RadioShack trackball - opinions? reviews?

ivelegacy · 05 Feb 2019, 01:02

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 · 05 Feb 2019, 13:38

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 · 05 Feb 2019, 14:09

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

HC514 · 05 Feb 2019, 14:34

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 · 05 Feb 2019, 17:08

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 · 05 Feb 2019, 18:17

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 · 05 Feb 2019, 23:26

HC514 wrote: 05 Feb 2019, 13:38 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 · 05 Feb 2019, 23:28

Archie wrote: 05 Feb 2019, 14:09 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 · 06 Feb 2019, 00:09

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

ivelegacy · 06 Feb 2019, 01:14

zrrion wrote: 06 Feb 2019, 00:09 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 · 06 Feb 2019, 02:00

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

Archie · 06 Feb 2019, 11:39

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 · 06 Feb 2019, 12:01

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 · 06 Feb 2019, 12:09

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 · 07 Feb 2019, 13:30

ivelegacy wrote: 06 Feb 2019, 12:09 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).