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Author Topic: CST L-Trac laser trackball  (Read 64709 times)

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Offline Honky

  • Posts: 3
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #240 on: Sat, 13 August 2011, 16:26:04 »
Quote from: Alex;368634
Oh thanks, that seems like a possible option.


Still haven't heard from them, you might have better luck with it.
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Offline Kerosene

  • Posts: 15
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #241 on: Sun, 13 November 2011, 15:56:27 »
Well, I got my L-TracX from el-fi. Seems real solid otherwise but the scroll wheel performance is uneven. Moments ago I managed to turn it for a long distance without it triggering a scroll event. Also, it's hard to reach for the scroll wheel and the 3rd button. I think the most natural scrolling HW solution for this type of trackball would be a thumb switch that made the ball itself act as a scroll wheel while the switch is down.

I'll only be using the mouse at 3200cpi but it's a bit silly how you have to peek through the buttons at a very specific angle to see the sensitivity LED; CST should clearly have made the ball or some button/surface part translucent.
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Offline Razer1987

  • Posts: 52
  • Location: Versailles, France
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #242 on: Tue, 29 November 2011, 03:57:44 »
Just received my CST, kind of disapointed by the weight, it's made of a really light plastic. Like Kerosene, i feel the same uneven performance from the scoll wheel. But i have no prob to reach the third button. The LED has the most stupid location ever, you can't see it, it's not a real problem because you can feel the difference but it is still stupid…
It's my first trackball, so i can't compare it, but i really enjoy it, the shape is nice, pretty ergonomic and the main buttons are perfect. I use it at 1600 cpi for the moment because i have only my little asus eeepc with me but i am looking forward to try it on my hi-res monitor next month…
i try to figure out how i am gonna use the two extra buttons.

I love my new ball, really sexy…

« Last Edit: Tue, 29 November 2011, 03:59:54 by Razer1987 »
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Offline NimbleRabit

  • Posts: 153
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #243 on: Tue, 29 November 2011, 09:29:48 »
I haven't experienced any problems with the scroll-wheel so far, and in fact it's probably my favorite part of this thing.  I'm sorry to here some of you are having problems, perhaps you can contact CST and see what they have to say?

Also, holy crap I can't believe some of you are using 3200 dpi.  Anything above 1600 is way too fast for me, but I like 800 the most.
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #244 on: Tue, 29 November 2011, 20:45:21 »
I've had my CST for quite some time now and while I'm loving it, I still have issues with the ball rolling rather stiffly, with a feeling of "drag" for lack of a better word. However, I think I stumbled onto a workaround - tilt the CST on its side at a >60 degree angle! However, don't tilt it too much though or the ball will hit the ring and not contact the bearings. The left side of the CST should be a few inches off the desk while the right side remains on the desk. I used a sawed-off piece of 2x4 wood to hold the left side up, with a couple of those rubber placemats to keep them from sliding around.

Suddenly, the feeling of extra drag/friction almost completely disappears and it rolls very smoothly even with one finger. I find this arrangement much more accurate. It seems easing the pressure off the northwest bearing loosens up the ball and now it feels like it is rolling on a cloud of boobs!

There is one caveat though - it doesn't seem to work if you try putting it on the other side - it won't work left-handed! Unless you place the trackball backwards and use something like the SakasaMouse app to reverse the mouse pointer axes...

I would like to know if this hack works for you - if there is no difference then I guess my CST has issues!
« Last Edit: Tue, 29 November 2011, 20:47:30 by RPro »
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #245 on: Tue, 29 November 2011, 20:49:39 »
Oh I forgot to add - you will probably want to use a wrist pad under your hand to lift it up an extra half-inch or so to make it easier to reach the ball without causing too much strain...
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #246 on: Wed, 30 November 2011, 12:31:19 »
Here is a picture of my awesome hack. Notice the monolithic piece of lego to add shock and awe:

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 33548[/ATTACH]

My accuracy in Left4Dead 2 has tripled because of this mod. And now 1600 CPI is very usable for me!
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #247 on: Wed, 30 November 2011, 13:01:35 »
The bearings seem fine to me, even after comparing to the pictures above.Although the gap between the brown plastic thingies are just a tiny bit wider (.1 mm?). Maybe the slightly wider gap makes the bearings bounce around more, increasing the drag and roughness. Each bearing seems to spin smoothly and rapidly when I flick them with my finger. Maybe I just don't like the normal feel of the CST as much as others?

Have you tried tilting it to see if there is a difference in the roll?
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #248 on: Wed, 30 November 2011, 13:05:30 »
Oh - as a point of reference - in the tilted position I can flick my fingers and the ball spins for 3 seconds. Any faster and the ball will jumped off the bearings. I can't make it spin more than a second in the normal position without bouncing.

EDIT: Yeah McRip!
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #249 on: Wed, 30 November 2011, 13:33:23 »
Hmmm maybe you're onto something - time to do some experiments (and some cleaning).
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #250 on: Wed, 30 November 2011, 14:12:13 »
Ok, cleaning and adding thing paper washers over the screw mounts inside the case seems to have helped - I guess the top molding was just a tad too close on one side of the ball. (I bet it was 90% cleaning that did it though - even though the bearings spun easily by finger before cleaning, the ball weight would magnify the McDirt effect).

With that said, the tilting trick still works great! In fact, when it's tilted, it has the smoothest action I've ever felt in a ball, ever. And it is probably a little more ergonomic too! Suddenly, the CST is the best trackball on the planet...
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Offline dj christian

  • Posts: 15
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #251 on: Sun, 04 December 2011, 08:43:28 »
Is this the trackball there is? Are there any alternatives. I've read about the Kengsington SlimBlade but i read in the customer reviews on Amazon that it has one of the worst software around, especially for Win x64.
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #252 on: Mon, 05 December 2011, 15:15:59 »
Hey, anyone know if lithium grease would work well for the CST trackball bearings? Or is this redundant?
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #253 on: Mon, 05 December 2011, 16:07:35 »
Ok! I may give Jig-A-Loo Super Grease a try:

http://www.jigaloo.com/ca/e_products_supergrease.php

According to the MSDS it has NAPTHA and PERCHLOROETHYLENE - which I think is safe on plastics.

The regular Jig-A-Loo (in the orange can) looks like it is very bad for plastics though - Methyl somethingsomethingchloride. I saw horrifying mutilation of a rubik's cube that had regular Jig-A-Loo on it.
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Offline gilgam

  • Posts: 459
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #254 on: Thu, 08 December 2011, 07:49:52 »
Hi :-)

I want to buy one of these CST L track but is there a dealer in France, or at least in €uro countries?
there is a reseller in the UK but VAT will kill the deal...

Have you ever tried it on linux with the added buttons ?
Is ths easy to customize ?

Thanks
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and a few rubber dome/scissors keyboards from Apple/Logitech

Online TheProfosist

  • Posts: 5712
  • Location: Wisconsin, USA
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CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #255 on: Fri, 09 December 2011, 07:53:36 »
The added button are just default mouse buttons unless you use the windows driver to customize what they are end evn then I believe there is only a limited choice.
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Offline gilgam

  • Posts: 459
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #256 on: Fri, 09 December 2011, 13:59:29 »
Quote from: ripster;467052

Good luck with Linux.

Yes Linux has always been lucky ;-)
I think i could customize it via some dirty trick.
By the way CST has a very nice commercial service. It's the american way i love : customer support. The exact opposite of french one :-)

Soon a review...
« Last Edit: Fri, 09 December 2011, 14:01:53 by gilgam »
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Realforce 105 FR, HHKB Pro 2 black, 1 Raptor K1 Black Cherry and 1 Raptor K1 Red Cherry , Compag MX 11800  tBrown Cherry, G80-3000 Clear Cherry , G80-1000 Blue Cherry / Ghetto red, Lexmark 1992 SSK Buckling spring, Unicomp 2011 Customizer 102 Buckling spring
and a few rubber dome/scissors keyboards from Apple/Logitech

Offline Kerosene

  • Posts: 15
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #257 on: Tue, 13 December 2011, 05:34:52 »
Quote from: gilgam;466408
Hi :-)

I want to buy one of these CST L track but is there a dealer in France, or at least in €uro countries?
there is a reseller in the UK but VAT will kill the deal...
Sounds like you already bought one from somewhere, but for the benefit of others I want to point out that el-fi.dk in Denmark had the best deal for the L-TracX when I was buying. Service via e-mail in english was okay.
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Offline oneproduct

  • Posts: 1030
  • Location: Canada
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #258 on: Fri, 16 December 2011, 16:38:51 »
Quote from: dj christian;463846
Is this the trackball there is? Are there any alternatives. I've read about the Kengsington SlimBlade but i read in the customer reviews on Amazon that it has one of the worst software around, especially for Win x64.

I just got a L-Trac and it has some pros and cons compared to the slimblade:
1. Scrolling by twisting the slimblade's trackball is incredibly fun and you don't have to reach past the ball like you do on the Ltrac
2. The Ltrac's scroll wheel isn't notched (do they call this a flywheel?) which is really good and quite fun unless you need to scroll an exact number of times (like weapon changing in a game maybe)
3. Ltrac has higher DPI, but the slimblade has more exposed trackball so it kind of makes up for it because you have more surface you can scan over in one swipe before you have to reposition your hand
4. Slimblade's trackball seems to move more smoothly because the contact area is smaller, but perhaps some lube on the Ltrac will fix that
5. Slimblade's bearings collect dust super fast, but it's real easy to clean because you just have to lift up the trackball, no unscrewing required
6. Slimblade has 4 buttons by default, Ltrac only has 3 but you can add more
7. Ltrac's third button is somewhat awkwardly positioned behind the ball
8. Ltrac's casing is like a built in hand rest
9. Ltrac's trackball is further recessed into the casing so you don't have to twist your wrist up as high
10. Ltrac uses a bigger trackball, which allows for greater precision
11. Slimblade's software is fine, but the newest version doesn't even work for a lot of people. I had to use an old version. You can rebind buttons 2-4 (but not 1) to other types of button presses or to keyboard shortcuts or things like media buttons. I haven't toyed much with the Ltrac's software's but it does look better.
12. Physical size comparison: Ltrac is super tall, slimblade is pretty wide
13. Ltrac's buttons 1 and 2 are better placed and feel more sturdy

The Ltrac is great, but I'm really bothered by how hard it is to reach button 3 and the scroll wheel, you have to reposition your hand each time to get to them. Everything else about it is better than the Slimblade, except maybe the different way the two perform scrolling, but that's a personal preference: flywheel vs trackball twist.
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Online TheProfosist

  • Posts: 5712
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CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #259 on: Fri, 16 December 2011, 16:52:23 »
I feel the same way about the Ltrack its the best out there but there are tons of improvements that could be done. What I really want is a 5 button laser DT225 with a scroll wheel.
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Offline oneproduct

  • Posts: 1030
  • Location: Canada
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #260 on: Sat, 17 December 2011, 00:44:08 »
Did a little comparison of the L-trac vs the Kensington Slimblade, which is my current favorite (I don't need the DPI too bad, otherwise it may be a different story). I haven't had a chance to try the DT225 yet.

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:25064
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Poker | Filco Tenkeyless | Realforce Tenkeyless Variable Silent | Truly Ergonomic | Kinesis Contoured Advantage | IBM Model M SSK | Cherry G80-3600LYC | TG3 w/ trackpad
Kensington Slimblade | RollerMouse Free2 | Logitech M570 | Microsoft Trackball Explorer
Colemak

Offline Kerosene

  • Posts: 15
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #261 on: Mon, 19 December 2011, 03:34:02 »
Ironically, I'm in Finland, but didn't even bother to get an exact L-TracX quote from our local vendor (assistive devices store) after seeing the prices on the listed models. Even with negotiation it would have been over 200e for sure. El-Fi, being a computer HW store, sold me the trackball for 135e including international shipping. :smile:
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Offline gilgam

  • Posts: 459
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #262 on: Mon, 19 December 2011, 13:32:50 »
there must be some problem because on their site
http://www.el-fi.dk/index.asp?page=86&vpath=86|&prtype=2&prgroup=13
 this is 1937 DKR which is roughly 260 €
i paid 192€ include shipping from computerware...
it still has to come ...

CST 2545
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Realforce 105 FR, HHKB Pro 2 black, 1 Raptor K1 Black Cherry and 1 Raptor K1 Red Cherry , Compag MX 11800  tBrown Cherry, G80-3000 Clear Cherry , G80-1000 Blue Cherry / Ghetto red, Lexmark 1992 SSK Buckling spring, Unicomp 2011 Customizer 102 Buckling spring
and a few rubber dome/scissors keyboards from Apple/Logitech

Online TheProfosist

  • Posts: 5712
  • Location: Wisconsin, USA
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CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #263 on: Wed, 21 December 2011, 00:30:14 »
I have the L-Track X and have modded all 5 buttons to be external its a great trackball that I sadly vdont use as much since I got my G700.
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Offline OVerLoRDI

  • Posts: 2
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #264 on: Wed, 21 December 2011, 15:16:47 »
Well I got my L-Trac today.  After doing some configuration started using it.

Obviously there is an adjustment period, but I figured the best way to get used to it was some good old UT2004 instagib.  Thoughts:
1)  I have no muscle memory at all related to using a trackball, so the result is I feel like I'm very aware of my fingers and their placements.
2)  Not sure where my fingers go, so I'm still searching for the right position as I'm using it.
3)  Despite the lack of muscle memory, it feels quite natural.  I'm not really having to think about how to use the device, mostly just my fingers.
4)  Precision is very possible with this device, however there seems to be a strange transition in the rollers, going from high speed to slow speed and back.  It takes additional effort to get them rolling again.  There is also a small rocking noise every time I change directions.  hopefully this will change as they break in.
5)  My natural tendency to autocorrect my shot (in game) the second before I shoot is more natural and effective with this.  
6)  The scroll wheel is USELESS.  I'm surprised they didn't just make a thumb scroll wheel on the side of the mouse.  Looking for keyboard + "mouse motion" scroll options currently.

I will report back in a few more days with how I'm feeling about it.

Also every time I reach from my keyboard to my mouse, my hand is just confused.
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #265 on: Wed, 21 December 2011, 21:00:51 »
I hope this shows up properly.

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 35646[/ATTACH]
« Last Edit: Wed, 21 December 2011, 21:05:14 by RPro »
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Offline RPro

  • Posts: 60
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #266 on: Wed, 21 December 2011, 21:02:59 »
Anyhow - it is slightly overdesigned for drop accidents. :P
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Offline timofonic

  • Posts: 54
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #267 on: Fri, 23 December 2011, 06:40:17 »
I bought one to Computerware UK, as it seems the only serious distributor in Europe with at least an English site.

Let's see if the "royal" mail sends it to home...
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Offline fim

  • Posts: 21
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #268 on: Fri, 23 December 2011, 08:29:09 »
Quote from: RPro;475571
I hope this shows up properly.

(Attachment Link) 35646[/ATTACH]

Is there something like this that can be purchased (and preferably not assembled with lego pieces :P) ?
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Offline timofonic

  • Posts: 54
CST L-Trac laser trackball
« Reply #269 on: Fri, 23 December 2011, 09:51:06 »
Quote from: fim;476579
Is there something like this that can be purchased (and preferably not assembled with lego pieces :P) ?


Any true GEEK warrior learns basic DIY skillz.

So...

If you want the elite of hardware for your comforability instead of computer mediocrity of this ****ty bad quality/design consumer industry, learn and get used to being less lazy ;)
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