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In theory a trackball is nice (I've used one for years). Your wrist can rest while your fingers do the moving, and it keeps rotational momentum after you lift
by tempodox 5y ago
In theory a trackball is nice (I've used one for years). Your wrist can rest while your fingers do the moving, and it keeps rotational momentum after you lift your fingers, making long movements easier. However, your fingers will always be a little sweaty and the ball will deposit that on the wheels inside the device that transmit the movements. Keeping those clean over time can be quite a chore, but if you don't clean them the transmission will become unreliable.
If a trackball could be magnetically suspended so it floats without touching anything and still transmit its movements, that would be perfect. You'd only have to clean the ball itself once in a while, and that would be easy enough.
- easygenes 5y agoProbably a ball with a fine black and white grid pattern and a fast imaging sensor could be used to achieve this. So long as it's sending updates at around 100hz, should be pretty performant. Edit: Could also probably be something that's alternating bright and dark in IR so the ball doesn't look weird.
- unnouinceput 5y agoIR and UV, much easier to decode as they are at opposite spectrum of visible light.
- henriks 5y agoThe one I have from Logitech uses an optical sensor for the movement itself. Gunk still builds up in the small balls that ensure the trackball itself rolls smoothly, so those have to be cleaned regularly anyway.
- easygenes 5y agoYeah, OP author mentioned magnetic suspension of the ball so I was kind of assuming that. A challenge with the magnetic suspension would be the "floaty" nature of it. You would have to filter out the noise of the ball itself getting moved around a bit as you rotate it.
- morsch 5y agoTrackballs don't use the wheels to transmit the movements these days (at least modern Logitech trackballs don't seem to). They're using optical sensors, just like mice. Of course, there is still some contact surface like a wheel or a bearing to clean.
- stavros 5y agoCan confirm, tracking is always the same quality, but the increased friction leads to the ball losing momentum. Right after a cleaning (which takes five seconds), the ball sounds freely for a long time after a hard spin, but a few days later it stops pretty quickly.
- andix 5y agoMy Logitech MX ergo doesn’t need a lot of cleaning. Once in a while maybe. But it is designed in a way that the dirt comes out at the bottom by itself. There are also no wheels, it uses optical detection of movement, like an optical mouse. Once in a while a hair or some dust gets stuck in front oft the sensor. Then you need to clean it. But this happens maybe twice a year for me.
- benhurmarcel 5y agoI need to clean mine every few weeks, but it’s really not a problem. When I notice more friction than usual, I just pop the ball out with a pen and clean the contacts and ball with whatever cloth.
- schwartzworld 5y ago> the ball will deposit that on the wheels inside the device that transmit the movements This was my experience in the 90s, but my kensington expert uses lasers for tracking position and this is a non-issue.
- __mharrison__ 5y agoAnecdata: I have a 8 year-old CST trackball that has never been cleaned. (That sounds really gross.) It works fine. However, I think I should clean my ErgoDox and mouse soon... thanks for the inspiration.