My guess is made in China*. Is it China*? What do I win?
* Complete load of cheap turd
Almost Everything is made in China... Even some of the highest quality brand name tools, appliances, auto parts...etc.
The Chinese will make whatever the other countries pay them to make, and at that quality levels specified. The gripe should be with the companies that created the poor and cheap design.. not the country of its creation.
Imagine having to slave all day long, with low wages, for years... making junk that you knew was going to fail with ease and certainty... and there was nothing you could do about it.
You can also blame the Ignorant, and often poor, public... for purchasing cheap goods, without good research, mechanical knowledge depth, and willingness to take a rigid stance against this kind of thing.
If we instituted time sensitive penalty fees, for companies producing lemon products... then the world would be a better place.
So, direct your anger and actions, at your government bodies instead.
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As far as I know, no PC based trackball has ever used arcade quality bearings. The factor is one of cost. MFGs want as much profit as possible... and typically trackballs in PCs are designed for simply scrolling around, not for precision hardcore gaming.
The main factors for a good arcade trackball experience are:
1) Bearing type and quality + Roller diameter, material, and precision quality:
They should be grease-less ball bearings, no smaller than 1cm. Low friction, spin fast and long. Rollers should be metal, and use standard arcade diameters.
Pc based trackballs tend to use much thinner rollers (sometimes plastic).. and they are more libel to flex, slip, wear down quicker, and get dirty / gunked up quicker.
Many PC trackballs do not even use bearings. They just use a form of bushing... which results in a lot more friction and thus poor performance, and thus very low spin times. The ones that do use Ball Bearings... often use very small, low quality bearings... that pale in comparison to arcade quality ball bearings.
2) Ball diameter, Material, and mass:
Too small of a ball, reduces mass.. as well as makes control much less accurate. Furthermore, it means tighter mechanical tolerances are needed... and could lead to failures, if anything gets just a little bit out of alignment.
Also, smaller balls get dirtier more quickly (less surface area), and this gunk easily will jam up the tighter tolerance assembly. (Rollers and Bezel)
Larger diameter balls are better, however, material plays a factor in the mass of the ball. If the ball is lightweight plastic... it may have short spin times. Heavier density balls will retain their fast spun vectored momentum, for a much longer duration.
The ball material should be smooth, and durable... as to reduce friction, aid in keeping the ball cleaner longer, and to keep the ball from getting worn down from typical usage.
3) Encoder Type, Mechanical Ratios
PC mice require much higher resolutions than an arcade trackball. As a result, a PCs optical wheel may be far too sensitive to use for arcade emulated games. Dialing back the sensitivity is an option, but even then, it still may provide too much feedback, throwing off the games difficulty balance. (basically, causing the character to accelerate and move much faster than should be possible... and thus "cheating".)
Some PC trackballs use odd sensors instead of the typical dual optical encoder wheels. Their accuracy may not be all that great, even with their higher resolution... and they often require their own specific custom mfg. balls to be used, for the thing to even work at all.
As mentioned, the diameter of the ball and the rollers is important... as that will form the mechanical gearing ratio, for the correct resolution.
For example, one half roll of a typical trackball, might make the rollers turn about 3 times.
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Topic: Does this ebay trackball suck? (Read 2918 times)
