Most durable trackball?
October 4, 2022 7:21 AM Subscribe
I am on my second Kensington Orbit with Scroll Ring and it is mostly great, but the left button has started double-clicking when I single-click. I would like to replace it once and for all. Wirecutter recommends the Kensington Expert Mouse but I'm wondering is there are other brands that are more durable?
For example, Trackball World has a bunch of other models, but none of the reviews are available (and the site barely works). This site seems to give everything a glowing review, so I still don't know what to buy!
For example, Trackball World has a bunch of other models, but none of the reviews are available (and the site barely works). This site seems to give everything a glowing review, so I still don't know what to buy!
Response by poster: Mine is wired, so it has no battery. New one will be USB also.
posted by mkb at 7:29 AM on October 4, 2022
posted by mkb at 7:29 AM on October 4, 2022
If you're moderately handy and have access to a soldering iron, you can probably replace the switches. I just did this with a Logitech G602 mouse. Getting the old switches desoldered required destroying them and then pulling out each of the pins individually with needle-nose pliers while heating the solder joints, because I don't have a fancy expensive vacuum desoldering system, but once I resigned myself to that, the work was pretty trivial. I paid about $15 for two new Omron switches + shipping, and $7 for a set of replacement mouse feet. I already owned a soldering station, solder wick, and a spring-loaded desoldering tool. Took less than an hour of work.
posted by Alterscape at 7:42 AM on October 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Alterscape at 7:42 AM on October 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
Just piggybacking on what Alterscape says: This is an extremely common point of failure in any mouse model because the switches have a limited lifetime. I think the current best switch is rated for 80 million clicks--but that's not what they're putting in your average trackball. Based on my very brief research, the Orbit comes with a switch rated for 1 million clicks.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 8:11 AM on October 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 8:11 AM on October 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
I have two Kensington Expert Mouse 8-button trackballs, and they are both over a decade old. Wired, I admit, but tough as a leathery old Marine.
I clean them out every few weeks: remove the accumulated lint from under the ball itself, and blow air under the buttons once in a while, too. Seems to help them last. *shrug*
posted by wenestvedt at 8:59 AM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
I clean them out every few weeks: remove the accumulated lint from under the ball itself, and blow air under the buttons once in a while, too. Seems to help them last. *shrug*
posted by wenestvedt at 8:59 AM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've got a Kensington Expert Mouse that I got in 2006 that's still clicking merrily along.
The Expert Mouse is the spiritual successor to the Turbo Mouse, which dates back to the late 80s. It's very high quality; there are plenty of Turbo Mouses that still work today. The Orbit dates back to '99 or so, but has always been a budget version of the Expert Mouse, so I wouldn't expect it to last quite as long.
I can definitely recommend a wired Expert Mouse if you're after durability.
posted by vitout at 10:01 AM on October 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
The Expert Mouse is the spiritual successor to the Turbo Mouse, which dates back to the late 80s. It's very high quality; there are plenty of Turbo Mouses that still work today. The Orbit dates back to '99 or so, but has always been a budget version of the Expert Mouse, so I wouldn't expect it to last quite as long.
I can definitely recommend a wired Expert Mouse if you're after durability.
posted by vitout at 10:01 AM on October 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
I got started with the Marble Mouse maybe 25 years ago and am using the Orbit w/Scroll Ring now. I've tried basically everything I can get my hands on over the years including the Expert Mouse. My basic opinion is that the Expert Mouse is a different class of product, it's more of a classic bulky trackball, while the Orbit is more of the same sort of weird low profile mouse hybrid as the Marble Mouse. That shape is just different and I could never get into the other form factors in the same way. The best I could come up with was just to have a backup on hand. If only the Marble Mouse had a ring.
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:30 AM on October 4, 2022
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:30 AM on October 4, 2022
I have two Kensington Expert Mouse 8-button trackballs, and they are both over a decade old.
Just a decade? My daily trackball is a Logitech Marble FX from an age when USB had just come into existence. It has a grey PS/2 connector and while later mice and trackballs would have a green connector and increasingly come with an adapter plug (and their electronic innards being dual-mode) this one is just old school PS/2 only. Needs an USB-PS/2 converter. I have several, in use at home and at work, and a few spares as I expect that sooner or later one will die (the electronics, I can replace the switches but those are still going), and other trackballs don't work for me. This model is sculpted, ball the size and weight of a billiard ball. They'll be 27 or 28 years old by now.
And yes, one of my keyboards here at home at 38 isn't old enough to pass the creepiness rule either, but it's close.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:47 AM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
Just a decade? My daily trackball is a Logitech Marble FX from an age when USB had just come into existence. It has a grey PS/2 connector and while later mice and trackballs would have a green connector and increasingly come with an adapter plug (and their electronic innards being dual-mode) this one is just old school PS/2 only. Needs an USB-PS/2 converter. I have several, in use at home and at work, and a few spares as I expect that sooner or later one will die (the electronics, I can replace the switches but those are still going), and other trackballs don't work for me. This model is sculpted, ball the size and weight of a billiard ball. They'll be 27 or 28 years old by now.
And yes, one of my keyboards here at home at 38 isn't old enough to pass the creepiness rule either, but it's close.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:47 AM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
If really want durability and you don't mind buying used, Logitech TrackMan Marble+ trackballs last forever. I've had mine since the 90's. It is PS/2 so I use a PS/2 to USB dongle for it.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:17 PM on October 4, 2022
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:17 PM on October 4, 2022
fimbulvetr: It is PS/2 so I use a PS/2 to USB dongle for it.
The later ones are already dual-mode (PS/2, or USB with the supplied converter plug), and the follow-up model is USB.
posted by Stoneshop at 12:41 PM on October 4, 2022
The later ones are already dual-mode (PS/2, or USB with the supplied converter plug), and the follow-up model is USB.
posted by Stoneshop at 12:41 PM on October 4, 2022
Logitech M570. Wireless with a USB dongle. Mine is ten years old and going strong. It's the thumb-ball style though.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:16 PM on October 4, 2022
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:16 PM on October 4, 2022
It's so funny that snuffleupagaus has been using the same M570 for 10 years--I literally have a dozen blue trackballs from those mice in a mason jar, all of them having died to the dreaded double click failure.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 5:34 PM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 5:34 PM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
Well, I don't know how demanding I've been on mine in terms of clickcycles, I would defer to you if you've had that many problems with them.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:49 PM on October 4, 2022
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:49 PM on October 4, 2022
Stoneshop, I hear you! These are my "new" trackballs from ten or a dozen years ago, when I discovered how to get $WORK to order them. :7)
It is PS/2 so I use a PS/2 to USB dongle for it.
The trackball is next to a 1993 Wang keyboard that has an 8-pin DIN connector, plugged into a PS/2 adapter, plugged into a USB adapter. I have to unplug it each time I reboot the laptop, but it's sooooo worth it.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:19 AM on October 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
It is PS/2 so I use a PS/2 to USB dongle for it.
The trackball is next to a 1993 Wang keyboard that has an 8-pin DIN connector, plugged into a PS/2 adapter, plugged into a USB adapter. I have to unplug it each time I reboot the laptop, but it's sooooo worth it.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:19 AM on October 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
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