Buying my first trackball. Advice needed.

matt3o · 18 Nov 2015, 08:18

that one looks promising

amospalla · 18 Nov 2015, 12:54

Looks very nice, I hope its ball to be big.

If its reviews are positive I will end trying it for sure.

maxmalkav · 21 Nov 2015, 00:16

Also arriving late to the discussion

Owning (and having used) four different trackballs, I agree with many of the things pointed above:
* M570 has a very poor quality, mine is in the dry dock waiting for me to replace the switches that stopped working after one year something of usage. Indeed it feels cheaply made.
* Logitech Marble Mouse is a nice and "inexpensive" option if you get used to the scrolling peculiarities, I have been using it on Linux with kind of the same configuration than XMIT to scroll and it is a decent solution. For me, it fatigued my pinky a bit if I was not careful about the overall position of my hand.
* The Kensington Expert Mouse is nice (and big!), I am happy with the scroll ring but the profile is too high for my taste. I got mine without the default wrist rest, I try to use another I had laying around, even so, if you are not careful with the position of your hand, it may add some stress on your wrist.
* Finally, I would say that the Slimblade is my all-time favourite, the big ball and the very low profile make it very comfortable to use. Scrolling is also a very good experience (I would say that better than the ring scroll one).

Regarding gaming, I am not a consummated gamer, but I would say that for me trackballs are suboptimal (I ended buying a mouse for my casual gaming). Maybe the reason is that I do not get use to be really accurate and stop moving the ball when I want to press a button, who knows.

Summing up, Slimblade is a good option

PS: to all the Slimblade users, do you use the default left and right buttons (the two buttons below the ball) or have you swapped the functionality to the ones on the upper row?

katushkin · 30 Jan 2016, 12:22

I'm bumping an old thread, but I'm thinking of getting an L-Trac. I like the look of the slim blade, but I am probably going to try and use it for gaming eventually after I get used to it, and I would prefer the precise movement of the L-Trac as some others have pointed out.

My next step; where do I get one from? The official UK reseller is http://www.computerware.co.uk/ but their site looks about ten years old =/ Any UK/EU users bought one care to share where they bought it from?

Edit: the Kensington Slimblade looks cool as well, but I think I prefer the L-Trac...

HzFaq · 30 Jan 2016, 14:52

There's a dude selling an L-Trac here.

I would totally recommend one btw, I've had mine for a few months now after coming from a Rollermouse (and a vertical mouse before that) and wouldn't go back to either or a normal mouse. Not sure about how good it performs in games, but for work it's perfect (my only slight gripe is the mousewheel isn't notched, but I got used to it after a week or two).

katushkin · 30 Jan 2016, 15:28

HzFaq wrote: ↑There's a dude selling an L-Trac here.

I would totally recommend one btw, I've had mine for a few months now after coming from a Rollermouse (and a vertical mouse before that) and wouldn't go back to either or a normal mouse. Not sure about how good it performs in games, but for work it's perfect (my only slight gripe is the mousewheel isn't notched, but I got used to it after a week or two).

Thanks for that. I think for that price I would just rather buy one new, especially if he wants to ship via DHL from Germany. But it's good to know he did buy it from those guys, even if it was like four years ago.

I do know some people who game with trackballs, so I think it is possible. but it's good to hear you like it so much.

lmorchard · 30 Jan 2016, 16:54

katushkin wrote: ↑I'm bumping an old thread, but I'm thinking of getting an L-Trac. I like the look of the slim blade, but I am probably going to try and use it for gaming eventually after I get used to it, and I would prefer the precise movement of the L-Trac as some others have pointed out.

I've got two L-Tracs - one bought via Amazon and the second (with blue LEDs) from Massdrop. It's a nice big trackball, and I've seen folks swap in 8-balls for fun. They're built solid like tanks and just don't move on my desk, unlike nearly every other cheap & squeaky input device I've bought in the past 10 years.

I thought I would dislike the scroll wheel, but it's really grown on me. It isn't in easy reach of your fingers while resting your hand on the body of the device, so you have to kind of reach up to it. But, for the sake of warding off RSI, you should be moving your hands a bit anyway from time to time and the scrollwheel is fairly large so you can just kind of slap at it with fingertips.

katushkin wrote: ↑I do know some people who game with trackballs, so I think it is possible. but it's good to hear you like it so much.

My L-Tracs are in my office. But, I've also got a Kensington Orbit on my couch gaming PC mostly because I haven't found a way to get an L-Trac in there comfortably. That said, a Kensington Orbit is a cheap trackball (in my area, at least) if you want something just to try.

Main downside is the Orbit has no middle-mouse button, which has bitten me in games sometimes. Of course, the L-Trac has only 2 buttons as well - but you can get one with jacks on the back for 2 more DIY buttons.

FWIW, I originally got into trackballs for gaming, way back in 1997 for Quake 2. I don't get how folks can put up with hauling a mouse around, lifting & re-centering when they get to the edges. Back when I used a Kensington Expert Mouse, turning 180 degrees was a quick kind of fingersnap thing, and that sold me on them.

Of course I have 80's nostalgia for Centipede in arcades - so trackballs mean gaming to me.

katushkin · 30 Jan 2016, 17:28

I have seen people do that with the 8 ball, it looks so awesome. Is it easy to get the ball out of it then?

I guess it depends on how you use it, but it would get easier to reach the scroll wheel I'm sure. I would use it for playing Dota primarily, and i'm not really into FPS games that much, so I might be OK. I will keep a mouse plugged in for a while if I find it a bit too hard

Thanks for so much detail and pictures though

lmorchard · 30 Jan 2016, 17:42

katushkin wrote: ↑I have seen people do that with the 8 ball, it looks so awesome. Is it easy to get the ball out of it then?

Oh, yeah. Basically, 4 screws hold the case together and the ball is just resting on the rollers. Probably a 5 minute process, as long as you're careful not to let any parts fall out by opening it upside down

katushkin wrote: ↑I guess it depends on how you use it, but it would get easier to reach the scroll wheel I'm sure. I would use it for playing Dota primarily, and i'm not really into FPS games that much, so I might be OK. I will keep a mouse plugged in for a while if I find it a bit too hard

Thanks for so much detail and pictures though

No problem

I would think a trackball would be great for DOTA, too.

katushkin · 30 Jan 2016, 17:57

lmorchard wrote: ↑ Oh, yeah. Basically, 4 screws hold the case together and the ball is just resting on the rollers. Probably a 5 minute process, as long as you're careful not to let any parts fall out by opening it upside down

Sweet. Is it a regular size for a normal pool ball?

Phenix · 03 Feb 2016, 23:54

Ive got an Slimblade for 25€. In my opinion the scroll wheel is nice eventough Im not as fast as with an mouse.
So don't exspect to be as fast as possible

amospalla · 04 Feb 2016, 00:39

katushkin wrote: ↑
lmorchard wrote: ↑ Oh, yeah. Basically, 4 screws hold the case together and the ball is just resting on the rollers. Probably a 5 minute process, as long as you're careful not to let any parts fall out by opening it upside down
Sweet. Is it a regular size for a normal pool ball?

I bought a used pool ball two days ago and put it on my L-TRAC. The size is perfect but for some reason it doesn't move as freely as the original ball. Maybe the weight? Don't know.

amospalla · 04 Feb 2016, 00:40

Phenix wrote: ↑Ive got an Slimblade for 25€. In my opinion the scroll wheel is nice eventough Im not as fast as with an mouse.
So don't exspect to be as fast as possible

You can adjust the scroll distance movement on your OS. Doing that I could scroll quite large distances with my Slimblade.

Phenix · 04 Feb 2016, 17:41

i know. I meant navigating cause Im not used to trackballs ( at least for now)

katushkin · 07 Feb 2016, 16:05

amospalla wrote: ↑
katushkin wrote: ↑
lmorchard wrote: ↑ Oh, yeah. Basically, 4 screws hold the case together and the ball is just resting on the rollers. Probably a 5 minute process, as long as you're careful not to let any parts fall out by opening it upside down
Sweet. Is it a regular size for a normal pool ball?
I bought a used pool ball two days ago and put it on my L-TRAC. The size is perfect but for some reason it doesn't move as freely as the original ball. Maybe the weight? Don't know.

Yeah, that could be the reason.

I went in on one from MD. Went for the non-backlit version, but with the ports for programmable buttons if I can ever be bothered to make some

amospalla · 07 Feb 2016, 16:45

katushkin wrote: ↑I went in on one from MD. Went for the non-backlit version, but with the ports for programmable buttons if I can ever be bothered to make some

So I've got the exact version as yours.

stratokaster · 08 Feb 2016, 12:28

Since I was the one who started this thread, I might as well give a quick update

I decided that before spending a fortune on an expensive trackball, I need to make sure that it works for me. I bought a Logitech Trackman Marble for $25 and it's actually very nice. I use Karabiner to map scrolling to button 4 and it works very well for my purposes. I'm still trying to get used to it, but I like the ability to instantly move the pointer across two screens with a flick of my fingers.

knightjp · 24 May 2016, 14:50

Sorry for restarting an old thread.

I did quite a bit of research before buying a trackball. Went through a couple of forums and threads on GeekHack and other sites as a online reviews like the ones below.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8ishW5VB3c[/youtube]

I wondered which ones were better - Finger vs thumb, etc. Came across this site.
http://www.trackballmouse.org/
Looking at the site review and all the forums, opinions were quite divided. Many preferred the thumb; others the finger operations.

In short, I decided in between two options... Logitech M570 and Kensington Orbit. Unfortunately, the place where I live, they mostly stock up on parts for gaming PCs and gamers rather than ergomonic stuff. Only a handful of shops I found sold trackballs and all of them had the Logitech, but not the Kensington. So could not try out the Kensington to see if I liked it or not.
So I ended up with the Logitech and I have to say, I have no complaints about it. OK, the plastic feels a bit cheap, but using it was comfortable. Much more than the mouse. The movement of the thumb felt quite natural. Also I was a bit excited when I saw that Eric S Raymond was using a thumb operated trackball too.

Don't know who Eric S Raymond is..? Watch this...
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=875NbdL39A0[/youtube]

I will say this.. my next one would definitely be a Kensington Expert or a Slimblade.

Redmaus · 24 May 2016, 15:12

That is an amazing site, thanks for linking knightjp.

I have been sticking to my slimblade for so long I forgot about the three DT-225's I posses!

I might actually want an L-trac glow, it look quite nice.

derzemel · 24 May 2016, 15:54

would you look at that... Eric Raymond is using Unicomp keyboards

seebart · 24 May 2016, 15:57

Not sure how I missed this thread, I've been shopping for my first trackball for a while now. The Kensington SlimBlade™-Trackball looks real nice until I saw the price.

http://www.kensington.com/de/de/4493/k7 ... 0Rcl0xkhaQ

Now the Adesso Trackball looks interesting, I'll do some more research on that. The amazon reviews seem OK but that's not enough feedback.

http://www.adesso.com/products/product-detail-137.html

http://www.amazon.com/Adesso-Trackball- ... B0038KLG5C

chzel · 24 May 2016, 16:24

If you were shocked by the Kensington's price, wait till you see the CSTs!
Unless of course you happen upon a mini GB for Kid's trackballs for really cheap.
Really sturdy trackballs, although I'm not sure if they are worth the price of a new Lasertrac.
Maybe someone from that GB would consider selling their's?

matt3o · 25 May 2016, 09:26

has anyone tried the ELECOM at the end?

davkol · 25 May 2016, 09:53

manofinterests
There's also a bunch of posts in /r/trackballs.

seebart · 25 May 2016, 10:08

davkol wrote: ↑manofinterests
There's also a bunch of posts in /r/trackballs.

Thanks for sharing that.

matt3o · 25 May 2016, 10:13

thanks for the link

(but lost all interest in reddit lately)

TuxKey · 25 May 2016, 18:11

i think your best bet is this new "Elecom finger-operated trackball". i have two Logitech Marble mice collecting dust in my storage room..And i tried lot's of popular so called Ergonomic-mice and non of them really helpt.. i even tried a mouse called "The handshoe mouse" hahahhaa one problem i have with all these mouse is that there is no dpi switch..
Increasing sensitivity via hardware is way better than setting sensitivity in the os..

i would make sure that this trackball had a good sensor looking at the ball. And that there is a dpi switch.
Being able to make little movements is helping me a lot. i went with a good gaming mouse that has a good optical sensor 3310..And moved from my mx-clears to 45g topre that helpt a lot..

i'm very happy with my Ducky mouse ..it is a heavy beast

Any ideas on the specs of this trackball it does look good..hope the manufacturer doesn't screw it up..

seebart · 25 May 2016, 18:17

TuxKey wrote: ↑i'm very happy with my Ducky mouse ..it is a heavy beast

The Ducky Secret?

http://www.duckychannel.com.tw/page-en/ducky-secret/

TuxKey wrote: ↑Any ideas on the specs of this trackball it does look good..hope the manufacturer doesn't screw it up..

http://www2.elecom.co.jp.e.gj.hp.transe ... trackball/