Ultimarc U-Trak Wonky

[MKFan4Life]

I bought an Ultimarc U-Trak trackball YEARS ago, and I took my time building a MAME cabinet it went into. Well, I think it's a great product, and I had only a few small issues when installing it, but it has never really seemed very smooth when moving left and right. It tends to just have times when it will stop moving left or right. You can usually immediately get it to respond in the opposite direction, and then retry the first direction again, but this becomes irritating when playing games.

Well, when I first built the cab, I took over a year or so to finish, and the U-Trak sat in it's box. When I first installed it, I noticed this issue a little, but chalked it up to it not being broken in. (Never did the dish soap thing.) As years passed (and normal life, work, etc.) I seldom found time to play the cabinet and less often played a trackball game.

Recently, with our friend Corona, I've found a good bit of time to tinker with the cabinet, and even after adjusting settings in MAME to try to get the trackball to be more responsive, the issue with it stopping when moving left or right seems worse. So the other night I just popped it out of the cabinet and took it apart to see if the rollers needed cleaning or a bearing was sticking. The rollers were only mildly dirty where they contact the ball, and were not pitted or worn in the least. I cleaned them with a little alcohol and sat them back in place after visually inspecting all three and the bearings. Then I gave each roller a few good spins in both directions. They spun super-fast with no hints of a bad bearing.

Then I carefully cleaned the ball, and as I was about to put it all back together I checked the plastic optical encoder wheels. (or whatever the name is for them) They both seemed to be pretty centered between the sensors and could be spun without touching anything, but one did not seem true. As it spun it appears slightly warped, like there's a little curve in it.

My question is, would this result in the anomaly I am experiencing? Nothing else seems wrong.

I put it back together after the cleaning, and installed it back into the cab. After that there seemed to be a little improvement, but it's not perfect. I tried to swap the encoder wheels on the rollers they were already attached to to see if the problem moved to the up/down directions, but honestly, I may have noticed a little wonkiness in up/down afterwards, but the game I was playing, Millipede, involves much more left/right movement. So I couldn't tell a lot of difference.

Advice? 

[KenToad]

Yeah, my U-Trak has never been perfect either. There is a decent amount of friction rolling to the right and the ball jumps a bit when you start quickly moving it to the right. Andy from Ultimarc says that the bearings need to be worn in, but that has not ever improved anything after owning the product for well over a year and playing a decent amount of bowling and golf games. Other folks have said that rolling smoother to the left and the inherent drift has to do with the design of the rollers, but, having played some trackball games in arcades recently, they definitely roll smoother there than mine does at home and all arcade trackballs share the same basic design, as far as I know.

I've also heard some people say that the red ball on the U-Trak, which I have, is slightly smaller than the other colors and doesn't roll as smoothly. Do you have the red one, as well?

I should also add that I opened mine up and checked it, similar to the way you did and found that the bearings and everything seem to be working well.

[MKFan4Life]

Yeah, my U-Trak has never been perfect either. There is a decent amount of friction rolling to the right and the ball jumps a bit when you start quickly moving it to the right. Andy from Ultimarc says that the bearings need to be worn in, but that has not ever improved anything after owning the product for well over a year and playing a decent amount of bowling and golf games. Other folks have said that rolling smoother to the left and the inherent drift has to do with the design of the rollers, but, having played some trackball games in arcades recently, they definitely roll smoother there than mine does at home and all arcade trackballs share the same basic design, as far as I know.

I've also heard some people say that the red ball on the U-Trak, which I have, is slightly smaller than the other colors and doesn't roll as smoothly. Do you have the red one, as well?

I should also add that I opened mine up and checked it, similar to the way you did and found that the bearings and everything seem to be working well.

Mine has the pearl translucent ball. I have electronics to add lighting to it, but haven't yet. I guess I need to try the liquid soap or hand cream suggested on the Ultimarc site. Just don't like the idea of adding that, as I'd like to keep the ball relatively clean. 

I thought at first, maybe I racked or "flexed" the plastic casing. But I tightened the bolts by hand, and I'm pretty picky when doing things like this. That said, it's easy to see how if one or two of your inserts are not in precisely the right spot, the long screws can flex the casing a little, in effect possibly causing the innards to move very slightly. With the strength of the casing and knowing that the entire casing is perfectly flush against the CP after tightening the bolts down, everything SHOULD be fine. If you're off too much with the inserts, you'd likely NEVER get this thing mounted anyways, since the long bolts are surrounded by plastic, leaving little room for them to stray.

Unlike some people I have heard say, I had no problem using the casing as the guide for my drill bit. In my opinion, it is the BEST template, because it is what you're actually mounting. This leaves no room for error, because it keeps your bit perpendicular to the panel as you drill (courtesy of the LONG hole the bolt goes through), and it prevents the bit from wandering off your mark (as long as the casing is not allowed to move around during the drilling process).

Also, anyone that's used a standard bit knows it pretty much just WANTS to pull itself DOWN with any pressure you apply. Of course wandering is possible right at the start, but the casing helps negate this. Start SLOW and as soon as the bit bites, allow the casing to gently guide you. I also noticed how the bolts required a bit more depth into the CP than the inserts. I just put the bolt beside my bit (with it's head resting at tip of bit), wrapped a piece of masking tape around the bit (leaving a flap of tape hanging off about 1/2") where the threads of the bolt stopped and then drilled until the flap contacted the casing. Perfect recess. No real chance of any structural damage to the casing of the trackball, maybe a few scratches that NOBODY will ever see, especially since the bolts will be permanently through there afterwards.

All that said, I just think it must be something else causing my issue. Still like the trackball! Thank you for the reply.