betson trackball always runs to the left

[struby]

ok, so i have a betson trackball, and I'm wondering why they put 3 metal wheels with one at an angle instead of 4, because to even out, the ball always finishes it's pack spinning to the left, so does this affect games and why do they do that?

[Fozzy The Bear]

Open the bottom of your mouse.... you'll find exactly the same configuration of rollers and wheels.

You only need two rollers, because you only need to measure two axis of movement.

The third is just there to support the ball. If you used 4 rollers you'd be massively adding to the friction and wear as the ball rotated against the opposing rollers.

There are sound engineering reasons for the present layout. The increased friction if there were 4 rollers would stop the ball rolling freely at all.

Your trackball needs cleaning and lubricating if it is pulling to the left. Remove the bearings and soak them in petrol to completely remove any old lubricant. Oil them with a very light grade machine oil and put them back in. Check that they are running freely and quietly, with no clicks or lumps in the rotation.

Check your rollers for wear... If they have a groove in the centre, then replace them with new ones.

check your ball for wear make sure it has no nicks or dings.

After that your trackball should be fine and no longer pull to the left.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[struby]

well in a mouse you never fling it foreward, like it is never free to drift left, but that all sounds good, i'll give it a good look over and cleaning and see howo that goes, thank you much.

[grundle]

Mine tends to pull left when it starts slowing down.  I don't thnk there's much you can do about it.  I saw an old thread here once discussing it...

Anyway, I know Golden Tee at least only uses the first few ms of input to determine where the ball goes, so it doesn't make a difference.  I was playing an old horseshoe game, I think, that was impossible because of it.

[struby]

ah ok also sounds good, thanks

[Fozzy The Bear]

Mine tends to pull left when it starts slowing down.  I don't thnk there's much you can do about it.  I saw an old thread here once discussing it...

Probably for exactly the same reason..... The oil that is in the bearings when they arrive is way too heavy... Try what I said above and use a vey light machine oil. BUT Not WD40... The trick is to keep them clean. This should be done every three or four months. They also get better as they run in over the first few months of use.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[grundle]

Mine tends to pull left when it starts slowing down.  I don't thnk there's much you can do about it.  I saw an old thread here once discussing it...

Probably for exactly the same reason..... The oil that is in the bearings when they arrive is way too heavy... Try what I said above and use a vey light machine oil. BUT Not WD40... The trick is to keep them clean. This should be done every three or four months. They also get better as they run in over the first few months of use.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

I'm sure that would help significantly, but just by design it will do this to some extent.  You will never get that zero-friction bearing that we all want.

Maybe I'll get around to trying the light weight oil, but every time I get near that trackball, I play 9 holes of Golden Tee and at least 5 games of Shuffleshot.  (And sometimes a game or two of World Class Bowling.)  This is also why my cabinet is on hold...I only wish Simpsons Bowling ran well on my Athlon XP 1700.

[AndyWarne]

The problem is, unless the ball is moving exactly at a 45 degree angle, in the direction of the idler bearing, the surface of the ball is sliding sideways across the surface of the bearing. So there will always be friction in any other direction than 45 degrees. This means the ball tends to favor moving in that direction.
All trackballs suffer from this problem unfortunately.