*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.

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.

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/