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My requirements are pretty simple. It has to be a thumb-operated track ball, as using any other kind of track ball causes shooting pains in my forarm (tendonitis). It also has to have at least three buttons. A wheel is OK, but certainly not necessary. Finally, it must be wide and long enough to rest my whole hand on. Otherwise I will end up with hideous hand cramps.
What's sitting on my desk right now is a Microsoft "Track Ball Optical", which is almost good enough - it needs to be a little wider. If I keep it I will probably, in all seriousness, attach a piece of foam rubber or the like to the right side to support my hand. I've got 14 days to decide before I can't return it.
I tried the MS but I didn't like the feel. I've also got one of those gel wrist pads - a necessity for avoiding repetitive stress
There's a distinct lack of scrolly wheel though, but getting back into the habit of using the cursors wasn't such a chore. It isn't optical either, but cleaning your balls (for want of a better description) isn't as much of a chore with this as it was with a mouse.
R.
The ball is thumb operated and the mouse unit itself is wide enough to rest the whole hand on. I like it a lot!
JOAT
<added> or buy the same model? </added>
The model got discontinued a few years ago, and replaced with a succession of trackballs each of which was almost, but not quite, as good as the last :( However, Dad found a crate of four of the original model, in the orriginal packaging, on Ebay last night and is having them shipped to me :)
(Wheels became popular, so they had to add one - first it was stuck in the middle of the middle button, which was detrimental to the perfect ergonomic design. Then they removed the middle button all together and placed the wheel between the two buttons, like it is on most mice. That, of course, makes the trackball too narrow. Then they fiddled a little more with the shape, still not getting it right again. Now the closest thing you can buy is a wireless version.)
1) Unplug it - Quick!
2) Dunk several times in clean water to remove sugar, cocoa, caffeine, etc. Do this quickly - the idea is to flush not soak.
3) If possible, dunk in rubbing alcohol, or flush with rubbing alcohol to "pull the water out".
4) Shake fairly vigorously to drain liquids.
5) Blow out with compressed air if available - do not overdo the pressure!
6) Allow to air dry in moderately warm environment for several days (Stand keyboards on end).
7) If it doesn't work, say bye.
If you can get into the case, dunking of the electronics is not required, just flush the contaminants off.
If you just spill water into it, unplug it and start with step 3.
I've had fairly good success with this approach over my many years of negligent coffee-drinking in the lab.
Jim
May I suggest we start a thread on the dangers of leaving cables hanging at excitable dog height.... ;)
JOAT
-Andrew
That said, I've heard taking the 'guts' out of a keyboard and running it through the dishwasher can work for gummy-liquid soaked keyboards, and if you've got four new trackballs in the mail, you've got some room for experiementation with the deceased...
My old keyboard never did recover from the double latte my ferret decided to feed it though. Sometimes the caffeine is just too much to handle. ;)
Jim's suggestion improved things a bit. The orriginal trackball is now capable of moving the pointer accross the screen, and of right-clicking. Left and middle, unfortunately, are still disabled.
The new Trackmen arrived today, and I am much pleased to have returned the MS trackball to its packaging pending a return. For someone with slightly narrower hands than mine, it would have been a fine choice. For me it was not. Other than the Logitech part number, which is one digit different between the old and the new, the only difference I can see is that I haven't worn the texturing off the case of the new one yet.
Just 'cause I'm stubborn, I'm going to take the old one in for surgery and see if I can bring it back to life that way.
Just 'cause I'm stubborn, I'm going to take the old one in for surgery and see if I can bring it back to life that way.
And I could! I took it appart, cleaned everything in sight with q-tips, rinsed out the button contacts, and let it dry for a week. Just before coming in to work this morning, I put it all together and took it to work with me, where I am now happily using my aged and beloved trackball.
(OK, less than happily. I put it together before coming to work because my hand hurts so badly I couldn't face the idea of using the mouse attached to my workstation. But I am happy that it saved me from that mouse.)
Jim
Mivox - you mind if I add your comments about the care and feeding of trackballs to the fortune files at my site? I'm thinking something like
You've got to remember that caffeine is for the computer USER, not the equipment. No matter how it begs, the trackball does not need a mocha.--mivox, www.webmasterworld.com/forum9/
coming up amongst the assorted other oddities that go in the footer on one of my web sites.
Of course, your trackball may think I'm a big meanie, but it's best not to have to perform surgery again in the future, I think.
