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Trackball problem, ending spin...Help plz.
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struby:
Taking out the ground thing from under both roller bearing helped a little, I will try lubing it later.
quarterback:

--- Quote from: struby on April 21, 2006, 04:00:52 pm ---I have a Betson 3 inch trackball with a mouse hack, everything works fine, but with every spin, the trackball, towards the end of the spin, turns to a more counter-clockwise spin direction.
--- End quote ---

That's wierd.  So, no matter which direction the ball is rolled (up, down, right, left or some combination) at the end of the spin it'll go counter-clockwise?  Does it acually reverse-direction?  Or is it only if you're spinning it in one direction and it's like a drift to one side? or???



--- Quote ---Should I lube the bearings, I have speed cream drops for my street luge bearings, or just WD-40?
--- End quote ---

Like MinerAl said, WD-40 is generally accepted as a no-no (and there are whole threads about it) since it's not really a lubricant, but a 'water displacement' substance.   


--- Quote from: bossyman15 on April 22, 2006, 05:02:31 pm ---I'd like to know too.
My trackball's bearing sometimes will not roll smoothly.

The same for my trando spinner, it sometimes made noises when it was spinning. I uses wd40 on that but it only helped a bit.
--- End quote ---

I think that may be par for the course with things with bearings.  I've experienced the "brrrrring" with all the trackballs I've used and I've read threads about it here.   I think that some have seen improvement with use but, in the end,  you've got a hard object (the ball) rolling against other hard objects (the rollers) and I think occasionally you get an odd friction thing going on.  I've always wondered if rubberized rollers would make more sense than stainless steel.

Hey, I don't know if this is the issue, but I just remembered something from when I mounted my trackball (and I've seen other people mention it as well)  There is a point where the trackaball screws can be tightened to the mounting plate so tight that it actually compresses the plastic casing and will cause the ball to not spin smoothly.

I don't know if you've even gotten yours mounted, struby, so at this point that may be irrelevant to you, but bossyman, you might want to see if that's the case with your trackball.


--- Quote ---Which lubing is good for bearing?
--- End quote ---

3-in-1 oil has been recommended before, and that's what I use.  But perhaps struby's "cream drops" are good.  But I don't know, I've not heard of those.


--- Quote from: struby on April 22, 2006, 07:01:37 pm ---Taking out the ground thing from under both roller bearing helped a little, I will try lubing it later.
--- End quote ---

That's interesting.  I wonder if it is just a slightly off-angle issue and/or part of having a triangular roller setup.  Don't know.
Kremmit:
Bearing cream is pretty common in the skate industry, and trackball bearings are pretty much the same as skate bearings, so I'm sure it'll work fine.

As to the original problem:

Are your rollers worn?  I've noticed that TB units with worn rollers show much more directional bias than units with nice new rollers.  A brand new roller contacts the ball at one very small point.  As the rollers wear down, the roller makes more and more contact with the ball, and the increased drag causes the rollers to pull the ball's spin off course.  In fact, when it gets bad enough, you can feel that the rollers are worn without even opening the unit to look at them.  Load up "Quantum" (or MS Paint) and try to draw a perfect circle with your trackball.  With a nice new trackball, where the rollers have no wear, you can draw one pretty easy.  With an old  worn set of rollers, you can acutally feel the ball fighting you when you try to go in certain directions.  Give a ball like this a hard spin straight up, and you can watch the rotation turn to one side or the other.  The ball wants to go to the diagonals, because the friction with the rollers is least when rolling in those directions.  This is always true, due to the three-roller design, but it's barely noticeable with new rollers, and becomes more pronounced as they wear.
quarterback:

--- Quote from: Kremmit on April 23, 2006, 12:49:56 am ---Are your rollers worn?  I've noticed that TB units with worn rollers show much more directional bias than units with nice new rollers.  A brand new roller contacts the ball at one very small point.  As the rollers wear down, the roller makes more and more contact with the ball, and the increased drag causes the rollers to pull the ball's spin off course. 
--- End quote ---

Since this trackball used to be mine, I have a hi-rez pic where you can see the rollers.  While they're not new, they're in pretty good shape.  There are markings where the ball connects, but virtually no indentation.   Here's a pic where you can see (because of the bright square in the background) that the edge of the roller is basically flat, even where the contact-markings are:

I'm wondering if the bearings on one roller are a little rougher than the others, if that may be causing the un-equal 'roll'.  I'll be interested to know if the paste helps any because, while I've noticed that 3-in-1 does do something for rough bearings, I've got some that seem unaffected, even after soaking in it.
struby:
Everything in it is in pretty good condition, I took out the static strip things and it helped a little, I will probably try the lube later on today, or tomorrow.
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