Full and comprehensive review: absolutely splendid device, well worth waiting for! :-)

If seriously, just wanted to let the community know it's practically ready: real review will be posted on https://forum.trackballs.eu/ at some later time. u/Skippydamule: thank you for the sample: your hard work gave excellent result once again!

Hi everybody, I got my first TB (the wired Kensington orbit) about 6 months ago and I absolutely love it. But, I am thinking I'd like to get another TB that could compliment my multiple devices workflow.

You see, I've got a BT Keyboard that can quickly change from my work laptop, phone, and personal laptop vía Bluetooth and a single button click. I want something similar to my mouse. My only thing is that I don't want the change button under the mouse because I feel like that would be quite slow for my workflow.

Do any of y'all have a TB that you like for quickly changing devices?

I love the Kensington TB675 I recently got (a longtime fan of its wired precursor), but the newly updated Kensington Konnect App is annoying on Mac.

It doesn't behave like a proper citizen: it opens up full screen on startup and then continuously presents as an active, foreground application, occupying a place all the time in the app switcher and cluttering up the experience of tabbing between apps. I can't quit it because then button remapping doesn't work.

I think it should run in background agent or a menu bar "tray" item unless the settings window is explicitly open.

I suppose I should be taking it up with Kensington, but venting here first...

I stumbled across trackball controls a few weeks ago and since fell down the rabbit hole. These are my daily drivers, the blue dotted one is for my right hand and the all black is for my left hand. Right hand used for controlling my phone and Left hand my laptop. I love that these are small, my hands don't have to leave my laptop keyboard. They also are great fidget gadgets!

I don't know who the real developers of these trackball handhelds are but if the trackball was larger but the overall form factor is kept the product would be even better.

Anyone else using these?

Edit: I purchased these on Amazon. Search term "aleenfoon wireless trackball mouse"

Just one trackball to use for the rest of your life, across any desk and any setup. What’s your pick?

Mine is Endgame.

I strongly prefer finger-operated trackballs featuring a large ball over thumb-style designs.

What would be your ultimate "desert island" trackball, and why?

And I did not like it, unfortunately.

The annoying thing about trackballs is that I generally know within 15 minutes if it will work for me.

But I can't try it until I buy it.

The biggest issue for me was the scroll wheel. (I read about this but didn't quite understand until I tried it). The scroll feeling is quite good, but it is too far away for me.

Anyway, had to scratch this itch.

Nape Pro next?

What is the best subreddit to sell a used L-Trac? :)

Has anyone made a teardown of the Huge Plus yet? How do its internals compare to the Huge?

I'm wondering for the purposes of repairability, in terms of switches used, the battery, etc.

Warning, it was entirely vibe coded because I'm not a programmer. However, I've had trouble with xinput and other button remappers because they either just don't work or don't launch on boot. I hope this works, it's available for Debian, Fedora, and Arch based systems.

I tested it with my G403 and Kensington Expert, it works fine for both. It's open sourced with the GPL-3.0 license. If you'd like me to make any changes to it or if you run into any problems, let me know.

I know other button remappers exist but I couldn't find one that would load upon boot and also work with my Kensington Expert so I did this.

https://github.com/gino8807/ballkey/tree/main

Holy smokes. I was not prepared for this.

The scroll wheel is both scratchy and too loose. Kinda impressive. It feels like very cheap plastic just thrown on top of other cheap plastic.

The ball jumps out of its hole with the slightest impulse. The ball movement itself is crazy sticky and scratchy. Cursor movement is extremely stuttery.

I have no idea why this product was released the way it is. It’s bad.

Hello, I am a Gen Z guy with interest with retro tech that completely missed the whole era of DBS-9 connections, and I have a Logitech Trackman that is old enough to have a female DBS-9 port and I may need to ask with someone with better understanding of the different adapters to get it working on my Windows 10 machine. Any response can be helpful

Just wanted to post in case anyone else is on the fence. I swapped out the stock ruby bearings in my two Elecom EX-Gs with 2.5mm Grade 5 zirconium bearings. The swap was easy. I recorded a video of myself doing it... can post that if anyone is interested.

Also had the idea to use a punch to cut out the rubber over the screws, so they're permanently accessible - no peeling back the rubber to access them:

Performance is much, much better - sticktion is greatly reduced, the ball just moves effortlessly.

I have no idea why Elecom chose to use ruby bearings in the first place - I don't think they're cheaper than zirconium, and they just feel so much worse.

Anyway, really happy with this, just wanted to share.

Hey there,

Own both. EM06 since yesterday, Kensington since 2 month. I didn't like the scroll ring of Kensington bot was also not sure about the push/hold and scroll ball version of the EM06.

But after two working days the EM06 is at least for me the better option. Hold and scroll is very intuitive and double klick to enable scroll without hold is a very nice touch.

Overall is the DPI setting better and also the wrist rest is better. And even it's cheaper.

Cheers

Just received my pre ordered EM06 from ProtoArc and love it minus a few button glitches
"From" not "Trop"... damn auto correct

The Elecom BTUs are terrible. I tested two sets in a Huge Plus.

 Pros:

• Consistent performance (bad) between the two sets I have.
• They install very easily.

Cons:

• The start-up friction (stiction) is unusable, and I mean that without hyperbole. Highlighting individual letters becomes a game of guessing where the cursor will go.
• The units (the yellow guys) move in their housings (the hole they snap into). I can feel the ball push the units until it hits the side of the housing. This is very unpleasant. The stock units either don’t move like this or it’s not perceptible.
• The rolling friction is also high, higher than with the stock Huge Plus bearings.

Mods:

• First, I tried filling the BTUs with grease. This worked very well for about an hour or less.
• Second, I replaced the stock balls inside the BTUs with ceramic ones: one 2.5 mm ball and four 1.5 mm balls per unit. This helped compared with the stock BTUs, but they still performed worse than the stock Huge Plus bearings.
• I followed up with grease, which gave similar results to the first attempt.

The Huge Plus:

As for the Huge Plus, it’s a weak performer for the price. The scroll wheel should be much better, and half the left-click button being dead is odd when the other buttons can be clicked anywhere. The software is a bit of a joke but works, I guess. The ergonomics really carry this mouse.

It has scratched my itch to try trackballs again, but I don’t get why there isn’t a better bearing system after all these years. My next dip in the water will probably be one of the open-source trackballs with Rexroth BTUs, or I’ll give up on trackballs again for a long while.

 An ending note:

I know many users don't have an issue with high friction, but it's not for me. The stock bearings feel amazing, but only in one direction, really.

Welp, it came a lot quicker than I thought which is only a few days ago but I'm quite excited to use it. Probably my 2nd trackball so far.

Things I liked and thoughts

1. Tho the ball size is small, it's actually great. Since the ball itself exposed more than Elecom, maybe that helps the usability.

2. It was easy to connect for both bluetooth and USB dongle. It just shows up and connects right away.

3. Doesn't need to download a software or driver at all. Just go to their own website to adjust settings and download firmware which is great and others should do the same.

4. The trackball itself doesn't make any sounds at all. Elecom Huge Plus has roller bearings, it's quite louder. Totally smooth and noiseless. Probably need to try either steel or ruby bearings for a fair testing but Elecom bearings are quite expensive to buy

5. All buttons are quite tho not 100% noiseless.

6. Quite small and compact. Still bigger than a regular mouse but not that big too.

7. Idk anything about the polling rate but it supports 125, 250, 500, and 1000 Hz.

Things I dont like or hate

1. The design itself is not ergonomic. Well, it's an expected issue based on its design unlike Elecom Huge Plus but still, it's not easy to use small buttons especially for right side. It would be better if two buttons are located on the left side cause right side is totally meaningless.

2. Not a great grip design. Tho I'm getting used to it, cant say it's nice to put a hand on it. Elecom Huge Plus is a lot better for that and you probably need a palm rest and/or angled mouse pad but all of them aren't available for sale instead of 3D printing. Without it, I dont think you can use it comfortably.

3. I dont know why but few customized buttons dont work on Safari while they dont provide custom keys. I assigned back and forth for two buttons but none of them works on Safari. Other mouses with back and forth buttons work ok.

4. The scroll wheel is kinda small or not exposed enough to use. Not bad tho.

5. The battery life is short for sure but they already mentioned that and they are using a tiny battery so kinda expected.

6. Do NOT lose a dongle. Without it, you can not customize and update the mouse. USB-C itself only works for charging.

7. No wired mode. Only works as a wireless mouse.

Well, I would keep it as a collection as it reminds Logitech trackball mouse I used a lot time ago. Not a bad trackball for $50 so overall, it's fine unless you dont mind the design which isn't ergonomic to use.

Just like others, I was looking forward to buy Kensington TB900 EQ trackball but since there are no news about it, I got this one instead or for now. I used to have Kensington Expert but that was a long time ago and wanted to get a similar one again so kinda disappointed about Kensington.

Picked up the Elecom HUGE, I absolutely love this f**ker, though a lot of the awesomeness comes from SteerMouse on MacOS, b/c the Elecom software is horrible.

Hey everyone,
A quick follow-up to my previous post about the Ugreen M785DR Forward/Back button issue on macOS.

Yesterday, Ugreen support finally reached out and provided an updated firmware. After flashing it, all buttons are now properly recognized as standard mouse HID inputs (Mouse 4 / Mouse 5) instead of sending keyboard scan codes!

For casual users, this might not seem like a game-changer since you can always configure button remapping and scroll direction via Ugreen's own KM Center software. However, for power users who rely on tools like SteerMouse or X-Mouse Button Control (XMBC) to configure chorded inputs, as well as for Linux users, having true native HID button reporting makes a massive difference.

Because of this firmware fix, my personal rating jumped from a 7.5/10 to a solid 9.5/10. In fact, I was so satisfied that I just ordered a second unit from AliExpress so I can keep an identical setup at both home and the office.

At around the $30 price point, you simply cannot find another trackball offering this feature set:

• High ergonomic vertical angle (comfortable 65° tilt)
• Well-placed, intuitive button layout
• Tri-mode connectivity (2.4GHz wireless dongle + 2 Bluetooth channels)
• Free-spin / inertia scroll wheel (infinitely useful for long pages)
• Full tilt-scroll support

The only missing half-point that prevents it from being a flawless 10/10 is that it’s strictly right-handed. If they offered a mirrored left-handed variant, it would easily earn a perfect score from me.

⚠️ A quick warning regarding the Nulea M514 clone:
I also have the hardware clone, the Nulea M514, but do NOT flash the Ugreen firmware onto the Nulea M514.

I tested it, and flashing Ugreen's firmware on the Nulea causes an irreversible X/Y axis inversion (flip) issue—the sensor tracking is flipped and cannot be rolled back. They definitely do not share the exact same firmware.

I have already contacted Nulea support requesting a similar standard HID firmware update for the M514. Hopefully, their support team will step up and deliver like Ugreen did.

[Update on Nulea M514 Support]

I just heard back from Nulea customer support regarding the request for standard HID Mouse 4 / Mouse 5 mapping on macOS, and unfortunately, it's quite disappointing news compared to Ugreen.

Here is what Nulea replied:
"The Nulea M514 is designed as a plug-and-play device, and its buttons are not programmable or customizable. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a firmware update or guarantee compatibility with the firmware from other brands."

What makes this frustrating as a consumer is that the Nulea M514 can actually be configured using Ugreen's KM Center software just like the M785DR—the app recognizes it, and you can remap buttons and adjust scroll settings without issues.

Knowing both devices share the exact same OEM hardware platform and companion software compatibility, it is hard to accept Nulea claiming it's merely a "non-customizable plug-and-play device" and outright refusing firmware-level support.

I got one of these as a hand-me-down. It has several "bumps" where the ball can sort of "catch". There's an audible little "click" when you move the ball over them in specific "spots". Like there's a little depression in the ball where the bearing is dipping into it briefly. It catches harder the more firmly you press on the ball.

Difficulty: The ball is 100% smooth & undamaged. I can't visually or by touch find any imperfections, rough spots, or any features or damage or dirt at all anywhere on the ball.

I also can't find any dirt on the bearings. To the point of going in with a magnifying glass & sewing needle to try to find any gunk in the seams.

The whole device is scrupulously clean. The bearings turn. The wheel is perfect. Yet my friend's identical Ergo does NOT have these bumps.

Anyone have any ideas?

ProtoArc recently sent me an EM06 to test and provide feedback on. I've now published my thoughts after spending a good amount of time with it.

Coming from the Ploopy Adept and Kensington SlimBlade Pro, I found the EM06 an interesting combination of the two, though there are a few things I'd like to see refined.

I've written up my full thoughts here, including comparisons with the other trackballs and some issues I've run into along the way:

https://antonyjones.org/blog/getting-to-know-the-proto-arc-em-06/

I've also got a few other trackball-related posts on my site if anyone fancies a look.

My old wired Kensington Expert Mouse (K64325) is having some issues ... all the buttons and scroll wheel work but the roller ball does not move the mouse pointer. I tried cleaning the ruby bearings but that didn't work. What else can I try?

Got myself a Slimblade Pro last week. Great device, love it, but the lack of tactile distinction between buttons always bothered me. And also they can be clicked by pressing almost anywhere on the top surface, but it requires wildly different amount of force. So I bought this sticky textured rubber pads, advertised as universal gamer grip tape or something, stuck it on the buttons where I usually press them and know the exact force needed for a click, and cut it to size with an exacto knife.

10/10, problem solved, highly recommend. The new stylish look was also a great bonus.

I enjoyed the Kensington Expert Mouse but i wanted it vertical, so I took out the parts and designed a frame. I've been using it for 7 months and I'm satisfied with it. My wrist doesn't hurt anymore.

In case you wanna try, I uploaded a STEP file here: https://github.com/rxils/ExpertMouse-Vertical
Only parts in the original product are used, so you don't need any additional parts to make this.
But don't expect too much since this was designed for personal use

Tho only one person got TB900 EQ, doesn't mean it released in Q3 and they finally fixed their website at last. They delayed several times and now, they failed to fulfill their orders while they already sent samples to a few Youtubers which is disappointing. At this point, we have to assume it will be available in 2027 since most of us got cancelled.

In the meantime, I bought Perixx PERIMICE-822IR and will be here on this Wed. Already have Elecom Huge Plus so we'll see how it goes. Keychron Nape Pro is interesting and tempting too but Kensington TB900 EQ is what i've been waiting... Perixx PERIMICE-822IR got my attention because of its design which reminded Logitech and Kensington Orbit.

Regardless, I'll buy them all eventually.