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Trackball problems - any tips for me?

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markronz:
Ok, I have an X-Arcade trackball.   I have had one in the past and it worked fine.  This new one I have is giving me some problems.  When I roll the ball is doesn't go exactly left/right or exactly up/down.   Towards the end of it's motion, the ball tends to drift towards a different direction.  I've attached a picture of what the mouse pretty much does.  Actually it's probably a bit more of an exaggerated curve than whats shown in the attached picture.  When I am looking at the Windows desktop this is what the cursor does when I spin the ball up or to the right, etc.     One of the encoder wheels looked a little bent to me, and I had two extras, so I tried using those instead.  They did not fix the problem.   I then tried to use WD40 on all the roller ends and bearings.  That did not seem to help either.   The weird part to me is that when I take out the trackball, as you know there are three rollers in there.   When I use my finger to roll the roller for the X axis, and I roll only that roller by itself, then it works perfectly.   Same thing with the Y axis. If I use my finger and just roll that roller, the cursor moves perfectly up and down.   So to me that would indicate that the optical eye chip things, and the encoder wheels ARE working as they should.  The problem seems to be just that the rollers are not rolling together.   I thought that oiling them up would help but it did not.    I've even tried to swapping the bearings between rollers in different configurations, and none of them seem to correct the problems. 

So does anyone have any tips for me here on what I can try to correct this?  I am thinking maybe I just need to try to get all new bearings and try those, but I'm saving that for a last resort.   Not sure what I will do if the new rollers don't fix the issue either...  I don't really want to buy a new trackball...

BobA:
Do the rollers have wear marks in them?   If they do you may have to replace them.  Make sure you have cleaned them and the ball well along with the lubricating that you have done.  Regular lubricating oil works better than WD40.

markronz:
The trackball was new when I got it.  So it's really only been used the last week or two while I've been setting it up.  So there are no noticable wear marks on the rollers themselves.

About the "regular lubricating oil"...  I'm not normally a very mechanical person, so all I have is WD40.  I can get other stuff at the store, but could you clarify a little more as to what "regular lubricating oil" is exactly?  Or what I would be looking for when I went to the store?

bpark42:

--- Quote from: markronz on December 07, 2010, 10:15:05 am ---About the "regular lubricating oil"...  I'm not normally a very mechanical person, so all I have is WD40.  I can get other stuff at the store, but could you clarify a little more as to what "regular lubricating oil" is exactly?  Or what I would be looking for when I went to the store?

--- End quote ---

Get some 3 in 1 oil.  Just ask for it at home depot/lowes/your hardware store.

BobA:
New trackballs most times have thick grease in the bearings and this has to be worked out for the trackball to function properly.

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