I see them much more frequently.

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I have this exact one, and it's excellent for browsing neo-nazi forums like this one in bed on a laptop on a lazy Saturday morning.
 
Earlier this year I decided to switch to a trackball since I felt some RSI in my right elbow and thumb. So far I'm on my third. Here's my experience with each one:

Kensington Expert Mouse Wired: The one I had entered a power-saving mode if you let it sit idle for a few seconds. It could take up to a full second after movement to wake up. This is unacceptable for a wired model that shouldn't have such a feature and it completely ruined the development of any muscle memory. I found no way to turn it off and their customer service seemed to have no idea about this feature. So I just returned it to Amazon for a refund.

Elecom Deft Pro: The stock ruby bearings have terrible stiction that didn't seem to improve with use, so I replaced them with some zirconium oxide bearings. It was kind of a pain in the ass to do but they worked much better. I liked the button layout and the sheer number of buttons, but supposedly they can't be programmed outside of Elecom's own software which I hear is buggy and slow, though I didn't try this out on my own. The problem came when I switched to Linux. There is some bug (not sure if it's kernel or firmware) where clicking and dragging will cause the cursor to jump to one side of the screen and trigger a right-mouse button push. It was rare, but it was very frustrating when it happened, so I decided to look for another option.

Ploopy Classic: Despite the name sounding like a Shooby Taylor lyric, this has been good for me so far. It's fully open-source to the point where you can get the logic board PCB built on your own if you want to. I opted for the kit which required a little soldering. It uses roller bearings which make a little noise but have very little stiction. The 3D-printed shell has a slightly rough texture to it but I'm used to it now. It's also rather pricey, more expensive than any of the others I tried, and this was just the kit (fully assembled ones are even more). Had to get it shipped from Leafland too.
 
I've been loyal to Kensington for over a decade now but now that I've had a fucking third expert wireless stop working in some way (this time the left click randomly clicks and the scroll ring doesn't work), I'm going to need to look in to other alternatives. Any recommendations for non-kensington finger trackballs? Either an ADB or USB interface works for me. Tried thumb ones and don't like them (MX Ergo and Elecom Huge)
 
There is no better trackball then this the Kensington expert wired trackball
Amazon
Kensington
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I have two trackball mice, one is a cheap Amazon Basics trackball mouse for the pc that is connected to my TV. It's ok for what it is, but sometimes the ball doesn't roll and the pointer goes in one direction. I guess a spray of WD40 for electronics could fix that.
The other is a Logi Ergo M575 but I don't use it often because I don't like how the right click button is way too sensitive so it's easy to right-click randomly just because one of your fingers is resting slightly over it. Also I wish Logitech would allow the user to change the time before it gets into sleep mode.
 
The Intern said:
There is no better trackball then this the Kensington expert wired trackball
Amazon
Kensington
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Definitely going to go wired next, i've had endless issues with the usb receiver for the wireless, and using bluetooth is a PITA because macOS wont play nice with it in regard to cursor sensitivity and things like that. I've looked at the ploopy classic though, any particular thoughts on ploopys balls?
 
The Intern said:
There is no better trackball then this the Kensington expert wired trackball
Amazon
Kensington
View attachment 3618107
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I used these very seldomly in my audio program at college. I felt like these are pretty exepnsive. Any thoughts on its quality?

Also, doing some research on the Huge. The mouse requires a bearing replacement because the standard bearings are shit appearently.
 
Turd Cow said:
I used these very seldomly in my audio program at college. I felt like these are pretty exepnsive. Any thoughts on its quality?

Also, doing some research on the Huge. The mouse requires a bearing replacement because the standard bearings are shit appearently.
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The wireds have always been built to a lower standard of quality than the wireless ones, which now after my experience with the wireless ones, im not exactly sure how thats possible. The main issue with the wired IIRC is it just uses a prehistoric sensor, same one thats been in the kensington experts for decades now, as opposed to the wireless which is using a new sensor.
 
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My wireless expert is okay, but the scroll ring is pretty scratchy and the bearings occasionally stick (I clean it weekly). For something i bought used on a whim (missing the 2.4ghz dongle so it was cheap) its ok, but i'd be a bit annoyed at MSRP. Kensington's software is kinda crap, but i havent had any major issues with it like i have with some chinese mouse/kb software. Nicest bit is it can at least run on one AA imo.
 
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Kikkoman said:
Kensington's software is kinda crap
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it is horrible, xmouse button control is meant to be a really good alternative for windows (havent used it myself) and theres another good one for macOS which i have used but im drawing blanks as to what it is, ill update this post if i remember.
 
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