Ch MVP Trackball

[bebop8]

Having both, I'd say CH is much more usable than ITAC on modern systems. Of course I keep it in doubled resolution mode, but even native one outperforms ITAC's 192 PPR.

Mechanically they're nearly identical: exactly the same type of bearings & shaft diameter, but CH have slightly bigger ball and better arrangement of buttons. No integral wrist rest, though.

If you need high-resolution trackball with ball bearings, maybe it's worth to try semi-DIY derivative of defunct Microsoft Explorer trackball, as all the factory-made units still in production today are AFAIK low-resolution (by modern standards) devices.

Thank you for your response, I really appreciate it. I thought the internals looked awfully similar. Glad to know the shafts and bearings can be swapped if necessary.

The DT225 should be just what I'm looking for then. I see one locally for a reasonable price with a DB9 serial connector. I'll have to get a serial to USB cable and bring a laptop to demo it. Hopefully the DT225 will play nice with a converter cable.

The Ploopy looks like a nice option indeed but the price is a bit rich for me at the moment and I'm not sold on the shape, though I'd still like to try it some day.

[TheBug]

This definitely should be the Sun version of the Trackball Pro.

I used to make all the ADB controller chips for CH Products and they definitely had a Sun version of the trackball.

Apple never supported a serial mouse. At the time they switched to mini-DIN-8 for the serial port they also switched to ADB for input devices.

A really nice feature of the Trackball Pro is that it uses billard ball size. I used a black Trackball Pro with an 8 ball as my primary pointing device for several years.

If you go into the electronics to adapt it to USB make sure you are not going anywhere near the optic encoders. If you solder at these parts it is very easy to misalign them. This was a production issue back then, they had to do manual tweaking on many units to get them to work properly. Once they are properly aligned they are sturdy as a tank but you would not want to waste that alignment.

[keyboardist]

If you need high-resolution trackball with ball bearings, maybe it's worth to try semi-DIY derivative of defunct Microsoft Explorer trackball, as all the factory-made units still in production today are AFAIK low-resolution (by modern standards) devices.

You can find trackballs' sensor + ball units for industrial usage sold separately. Some of them have laser sensing comparable with CST-Ltrac (or at least their producers claim that they are around 1600DPI). Just buy wedge shaped guitar effect style industrial enclosure (ABS, alu, steel, wood whatever you like) and 2/3/4/whatever count you need switches for buttons and you can tinker yourself some funky trackball device.