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Trackball Clicking

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DaOld Man:
Good suggestions too.
It will be interesting to see what he finds..

SirPeale:
I'd definitely crack it open, esp. if used.  If it was new I'd return it in a heartbeat.

Soak the bearings in solvent, then dry them.  Use 3-in-1 oil to lube them.  Get a drill and spin them at high speed to break up anything inside.

If the rollers are too worn down, instead of what I suggested above get yourself a rebuild kit.  Comes with new rollers and bearings.

XyloSesame:

--- Quote from: Peale on September 28, 2007, 07:31:46 am ---... get yourself a rebuild kit.  Comes with new rollers and bearings.

--- End quote ---

Thanks for the tips, everyone. The trackball was used, but was sold as a refurb with new rollers and bearings. I'd assume, from the seller's rep, that the bearings and rollers wouldn't be my problem, but I'll be checking everything just to make sure.

I hope to get into the trackball guts this weekend; however, between the 9-5, family life, and my main hobby, time is slim. When I can eek out a minute to look inside, I'll post my findings (and probably have more questions).

XyloSesame:
So I was able to open her up last night and here's what I found.

Nothing out of the ordinary, just a plain-old trackball. Slight ball-lines on the rollers, a very small bit of rust. Solid bearings with good seats on the shaft, no encoder rub.

I manually spun the rollers and could hear the clicking, then noticed that both encoder wheels were slightly off-center, one worse than the other. Neither appeared warped or bent, but they were both noticeably off. So I took everything apart and put it back together; now I only hear a whirring from the (still) off-center encoders. I have no idea what I did, but it seems to be better...

There seemed to be little-to-no play in the encoder wheels' attachment to the roller; is it normal to have slightly off-center wheels?

Kremmit:
Yeah, the quality control on those little plastic encoder wheels seems to be pretty sloppy.  I've seen plenty of them that were bent so they wobbled back and forth as they spun, or the hole was a little off-center.  As long as the holes keep passing through the optics without rubbing, it really doesn't matter.

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