Author Topic: Got my CST trackball  (Read 6322 times)

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Offline Zobeid Zuma

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Got my CST trackball
« on: Thu, 13 July 2017, 10:57:36 »
Until now the only trackballs I've used were version of the Logitech Marble Mouse.  I actually liked it a lot, except that scroll wheel emulation is awkward and the bearings need cleaning often and don't seem to last all that long.  So I lapsed back to using generic mice for a long time...  until now.

Yesterday my CST trackball arrived, and it's the top-of-the-line model: all black, laser, scroll wheel, and it came with the two auxiliary buttons that can plug into the back.

When I ordered this, I'd never heard of CST before.  I thought Logitech and Kensington were the only companies still in the trackball business.  The CST is well reviewed, though, and my first impressions are highly positive.  It's big, heavy, sort of clunky and homely looking, but it's a perfect match for my Unicomp Spacesaver M keyboard.  The trackball action is quite good, the scroll wheel is great.

I don't even know what I'll do with the wired aux buttons.  I'll think of something.  Incidentally, one of them came with a piece of metal rattling around inside it.  I managed to get that out, still don't know what it is or why it was in there.  The button works fine!

I wish the Logitech Marble Mouse had those external buttons.  Long ago I had a two-button Marble Mouse, but I had a utility on my computer that allowed me to hold down the Control key on my keyboard and scroll using the trackball -- vertically and horizontally.  That worked well, remarkably well, but eventually some OS update killed it, and the utility was never updated.  I never found another with that capability.  Yeah, ones like SteerMouse or USB Overdrive allow me to hold down a mouse button and scroll, but that's awkward.  It needs to be something I can operate with my left hand while my right hand manipulates the trackball.

So, with the CST I could string the extra button over to the left side of my keyboard and use it for scrolling, eh?  But this trackball already has a great scroll wheel!  I guess somebody who does a lot of horizontal scrolling (maybe in Photoshop or The GIMP?) might still find this trick useful.  Maybe I'll find a gaming purpose for those buttons, anyhow.

http://zobeid.zapto.org/image/photos/mac_pro_ubuntu_mate.jpg

Offline xtrafrood

  • formerly csmertx
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Re: Got my CST trackball
« Reply #1 on: Thu, 13 July 2017, 13:41:43 »
I use a Logitech two button Marble Mouse--it's a bit of a pickle to configure in Linux but thankfully there's no need for an external program. Have you noticed any mouse cursor jitter? My ADNS-9800 laser mouse jitters like crazy when I set the cpi beyond 800