Comments on: Microsoft Trackball Explorer — The World’s Most Comfortable Trackball

By: bob

bob — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:18:46 +0000

Posted before on 6th of April

Found out why there probably will never be any new trackballs like this – or even alike – on the market.
Having followed the advise of some others, ordered 2mm chrome steel balls, drilled holes from the back of the transparent red dome, popped out the flat ones, pressed in new ones, and result is a new trackball.

So why not re-produce them?
Since there are three separate printcards, several separated leds and sensors, separate placed microswitches and various injection mould made plastic parts, not to forget the amount of inproper placed different sized screws!! These things have cost at least as much as where they have been sold for, even when produced by at least several companies in china.

Then the garantuee on version 1, which has fragile plastic legs for the bottom left button (changed in version 2) must have cost …….

As designer and first day rhino user I have thought about a better production version (less parts etc) but the trouble is that our ergonomics will not allow this – compair any ordinary mouse (two plastic parts, one printcard, couple of sensors direct on printcard) and you will understand….

sorry guys, but live is tough….

By: Autoplay

Autoplay — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 02:04:45 +0000

http://www.vxb.com/page/bearings/PROD/Kit7801

By: David

David — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:31:03 +0000

Could you share the site where you purchased the ceramic bearings?

By: Autoplay

Autoplay — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:53:07 +0000

I’ve used this trackball exclusively,for over 6 years now,and absolutely love it! I have 4 used ones in my closet,one I’m presently using,and one still brand new and sealed,in the box.

When this one starts to give me trubs,I’m gonna rebuild it along with a couple in my closet. The easist/quickest fix is to rotate/clock the existing bearings.

I purchased ceramic bearings online,several years back,that I’ll also use,once the clocked bearings wear out. At that point,I’ll also put in new springs behind the buttons,and temper the plastic wear points ever so slightly.

A guy on Ebay rebuilds these trackballs among others,and I was the person who turned him onto the site for the bearings,and what works in regards to keeping the ball/sphere in good working order.

I occasionally play PC games,FPS etc,and I love what this trackball provides,in gaming(and hardcore gamers will laff at peeps using a trackball lol)

I would love to see this device re-distributed,but sadly,I don’t see it in the near future. Hence,I believe I can keep the remaining trackballs I have,alive and functioning,till the day my old/arthiritic fingers won’t let me point n click lol

By: emile

emile — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:10:44 +0000

I love my trackball explorer, I never thought twice about it tell today, I needed one for the wifes new computer, and bam, wtf no one sells it any more??? HOW THE??? So I go and start looking at new ones, all of the ones I find are eaither a very un friendly design for your hand or use your thumb to move the ball….. I checked ebay and found them though, expensive, $160 for a reconditioned one… Had to settle for a crappy logitech one, I would of been glad to spend anything under $100 to get another explorer though!!!!

By: ineedfiles

ineedfiles — Sun, 30 May 2010 01:03:10 +0000

i found one of these yesterday!
it’s a pretty decent/trackball.
i think the left click button might be broken a little…
it double clicks allot of the time, when it should be single clicking..
but i just did a little bit of button switching, and it’s VERY decent

By: LeLorrain

LeLorrain — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:29:11 +0000

Look at Amazon.com… They have sellers who will get you a brand NEW TBE for US$500 !!!! or a used one for US$100 to US$200!!

Personally, I would not part with my dear TBE…

By: IH8FMS

IH8FMS — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:03:15 +0000

I treat my TBE better than I do my husband!
Him I can replace!

He has a Kensington Expert Mouse (WHY do they call it a “Mouse”?). I suppose if anything happens to my TBE (Heaven forbid!!!) I could make do with an Expert, but it would be a strain to get used to.

I have recurring CTS and RSS, and my TBE is a trusted friend.

By: Ville Walveranta

Ville Walveranta — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:12:40 +0000

Yeah, there seems to be a trend going on. The legendary Trackman Marble FX, the venerable Trackball Explorer.. and even more recently Kensington is not providing support for their Expert Mouse for Windows 7 (although support can be hacked together with help of Microsoft Trackball Optical driver and X-Mouse Control software. Apparently Kensington is placing their future trackball bets on the slick-looking but rather anti-ergonomic SlimBlade. It blows my mind that nobody currently manufactures a decent, comfortable trackball. It's probably not nearly as big of a market than the mouse market, but you would think there would be space for at least one decent trackball. It's almost like a... conspiracy to give all of us CTS!! :O

By: James

James — Mon, 03 May 2010 23:39:21 +0000

The BEST and MOST COMFORTABLE trackball ever was the Logitech Trackman Marble FX. That was the absolute most comfortable pointing device I ever used, even more so than the old tablets I used to use way back when. The MIcrosoft Trackball Explorer was a mere distant third (just behind the Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman). The only advantage the explorer has is the wheel, which didn’t exist when the FX was made (for only a few short years). Wish I’d bought more than one, it lasted at least ten years of heavy-duty usage.