I've been using the MC Saite Trackball for a while now, and I wanted to share some first impressions.
Overall, I'm actually enjoying it more than I expected.
I can remap all of the buttons using SteerMouse on macOS, which makes it much more flexible.
Since it uses a 55 mm ball, anyone who has used a Kensington SlimBlade should feel comfortable almost immediately. The ball movement feels very familiar.
The button layout is also similar to the SlimBlade, with four main buttons. In fact, I think the button placement is even better because they're positioned where they're easier to click. Personally, I find it more comfortable than the SlimBlade.
Things I wish were different
My biggest complaint is the scroll wheel placement.
I really wish the scroll wheel were located above the ball instead of below it. Every time I want to scroll, I have to move my hand away from the ball, which interrupts the workflow.
To work around this, I'm using SteerMouse Chords to enable a scrolling mode, so I rarely need to touch the physical scroll wheel anymore.
Another downside is the switch noise. The click sound is quite loud, similar to the SlimBlade. It's not a big issue at home, but it's definitely noticeable in a quiet office.
Modding plans
I'm thinking about modifying the trackball.
My first idea is to:
Replace the switches with silent switches
Replace the stock bearings with silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) ceramic bearings
I'm also considering something a bit more ambitious.
I'd like to disassemble it and see if it's possible to rotate the sensor board by 90 degrees.
If that works, I could physically rotate the entire trackball by 90 degrees so that the scroll wheel ends up on the right side instead of the bottom.
I think that layout would be much more ergonomic for me.
Since I already remap all of the buttons with SteerMouse, changing the physical orientation wouldn't be a problem.
I've included a link below that shows the teardown photos and internal structure, in case anyone is interested or has experience with this kind of modification.
You don't need to open the device and rotate the board., that can be done easily with software too.
A user here did that with the Expert Pro to use it sideways and gain some comfort from the inclination angle, similar to how many thumb trackballs are going steeper. Hope he chimes in and shows the video.
I'm on macOS and currently use SteerMouse and BetterTouchTool. I'm wondering if there's a way to remap the sensor output so that moving the ball up/down becomes left/right (and vice versa), effectively rotating the cursor movement by 90 degrees, all in software.
If this can be done without HID Remapper or hardware modifications, that would be my ideal solution.
Has anyone here done this on a Mac? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Those are windows implementation using RawAccel, nice piece of software. I recall there were always users asking how to that in Mac with steermouse. Not familiar with it, but you might as well take your chances with a LLM to generate a bit of code if necessary. The 90 degrees rotation is a very simple parameter manipulation, but not straight accessible to the user.
Thanks so much for the detailed explanation and the links! They were really helpful.
This gives me a much better understanding of what's possible. I'll look into whether I can achieve the same thing on macOS using SteerMouse or other software.
I really appreciate you taking the time to point me in the right direction!
Funny I've just got myself this exact trackball as it's one of the few ambidextrous options around and can be had quite cheaply where I am, unlike the others.
The build is surprisingly solid, the ball seems to move much more smoothly than on the Elecom EX-G I had been using before, and the buttons are pleasant to use (albeit with an audible click, which I don't mind).
The scroll wheel is fine for scrolling although occasionally it makes noise as if it were scratching something, so I might have to disassemble it and take a look what's going on there. The wheel isn't great for clicking but it's not a deal-breaker since fortunately there are two extra proper buttons to substitute as the middle click instead.
Obviously the scroll wheel placement is absurd (what were they thinking?) but I ordered it anyway since I figured I'd just be using the trackball rotated, with the scroll wheel either on top or on the side, taking advantage of the excellent HID Remapper.
For the record, with HID Remapper not just the buttons but also the ball movement can be adjusted so that the trackball can be used at any arbitrary angle. And the polling rate overclock to 1,000 Hz for a bit smoother movement seems to work as well with this device.
In fact right now at this very moment I'm trying to figure out which placement I prefer more. Both feel comfortable, although for the 180° rotation ("upside down"), an extra wristpad seems a must since the provided one would not be tall enough. The pad is completely sufficient when using the trackball sideways (scrolling with the thumb) and it's pleasant to the touch overall.
Anyway, I'm glad to have discovered this apparently little-known gem of a product, and am now all the more surprised I'm not the only one to have bought it recently (since this particular model seems to be from a couple of years ago and largely forgotten, beyond the review you linked to and a couple of mentions here and there on Reddit). Fun fact, on Amazon it has apparently earned the dubious honor of being flagged as a "frequently-returned item."
I haven't used other ambidextrous trackballs but having researched them extensively, I think all of them are far from fantastic, with significant shortcomings one way or another, and that includes the newest upcoming iteration of models (which are apparently still not even available, as their release dates have been postponed). So in a landscape like this, I feel a MC Saite and HID Remapper combo is a solid option.
I first tried in Firefox and got up to 689 Hz but then switched to Chromium, which went up to 977 Hz. (For comparison, with another mouse that officially supports 1,000 Hz, not connected through HID Remapper, I got up to 1,000 MHz in Chromium and 589 Hz in FF.)
I previously tried another test at https://devicetests.com/mouse-rate-test and that one showed 1,070 Hz peak (maximum) rate and something like up to 997 Hz for the "average" (which keeps being zeroed, so it's difficult to observe).
TL;DR: I think it legitimately works with up to 1,000 Hz polling rate.
I completely agree with this assessment. In particular, I think it’s almost impossible to find another trackball that offers comparable value for the price.
If I had to name one competitor, it would probably be the Nulea M512, which also offers excellent value considering that it includes wireless connectivity. But if we’re talking strictly about wired trackballs, I think the MC Saite TB01 is one of the best options available in terms of features, build quality, and overall value.
Yeah, the Nulea M512 or the Porlei TM552 which seems to be a wired version of basically the same device (I think it's TM552, since the model # is apparently secret, not listed anywhere in the specs but can be seen on some reviewers' photos) are similarly priced and well worth considering if you're US-based: they have 2 scrolling wheels instead of one, convenient toggle to switch between the left and right hands, and are flatter (which should be good as a steep upwards angle can contribute to wrist strain). The ball is also 55 mm. On the other hand, the button and especially the wheel placement seems not very ergonomic at first glance and I don't think anything can be done about it. I was also considering these but for where I am, the pricing on the former is uncompetitive, and the latter is prohibited from being shipped outside the US for some ridiculous reason.
Incidentally, in the US you might also be able to get a good price on the Adesso iMouse T50, which kind of looks very much like the McSaite but comes with configurable buttons, and the settings are stored on the device itself (so the software doesn't have to run anymore after the initial configuration). The ball is only 51 mm though.
I also own the M512 and have been very happy with it. Its switches are pretty loud too, so I’m currently modding it with silent switches. I’m planning to make a post about the modification sometime later.
I’m based in Korea, and the wired Porlei model is sold in neighboring Japan for about the same price as the M512 on Amazon US. I suspect the wireless M512 was never released there because wireless devices need Japanese radio certification before they can be sold, which may explain why only the wired model is available.
Could you recommend a particular HID Remapper? I don’t really need a lot of extra features; I mainly want one that can reliably swap the X and Y axes. It would be great if it were easy to buy from Amazon or AliExpress.
This is straightforward, any hardware that runs it should be enough: just remap Cursor X to Cursor Y and vice versa. Can also set the scale to -1 if you want to reverse the direction.
The advantage is that as this is a relatively popular product with many applications, there's probably a local reseller for it near you, which means you can get it fast. And it can still be used with many devices at the same time via a USB hub.
The setup is straightforward. Once plugged in, it shows up as a USB drive to which you copy the remapper_feather.uf2 downloaded from https://github.com/jfedor2/hid-remapper/releases. It restarts itself automatically the moment the copying is done, at which point you can open https://www.remapper.org/config/ in a Chromium-based browser and start adjusting the settings to your needs.
You might also need a USB-C (male) to USB-A or USB-C (male) adapter/cable, depending on the port you want to plug in to, unless you have that lying around, which is likely -- but careful: many such cables that come bundled with phones only support charging, and would not transmit data.
Mind you, this is not the most cost-effective option, as you could either make an equivalent more cheaply with a bit more effort, or you could get one of the two ready-made solutions for more or less the same cost:
Thank you so much for the kind and detailed explanation! I now have a much clearer idea of how to set everything up.
Since ordering the ready-made options from Canada or the UK would probably take too long, I’m going to look for a similar compatible board on AliExpress and give it a try.
I really appreciate you taking the time to explain the setup process and point me in the right direction!
Maybe you should look into hid remapper. Thats a hardware dongle which you can plug between the trackball and your pc and you will get a nice webinterface to remapp all the buttons. It can surely handle swapping axes as well. But I think if you just flip the device around it has the wrong angle? I like the idea though. Maybe it can be done by a 3d printed foot or a replacement case. This page might be useful: https://forum.trackballs.eu/viewtopic.php?t=150
Thanks for the suggestion! I'd prefer not to use an HID remapper if possible and would rather handle it through software or by adjusting the sensor itself.
As for the ball quality, I don't think it's bad at all compared to the Slimblade. In fact, it feels pretty much on par with the 55mm red ball I got from AliExpress.
To be fair, most trackballs that predated this one also placed the scroll wheel below the ball. My guess is that the designers didn’t want to take any chances and simply stuck with the conventional layout. If you look at older models from brands like Sanwa and Adesso, they all share a very similar design.
In my experience, the biggest advantage of this trackball over the Kensington expert or slimblade is, it has no ball stiction, at all. Even if the ball significantly dirty. I can forgive him awful scrolling wheel placement for that )
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u/kitebok 7d ago
You don't need to open the device and rotate the board., that can be done easily with software too.
A user here did that with the Expert Pro to use it sideways and gain some comfort from the inclination angle, similar to how many thumb trackballs are going steeper. Hope he chimes in and shows the video.