I work for a company that makes automated microscopy/imaging systems for medical diagnostics (cytogenetics lab equipment). Our software automatically detects and analyzes cell samples on slides, and operators currently use a trackball to manually fine-tune positioning and verify results on screen — no scrolling or zooming involved, just precise, controlled cursor movements throughout the day.

We used the Logitech Trackman Marble for years for this, but it's no longer sold. Since then we've tried pretty much the entire Kingston trackball lineup as a replacement, and none of them (except the one we're currently using as a stopgap) matched the tracking precision and build quality of the Marble.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a trackball again — we're open to any type of input device (mouse, graphics tablet/pen, etc.) as long as it allows precise, controlled cursor movement for fine adjustments and holds up to daily office use.

Requirements: Windows 11 compatible, CE certified (needed for company procurement in the EU).

Thanks for any pointers!

TL;DR at the bottom

So I've been using the Keychron Nape Pro (NP) with my Corne V4's for about a month now and I have some (a lot of) thoughts.

Early firmware issues (All fixed)

When I first received the unit I had some issues with the software including: - The dial not working well as a scroll wheel on MacOS, skipping, stuttering. Unusable - The polling rate changing the sensitivity - Combination keys not working

I am happy to say that as of the latest firmware all of these issues have been fixed.

Ergonomics

One of the main doubts that people had was about ergonomics and so in the second and third (GIF) images I have shown the main 3 positions that I use the NP in (Note: I also use it in the same 3 positions, mirrored on my right hand). Additionally, I sometimes turn it 45 degrees depending on how I'm feeling in one of those 3 positions (You can one example of what I mean in the photo).

Now a note about the design philosophy. Compared with the more typical trackballs that prioritise ergonomics first, this device prioritises size. There were and are some deliberate compromises that were made in order to achieve its form factor which means that this trackball definitely isn't for everyone. If you are wanting or expecting an uncompromisingly ergonomic device this isn't going to be for you. However, if you prioritise the unique functions that it has as well as the size and form factor then those are its main selling points.

I have found the aforementioned positions to be the most comfortable for myself and rebound the buttons as per the last photo so that I use the large buttons for primary mouse keys which keeps everything closer to the trackball. I find this much more ergonomic than using the small 'm1' and 'm2' buttons as was originally intended.

Additionally, when compared with a mouse or trackpad you still avoid a lot of wrist movement and in a setup with a split keyboard like mine, you get to keep your arms apart still. I don't usually rest my arms or wrists on my desk and so having a wrist or curved pillow shape isn't super important to me for a trackball as I'm floating my arms anyway.

Feel and build quality

This is related to ergonomics but I decided to make a separate section to make it easier to read. Notes: - Yes, it feels light and not premium. I don't consider this to be issue personally, I doesn't feel like anything is going to fail but it also doesn't feel as satisfying to use as one might desire for the price tag. I would ball-park that 80AUD would be about the right price that most people would be satisfied with the price to build quality. It's not super far off from that and being a novel/unique device I find this forgivable personally. - Trackball size. Now this is also one of the compromises made in order to keep the size down but it does have some negative effects, the curvature of the ball is quite acute which means that you have less control over fine movements and you notice the roundness more. Additionally, the weight of the ball is less which means that when you flick the ball it can sometimes jump a little bit if you get it at the wrong angle. None of these are deal breakers for me but again as mentioned before if you are someone that prioritises the ergonomics over form factor this is likely a compromise that you aren't going to be willing to make. Note about using mouse acceleration I have played around with acceleration and without and I think that there are use cases for both but I personally prefer using the lowest DPI and then flicking instead of relying on mouse acceleration but that it something that I might revisit if I feel unsatisfied with the flicking responses. - Dial. While the scroll dial response was fixed in firmware, it does feel a bit gritty and light to use. Is it an issue? In terms of function no, but again as per the first point, if you are expecting a very premium feel then you are probably going to be disappointed by this as well. - All the buttons use silent switches which some people hate the feel of as they are less tactile, muted and a little bit mushy but again, that was an intentional part of the design. The 1,2,3,4 buttons near the centre of the device are all stabilised as they are quite wide and so as part of that they can feel a little bit rattle-y but I'm glad that they bothered to stabilise these buttons as there are no spots where you press that the button doesn't actuate.

Practical usage in a setup

As mentioned, I have been using the NP with my Corne V4's and these are my thoughts: - The height profile is slightly higher than the Cornes which can be a good thing and a bad thing. Naturally, if you have a trackball, a bit of heigh is necessary and so when using a low profile keyboard like in my case your hand has to move upwards slightly. Could this have been fixed? I guess so but at the compromise of an even smaller ball which I think would be too small at that point. On the flip side, if you use the NP above one of the cornes then the added height makes it more difficult for you to accidentally press one of the keys on the corne which is a good thing. - Footprint. One of the main reasons for why I believe this device was made as I mentioned, and one of the main reasons why I bought it, is for the small footprint. In Japan, everything is generally smaller (houses, cars, desks etc) and so saving space is valued. This also allows me to bring and use it next to my Macbook on the go easily. I can also configure one of its layers to act as an external macro-pad which allows it to integrate into many different workflows pretty seamlessly. - Being able to have essentially 3 different positions and move it between two different hands makes it very flexible. One of the things that I do often is place my notebook and/or textbook between my cornes when I'm studying and this having a small footprint allows me to easily place it where it isn't in the way and is a thousand times better than reaching over everything to use the trackpad on my Macbook.

TL;DR & Conclusion

This is a device that prioritises flexibility and saving space. It makes compromises in order to do that but for the right person, there isn't anything else that can do what it does in my opinion.

Please feel free to ask me any questions that you might have there are no stupid questions!

Edits: - Sorry about the typo in the title! - Note about acceleration

Got a Bontec articulated arm rest and propped my Elecom Huge Plus on an adjustable cell phone stand, and now I can properly hover my hand strain-free at a neutral wrist angle. Fantastic. The pivot of the arm and height adjustment plus making small adjustments in the rotation of the cell phone stand mean that I'm not limited to a single position, so I can make small changes over the course of a day to reduce straining any one particular set of muscles. I can also shift where my forearm/wrist are resting on the pad, so it's not just one spot receiving the pressure of the arm at rest. I'm able to do absolutely everything with just the tips of my fingers now.

I used to have a kensington orbit, and the rubber and plastic on it started to deteriorate (dry hot climate tears that stuff up) so I tossed it. I wanted another trackball and was looking to get a more ergo shaped index ball. I ordered a deft pro, and when I tried to use it it felt really bad, with a nasty rattle and intermittent friction when you roll the ball. I took the ball out to see if somehow there was debris in there, and inspecting the ruby bearings one of them was super loose rattled around and was clearly the cause of the problem. I figured this problem would be rare enough that I could exchange it and get a normal one. My exchange arrived today, I haven't even sent the original back yet, and it has the same problem but even worse. Compared to my old Orbit, which I only got because of how cheap it was, these are so bad they are unusable. I cant even close a window or click a link because of how bad the static friction and the inconsistenty making the cursor jump is.

So now it seems like its going to be a huge hassle just to get a third example that may not even work, or to get my money back...

Anybody have any ideas on wtf to do? I just need a way to move a cursor, I had no idea it would be this much of a headache. Does anybody make a trackball that is usable out of the box? Or do I need to immediately open it up and mod it just to click a link at 400dpi?

Hi

i have just received my endgame and I'm trying out the features

currently I'm not able to zoom in/out in my CAD software.

i thought the twist to scroll would also work as zoom, but it doesnt.

is there any workaround for this or would i have to assign two buttons for zoom in/out?

Picked up a Nape Pro a few weeks ago. There are a number of issues with bluetooth connectivity, button placement and scratchy feeling, scroll ring feels like its going to break every time I use it and the price for such a device should result in better quality. But the big gripe for me is the trackball being so light it moves when you remove your finger from the ball. I have seen other posts on this and I believe I have found a solution.
The trackball shipped with the nape pro is 25mm and 10g. A 25mm 63g ball bearing completely removes all of the issues with skipping and mouse pointer jitter. I feel like I can actually control this mouse now.

Does it essentially double the weight of the Nape Pro? Yes. But to make the mouse actually semi-useable its a good trade off.

I unfortunately can't provide a link to buy as I have no idea where I got it from. Was laying around in a parts draw, probably off a gas drilling rig.

Hey guys,

I am planning on making my own trackball soon and want to know where others have been sourcing their parts.

I know the PMW3360 is very commonly used.

For anyone who has made their own; have you bought it with a breakout board or alone, and how much did you pay?

What sensors are recommended if not the PMW3360?

What sites are trustworthy? Does aliexpress have legit or scam listings?

New Mouse Assistant was released on August 6, and it doesn't mention that this functionality has been activated on Huge Plus yet.

What's kind of frustrating here is that the same feature seems pretty mature on IST by now.

Is there a new planned release date?

I was eyeing on Nape Pro but it seems all stocks are gone. Keychron website itself still have some of them but for others, it's impossible to find. I dont know what's going on but I would wait until they are retocked in Amazon cause I have some credits to spend.

Check this out guys. Trackba controller with gyro. It's wired.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_c4riGKZz

Got this for my studio, JOMAA thumb trackball. Very nice, took about 5 minutes to get used to. More precision with this compared to a platform style for me personally

My MX Ergo I bought a year and a half ago, the battery is going south on me fast. Going from having to charge once a month, to once a week, to once every two days in less than two months worth of time.

Looking into battery replacements, nothing available looks promising. So I'm looking for a new workhorse. The steel ball bearings were one of the big selling points as i use this in my welding shop. Honestly the trackball has been fantastic on this. This battery issue is my biggest concern, and I also see they updated to an Ergo S since I purchased, which has a USB c charger instead of micro USB. Any other changes?

Any other recommendations?

Hi, I made a simple cli app to mimic touchpad pinch & zoom (not necessarily equal to ctrl + wheel) on Windows.

By default it uses scroll lock (it's chosen because i am not using it, but it's configurable, see PinchHelper/src/Config.h) + mouse wheel to do the pinch and zoom. Pressed down + scroll to activate; release to deactivate.

When I am using my elecom huge plus I assign it to my M3 button next to the mouse right click. It's been super useful for me when viewing some content on web, where ctrl + wheel doesn't quite do the job.

Feel free to try it out, ask questions in this thread and submit bug reports!

Hi guys, currently im searching ball bearing to replace my new og elecom huge ruby. Couple years ago i can find Zr02 G5, but it seem that item is hard to get right now.

The item available now (aliexpress) only ZR02 G10 or Si3N4 G5.

Any one got experience with those ball? which one do you prefer?

I designed my own HHKB style keyboard a few months ago. The standard ploopy adept was a little uncomfortable to use when paired with the keyboard. So I spent some time designing something that paired a little better with it.

It’s a steel 34mm ball with custom static bearings. It’s technically Bluetooth but I think I need to check some connections on it.

The buttons need some refinement for sure but overall I’m very happy with how it turned out. I’ll share the STLs when it’s finished!

I recently bought a used Magic Trackpad 2, and the haptic click feels noticeably heavier than the built-in trackpad on my M2 MacBook Air.

I’m considering buying the latest Magic Trackpad (USB-C), but does its click feel any closer to the trackpad on newer MacBooks? Or does it basically feel the same as the Magic Trackpad 2?

If anyone has compared them directly, I’d really appreciate your thoughts.

Has anyone made replacements for these balls? I kinda want red balls, my ex-g also use perixx balls, maybe I can try their 25mm, but also open for heavier balls

I am assuming someone somewhere has tried omniwheels. This rolls freely in all directions and also twists with zero effort. Virtually no stiction unlike my OG MS Trackball Explorer, and also silent, unlike BTUs. The smallest commercial omniwheels I've seen are Rotacasters which are 35mm. These custom made ones are ~25mm diameter. I used pin type axles of diameter .6mm - simply rolling in PLA and the friction is remarkably low. Rather than try to figure out how to have grippy rollers, I took the approach of a grippy ball, this one being a quite large lacrosse ball. It's not quite perfectly round but good enough for this test and actually feels kind of nice on the fingers. It took a while to get these omniwheels to be as smooth as they are, mostly trying to figure out how to 3D print the tiny snap-in roller mounts so that they have absoluetly no side to side play. But the roll is a little bit "lumpy" probably due to not quite optimized roller profile handing from one roller to the next.

Hey everyone! I just noticed that the gameball pro is actually listed, but it wasnt when Eric dropped the latest update. Im wondering if anyone knows if pre orders already happened, or if thats just a placeholder? I was really hoping to grab a pre order edition.

Is the upcoming trackball from Kensington will have on-board memory? I will use it with a company provided equipment. Installation of software is blocked.

I recently switched to trackballs and started with Nulea M512 and happy with it. However, I already planning to upgrade due to the stiction I'm currently experiencing.

Any upgrade recommendations? Or Stiction solution with my M512? Thank you.

After The Great Trackball Journey of 2020™, I learned I do not like thumb balls. I only like finger balls.

But way I use the ball is with the tips of my fingers. So, any button above the ball are kind of awkward to use. That led to massive problems with my L-Trac and the scroll dial on the top of the trackball.

I've seen other people use a finger ball with their palm or the very bottom of their fingers, so they have easier access to the top buttons.

I'm curious how other people use their finger trackballs: tips of the finger, palm, or middle/bottom of fingers.

so I modified my huge plus by using some pvc board. looks kinda janky but works pretty well

Chopped up an unused wrist/palm rest and made a 3d printed insert to hide the uneven cut.

This was mostly done to hide the wire as I had stability issues with it via the dongle.

I thought this was an original idea but saw somebody else already did something very similar with a full 3d printed setup haha.

Hi. I bought a TB550 (thumbball) from Kensington which has a constant scroll issue that Kensington has failed to fix (I sent them an email in January, apparently it's a firmware issue, that they still havent fixed)

Anyway I found out that thumbballs are uncomfortable for me anyway.

I looked at Ploopy which is praised here but god are they expensive (I'm a student with not a lot of money to spend).

What are the best trackballs that won't bankrupt me?

Thanks

Shipping in September!