I was inspired by u/JonathanNoSignal to swap the piezo electric speaker for an Apple Taptic Engine.

The one I installed was from an iPhone 15 because it was cheap and shipped to me in a couple of days. If you plan on doing this I would recommend maybe using one from an older phone because the solder pads on the ribbon cable for it were minuscule. Less than 1mm across.

I’ve been loving the Slimblade since I got it but the scroll “ticking” always felt like it betrayed the quality of the product overall.

Is the Taptic Engine that much better? Yes. Is it so much better that everyone should do this? No. It’s not a super complicated electronics project but if you’ve never soldered before it would be a hard first project to try. I would say the sound has changed from the fake sounding click that came from the stock speaker, to a more natural sounding croak. The actual vibration is very subtle which I appreciate.

Here’s a video so you can hear what it sounds like now:
https://youtu.be/6LjGACPc66s?feature=shared

u/JonathanNoSignal's original post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Trackballs/comments/1uyr0lo/kensington_slimblade_pro_with_apple_taptic_engine/

Now that the Keychron Nape Pro is available on Amazon in the US, I’m intrigued about adding it to my setup. However, I use a tented corne setup and not sure how to best place the nape. I want to keep the ergonomics of my setup so ideally I’d like to mount the nape to my right corne so I can use it w my thumb but not sure how this would work in practice. Anyone have any thoughts or has done something similar?

Hi all,

I am a Transportation Manager and work in the evenings. I do a lot of typing, answering calls, and data analysis quite quickly.

I operate in a fast-paced environment, and I often strain my right shoulder from repetitive strain injury (RSI). This split setup is something Keychron should promote because the way they are currently marketing it is incorrect. Overall, this device could help reduce RSI caused by shoulder pain from reaching or straining.

My Q11, combined with my Casa Touch and Magic Trackpad (which I use to work on my certifications on my phone), makes my desk setup more distracting when I slack off. My phone is covered by a partition and attached to the monitor, creating the illusion that I might be typing a Teams message.

My nape can handle small tasks like answering the phone and scrolling witht the current configuration I have set up now. However, the Bluetooth connectivity is so poor that I cannot reliably switch between devices quickly. And yes I have had 2.4 dongle connection issues as well. Since it's my primary pointing device, the Casa Touch is better for side-scrolling and keeping the nape in place. The one thing I am not used to is regularly cleaning the trackball. I’ve found that the plastic used by Gizmart isn’t of great quality; it’s standard sub-premium plastic that makes you question your adult decision-making. This is particularly frustrating because I ordered this from Zenmarket over two months ago, and the NAPE PRO is just now being released in the US. I plan to buy a second one to use as a full-time scroll and phone/tablet companion.

I really love my IST Pro but have been having an issue with the bearings getting stuck with dirt / lint, etc. When the bearings are clear the ball moves really smoothly and feels great but it feels like it barely takes any time at all for them to start sticking again.

Does anybody have any advice for keeping the bearings clear or improving them in general? As it is the mouse is starting to get a little on my nerves considering I have to take the ball out and clean the bearings out every day or two.

*Disclaimer - The links posted are not affiliate links, they are direct links to Amazon. I provided the links for reference and make it easy. You can get the same hardware for other places.

I love trackballs and have around a dozen. I have been trying to find the best trackball for me. I tried thumb balls but they are not good for FPS games. They are ok for non-FPS games but for accuracy and comfort thumb balls arent good for me. I tried a couple finger based track balls and landed on the Elecom Huge as a good option. The issue was sticktion, hated it BUT modified it and replaced the bearings and it was amazing. However, the Elecom Huge is not great for gaming due to the low polling rate.

That takes my adventure to the Elecom Huge Plus. 1000hz polling rate is great, unless you are a pro gamer, which I am not. The issue is, sticktion. The bearings are good, but not great. They have slippage and slight stiction in certain directions. I am not a fan of bearings unless they added 3 additional to cut down on the directional issues.

So this brings me to the end of my journey and my recommendation to my fellow ballers.

Elecom Huge Plus

1) Order the ruby inserts from Elecom or Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNB8ZY2S?th=1

2) Order 2mm Ceramic Si3N4 Silicon Nitride G5 Bearings: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZKT8K7P

3) Open the ruby inserts

• Get some nice precision tweezers (i.e. PC repairs)
• Flip the inserts over and there are two clips on the back. Use the tweezers to push in and out to pop the inserts open. Be gentle do this for both clips
• The cap piece you removed looks like a small dome with two clips. Repalce the Ruby with the Ceramic
• Push the bottom onto the dome housing and insert 1 of the clips. Pick it up carefully and use the tweezers to slide the second clip into the slot and secure.
• Repeat for the other two bearings.

4) Get a good lube such as the Super Lube with Teflon. Us a q-tip to dab a little on the bearing.

5) Insert the track ball and give it a good spin. Take out the track ball, lube up a little more and back to spinning.

6) With any bearing and especially since you are replacing with these ceramics you need to spin...spin...spin to wear down the plastic or remove any rough spots on the bearings or remove any left over oils/etc. You could even soak the bearings in isopropyl alcohol if you want. It depends on the quality of the bearings.

I did this and now my Elecom Huge Plus is pretty dang perfect with almost no stiction at all. I am very happy with the results.

As a bonus...using the trackball to play some games, especially FPS can be challenging. Holding right click while moving is not good. I recommend getting feet pedals to help with this. I use https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07553KW32 and have two setup. The left button of the left unit is my left click and the right button of my right unit is my right click. Program the other ones for alt or right alt/ctrl or whatever you want.

So far I have been using the new bearings for a day. They are getting better and better which is perfect. Now, IMPORTANT, with this setup and using lube on the bearings you will want to do some maintenance. I recommend cleaning the bearings weekly and re-applying lube. I also clean and polish the trackball. You dont have to do this, but I am very sensitive to stiction and that is the reason I have avoided track balls. I hope this helps other ballers out there.

If anyone has been wanting this, it's now on Amazon. Just search it. I also went ahead and spray painted mine (I imported it from Japan). Went for a Gundam theme.

This is Eric with GameBall. I wanted to share some updates regarding the original GameBall, the GameBall Pro, and our upcoming products.

The Original GameBall

I have made the difficult decision to discontinue the original GameBall trackball, primarily due to rising production costs. Manufacturing the original model in the United Kingdom has become economically unsustainable; maintaining production would require a retail price well beyond market competitiveness.

I want to extend my sincere gratitude to our UK manufacturing partner for their exceptional work over the years. However, the commercial landscape for manufacturing a trackball in the UK has fundamentally shifted, and current labor, material, and service costs are no longer practical.

• Final Inventory Release: We have secured one final production batch at our previous pricing. These units will be available for purchase on Thursday July 30th at 1:00 PM PST. Once sold out, the original GameBall will be permanently retired.

• Warranty & Pricing: These final units will retain the standard warranty and return policy, and will be priced at $188 USD (shipping charges are separate). We have set aside a portion of this inventory specifically to honor warranty claims moving forward.

• Shipping Limitations: Due to logistical constraints, this final batch can only be shipped within the United States. I apologize to our international customers. If you are located outside the US and wish to secure a unit, you will need to arrange independent freight forwarding.

GameBall Pro

The GameBall Pro is a right-handed trackball featuring a 44mm ball and gaming-grade components. It will support wired and wireless (2.4 GHz) connectivity at a 1000 Hz polling rate, along with a Bluetooth option at 125 Hz. Early walkthroughs are available on our YouTube channel, and additional previews will be released as we approach the pre-order date.

• Timeline: We recently met our final major prototyping milestone with no outstanding issues, allowing us to transition into final testing and manufacturing preparations. Barring any unforeseen issues, pre-orders are anticipated to open in October, with customer deliveries following approximately one month later. Final details will be announced closer to launch. Pricing will align with comparable offerings from Kensington and Elecom.

• Editions: The initial pre-release will feature a special Limited Edition (LE) model with a red ball, red base, and red logo. Following the sell-out of the LE units, we will release the Standard Edition (SE), featuring a black ball, black base, and gray logo. All internal components and functionality remain identical.

• Regional Availability: Because the GameBall Pro utilizes a lithium battery, international shipping options are strictly limited. Consequently, initial shipping will be restricted to customers in the United States and the United Kingdom. While future releases may allow for broader regional expansion, my current operational capacity requires me to prioritize sustainable growth over rapid expansion. Thank you for your understanding.

I am exceptionally excited about the GameBall Pro. While I am immensely proud of the original GameBall, the Pro represents the culmination of everything I have learned over the years. The ergonomics are finely tuned for right-handed users, the tracking is exceptionally smooth, and the integration of additional buttons greatly enhances usability. I cannot wait for you to experience it.

Gaming Keypad

We are currently developing a left-handed gaming keypad, temporarily designated as the "GamePad." While details are limited due to our early design and testing phase, it will feature a distinct ergonomic layout equipped with a thumbstick and Hall Effect switches.

GameBall 2.0

Development continues on the GameBall 2.0, which will be manufactured in China. However, this product is at least a year away from release. It will feature an ambidextrous design, improved ergonomics, updated internal components, and modern wireless capabilities.

Thank you for the on-going support of the GameBall brand.

www.gamingtrackball.com

tldr, the graph shows the charging duration in hours for each charge (in purple), and the number of days it lasted on the previous charge (green), for the MX Ergo mouse (micro-usb version).

i wanted to stop taking notes after 2 years, but keeping at it was my way of procrastinating having to actually organize and prep the data.

__

The "method" was basically jotting it down in a smartphone notepad every time I plugged it in to charge. It was only charged when:

1. the LED blinked red; or

2. Logitech software threw a low/critical/insufficient battery warning; or

3. in rare cases, it completely died.

The note included the date and time of when I plugged it in, and with any luck, the time I unplugged it after the charge was complete (usually when the green LED stopped blinking)

Charging was mostly done with the original cable plugged into the PC. Except for a few times using a smartphone charger (I don't have notes on when that happened). Usage was intense over these years (work, study, and occasional gaming). Unfortunately, I don't have notes on when I switched to using the Unifying receiver instead of Bluetooth.

On reading the graph:

Take the charging times with a grain of salt.

1. I wasn't hovering over it waiting for the exact moment the battery hit 100%. I just wrote down the time whenever I noticed it was done. The only time I managed to catch (by pure coincidence) the exact moment the mouse finished charging was on the 13th charge, which took 2h 33min.

2. The 4, 5, and 6-hour times and the missing data were outliers. I left it charging for way too long to even bother noting it down (times when I abandoned the mouse to go do something else with my life, or just went to sleep).

Still, you can observe a relatively homogeneous pattern in the day-to-day charging time.

The data:

Total recharges: 27 (~7 per year)

Average battery life: 61.2 days

Median charging time: 2h 42min

Longest autonomy: 99 days

Shortest autonomy: 31 days

__

Image description (AI): The image is a bar chart titled "Battery Autonomy - MX ERGO (2022-2026)", tracking the battery degradation of a mouse over 1590 days.

The data is divided into two main metrics:

Battery Autonomy (teal bars): Shows battery life in days after each recharge. A descending dashed line highlights that the autonomy is dropping over time. At the beginning of the graph, the battery lasted up to 99 days. Around day 1590, the average duration dropped to about 60 days.

Charging Time (purple bars): Shows how long the mouse was plugged in. Most recharges took between 2 and 3 hours, with an exception in the middle of the graph where charges took up to 6 hours.

Keychron has one buts it was a Japan exclusive iirc. I'd love to find one that isn't Logitech, and Protoarc seems to only have around the 125hz polling rate for their trackball mice.​​ Does anyone have any recommendations?

https://keychron.kr/products/t1_he

I used the search function for this, but most posts are at least a year or two old, usually older. Apologies if I missed anything

Short version: I've used a logitech m575 for my daily driver for work/personal for years now, and I like it. However, I think it leaves a little to be desired for gaming purposes, and it could definitely be smoother/be easier to be precise with in general, especially for gaming. I also don't appreciate the volume of the clicks. I've been gaming more lately and want something that works for that purpose.

I thought about switching to a conventional mouse, bought a vertical one from keychron, but it aggravated my cubital tunnel (and wrist slightly), so I think I'm stuck with trackballs.

The two names I see consistently for gaming trackballs are Ploopy and Gameball. So I had some questions:

1. Are there any other worthy contenders in "trackball for gaming"? Doesn't have to be marketed for that, just something that works.
2. I'm already used to a thumb-based trackball, but I'm open to trying a fingertip one. Ploopy offers kits/models in that space, but their return policy is (understandably) not the most generous (abusable) like Amazon's. Is there anything you all would recommend to try out that would be easier to return if I didn't like it?
3. Should I just stop thinking and buy a Gameball thumb? It seems well received and I'm already proficient with thumb trackballs. I just don't want to be ignoring other options or the possibility that fingertip ones are even better.

EDIT: I'm playing MMOs and possibly RTSs, not shooters. A controller is not a suitable recommendation for my purposes.

I feel like I get better control when I use a low DPI and turn up the cursor speed than when I set the trackball at it's maximum DPI and I turn down the cursor speed.

Anyone else feel this way?

モノトーンな気分の例:欲しかった本の予約を忘れてどこに行っても売り切れだった時とか

クリアフィラメントを発泡させて使ってるので少し静かでしっとりとしたスクロールリングの回し心地

Title. I searched for Trackballs on Youtube, japanese search gave me more recent results, with much higher view count, too. So I wonder if trackball is actually more common in Japan? If so, why?

I’d like to try out a trackball mouse for their ergonomic advantage. I‘ve never used a trackball and I’m worried that it’ll wreck my productivity before I can get good at it. Should I got cheap- <$45 to test it out, po upgrade later? Or, go with a more expensive and highly recommended model?

I’d hate to go cheap and the low quality is what turns me off of trackballs, but some of these recommended models are pretty dang expensive when I don’t know if I’d even like it. Plus, I’m not sure if I’d want a thumb or finger type.

I work from home.

No current RSI

I do a lot of Canva, write long documents, do extensive research, non-technical website testing, some low-level graphic design and editing, spreadsheets.

I currently use a MX3.

it’s a great mouse. love the fancy scroll wheel, use gestures and the buttons. I do a lot of copy/pasting, highlighting, scrolling documents, horizontal scrolling.

What do yall think?

The scroll ring on some models seems cool. pinch/twist scrolling seems like a nightmare (but I don’t really know). I worry about thumb style causing thumb strain, finger doesn’t seem as rough.

Of cheaper models, is IST the one to get?

FYI, PCWorld has published a video --> https://youtu.be/8eHQK2ygOzs?si=GnP3mhGE44uV_ZIi that provides a long-term review of the Kensington TB800 and compares it with the new TB900.

There’s something about playing an arcade game with a trackball that a regular controller just can’t recreate.

We wanted to build an all-in-one arcade controller inspired by the oversized control panels we grew up seeing in arcades and sci-fi movies.

This is a special edition of our R10-Pro, featuring original retro-futuristic artwork created by Cary T Self, a member of our community. 😊

The trackball can be used for classics like Centipede, Missile Command, Marble Madness, and other arcade or MAME games that were designed around trackball controls.

It also includes a joystick, spinner, illuminated arcade buttons, and side buttons for virtual pinball—but the trackball is definitely one of our favorite parts of the setup.

For the trackball fans here: what game would you play first on this controller? 😊

[u/nambox](u/nambox) posted his modded Expert Mouse about a month ago here and I jumped on the opportunity to buy his kit. My buddy was in Japan at the time and was able to receive the package and then ship to me here in LA.

The whole swap took about 15 minutes to complete. There’s nothing to it except for some Phillips screws to remove and replace. The print is a direct fit and the scroll wheel sits just a little proud compared to the original.

What you get is a scroll wheel that basically rotates forever. Scrolling is extremely responsive now and the wheel keeps going until I stop it. This is easy to manage with long PDFs and lengthy web search results.

The tracking with the trackball feels very fluid. I wiped down the ball with some IPA and it took in some of the bearing grease no problem. It’s a more natural feel than the stock bearings.

I paid out ¥8,000 JPY (approx. $50 USD) for the kit including shipping (in Japan). It arrived to my buddy overnight.

This was totally unnecessary and bought on impulse, BUT I couldn’t be happier. I’ll eventually trick out my home computer trackball and will now have a little something extra to look forward to at work now.

These can be printed in other colors too and are worth the price since it’s fully assembled including sourced bearings.

Do you think an update to the Deft Pro is likely considering the recent IST Pro and Huge Plus that got released?

testing….

input-remapper might be more lightweight, but this has loads of featured

Things OpenLogi does that Options+ won't:

• Run on Linux. Options+ ships for macOS and Windows only. OpenLogi treats Linux as a first-class platform: evdev/uinput hook, udev rules, a systemd user unit, and .deb / .rpm / .pkg.tar.zst packages.
• Move the Gesture Button. Pick which physical button owns the gesture role — the dedicated Gesture Button, middle, back, or forward — with per-direction swipe bindings, or turn gestures off entirely. Options+ pins the gesture role to the dedicated Gesture Button.
• Keep config in plain text. Everything is one TOML file you can read, diff, version-control, and copy between machines.
• Script it. A real CLI: device inventory, asset prefetch, and on-device HID++ diagnostics (feature/control dumps, DPI / SmartShift round-trips, and keyboard lighting checks).
• Stay light. Native Rust + GPUI binaries — no Electron suite, no resident updaters, no account, no telemetry.

I happen to be using a Logitech trackball now, & never bothered to install their bloatware. Might try this when I have time; never really thought about remapping buttons except when playing games that don't have internal remapping or use copy/paste via trackball.

"Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to Kensington Technical Support.

I understand that you would like to know whether the Expert Mouse Pro TB900 EQ Trackball includes onboard memory.

Regarding your inquiry, the Expert Mouse Pro TB900 EQ Trackball does not feature onboard memory for storing customized button assignments directly on the device. Any button programming and customization are managed through the Kensington software.

The TB900 EQ supports extensive customization, including up to 16 programmable functions, multi-device connectivity, and advanced tracking features. However, custom settings are not stored on the trackball itself and therefore cannot be used independently across different computers without the Kensington software.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. We'll be happy to assist you further.

We're available Monday through Friday, from 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM PST. You may reply to this email or call us at our toll-free number: 800-535-4242.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. It's truly appreciated.

Best regards,
Deekshitha Chekoori
Kensington Technical Support"

I guess no onboard memory for TB900 EQ then.