RadioShack trackball - opinions? reviews?

[ivelegacy]

so, I am looking for a PS/2 trackball with 3 buttons because I'd like to use it with RISC/OS v4.39, which requires a mouse/trackball with 3 buttons.

There is a guy on a local flea market who has a RadioShack trackball for sale, so I wonder how good/bad it is.
I cannot find a review on the internet.

Does anyone happen to own it? Or to have used it?

Let me know

[HC514]

Which model are you referring to? A Google search suggests that RadioShack sold at least two models of trackball.

There's this one. which looks pretty cool, but the lack of optical tracking would presumably mean almost any trackball from this century would be a better performer.

And then there's this one. Is that a rebranded CST trackball? Those are well liked, although I think they've only got two buttons.

[Archie]

Not CST: both are rebranded A4Tech trackballs (WWT-13 and WT-7, respectively). Not good as a primary pointing device...

[HC514]

No surprise. This A4Tech seems to have been a pretty cheeky outfit. That first one also looks like a somewhat looser knockoff of a Microsoft Intellimouse Trackball.

[elecplus]

You can look at several of them here: https://www.elecshopper.com/input-devic ... ?limit=all. All are tested working unless they say parts or repair.

[Archie]

IMHO, absolutely best there is a Logitech Marble FX. If it's indeed possible to buy working one for $20, that would be incredible deal.

[ivelegacy]

And then there's this one. Is that a rebranded CST trackball? Those are well liked, although I think they've only got two buttons.

it's this one, but it has 3 buttons

[ivelegacy]

Not CST: both are rebranded A4Tech trackballs (WWT-13 and WT-7, respectively). Not good as a primary pointing device...

why not? what is bad?

[zrrion]

Low CPR, which on high tea displays means its either a lot of work to move the pointer around or its imprecise.

[ivelegacy]

Low CPR, which on high tea displays means its either a lot of work to move the pointer around or its imprecise.

What is CPR? What does it stand for?

what do you think about the trackball made by ITAC SYSTEMS?
I need something of this shape, with 3 buttons.

[zrrion]

CPR stands for Counts Per Rotation. It is basically DPI for trackballs

[Archie]

A4tech are bad not because of resolution: the mechanical design (separate rubberized encoder shafts) causes the ball to skip movement, even with frequent cleaning. ITAC is perfect in that, but resolution is quite low by today's standards.

[ivelegacy]

I cannot find the CPR for the RadioShack.
Anyway, I will go for the ITAC.

For the ITAC ... I will probably need to import a device from the US.
(I live in Europe/Italy)

I need to operate on an X terminal, the screen is 1024x768 pixels 24bit color @60Hz. I am going to develop a few OpenMotif applications, but I'd like to use InkScape and Gimp (based on GTK* libraries), and I am also trying to integrate an old serial RS232 Tablet by Wacom.

[ivelegacy]

Looking for the DPI, I found this info on eBay (I am not willing to buy it, I am just checking the specs)

Original A4TECH WT-7 Drawing Tools Trackball mouse for Designer Drawing Tools
Model: WT-7
Style:Trackballs
Interface Type: ps/2
Optical resolution: 800dpi


is it really 800dpi? (just curiosity)

[Archie]

is it really 800dpi? (just curiosity)

Very unlikely. Chinese "specs" typically needs to be divided by factor of two to ten...

I don't currently have this particular model (ordered, but haven't received for two months), but my WWT-5E seems to have identical ball mechanics, and it is 400 CPR (that is, 80 DPI).