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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: EverythingIBM on Wed, 30 June 2010, 17:36:39

Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: EverythingIBM on Wed, 30 June 2010, 17:36:39: http://cgi.ebay.ca/IBM-COMPATIBLE-PC-WINTRACK-TRACKBALL-MOUSE-/130403727471?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCA_Joysticks_Game_Controllers&hash=item1e5caaf86f (http://cgi.ebay.ca/IBM-COMPATIBLE-PC-WINTRACK-TRACKBALL-MOUSE-/130403727471?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCA_Joysticks_Game_Controllers&hash=item1e5caaf86f)
(http://i.ebayimg.com/18/!Bwco(P!BWk~$(KGrHqZ,!iQEv1+0DZ2KBMI9My)tk!~~_12.JPG)

Well, I certainly found that interesting... any idea how good those things are?

The tagline is odd:
Quote
WINS THE WAY TO FASTER, SMARTER YOUR WINDOWS WORK

So... it wins the way to faster! And, windows work smarter... yep!
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: ricercar on Wed, 30 June 2010, 18:15:52: Serial port. Hmmm. XT/AT or compatible. Very dangerous. You go first.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: TexasFlood on Wed, 30 June 2010, 18:26:21: Quote from: ricercar;198115
Serial port. Hmmm. XT/AT or compatible. Very dangerous. You go first.

Danger, Danger...
(http://bigmikecapo.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/hammacher-lost-in-space-b9-robot.jpg)
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: bitflipper on Wed, 30 June 2010, 18:33:18: Quote from: TexasFlood;198116
Danger, Danger...

Yes, I see what you did there. If you buy the trackball, you're Lost in Space.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: TexasFlood on Wed, 30 June 2010, 18:36:38: Quote from: bitflipper;198117
Yes, I see what you did there. If you buy the trackball, you're Lost in Space.

:wink: It might work great although certainly risky on anything recent in terms of having a serial port to use and a compatible driver.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: EverythingIBM on Wed, 30 June 2010, 19:13:07: Quote from: TexasFlood;198118
:wink: It might work great although certainly risky on anything recent in terms of having a serial port to use and a compatible driver.

Nonsense, it comes with the drivers on a floppy =p
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: TexasFlood on Wed, 30 June 2010, 19:18:53: Quote from: EverythingIBM;198125
Nonsense, it comes with the drivers on a floppy =p

Geez I completely forgot about having a floppy on your system, :wink:. The challenges of loving older hardware eh?
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: ricercar on Wed, 30 June 2010, 21:28:52: Doesn't everyone keep a floppy drive and cable in the drawer for emergencies like this?
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: EverythingIBM on Wed, 30 June 2010, 21:36:36: Quote from: TexasFlood;198126
Geez I completely forgot about having a floppy on your system, :wink:. The challenges of loving older hardware eh?

Actually, my intellistations don't have floppy drives. IBM FORGOT TO INCLUDE THEM!!!

I personally never liked floppy disks, they're slow, noisy, and the worst part, prone to failure. I never had any fail on me (probably cause I used "compact discs") but I never trusted them... speaking of which, I wonder where that floppy went which had my warcraft 2 maps. They were pretty awesome maps, I'd go on dial-up and play them with some friends on BATTLE NET! I actually ran warcraft 3 on dial-up, and it was actually fairly decent. I bet you could play starcraft 2 on dial-up.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: TexasFlood on Wed, 30 June 2010, 23:22:23: Quote from: ricercar;198146
Doesn't everyone keep a floppy drive and cable in the drawer for emergencies like this?

I probably have one somewhere but have a USB floppy for pinches. Don't need it often but used it recently to upgrade some thinkpad bios/firmware. Probably could have done with a writeable CD though had I not had the floppy.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: EverythingIBM on Wed, 30 June 2010, 23:42:49: Quote from: TexasFlood;198180
I probably have one somewhere but have a USB floppy for pinches. Don't need it often but used it recently to upgrade some thinkpad bios/firmware. Probably could have done with a writeable CD though had I not had the floppy.

It's like you're flashing the BIOS with a floppy halfway through and it becomes corrupted, lol.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: TexasFlood on Wed, 30 June 2010, 23:47:13: Quote from: EverythingIBM;198188
It's like you're flashing the BIOS with a floppy halfway through and it becomes corrupted, lol.

The thinkpad flashing code has some checks built in. They remind you to plug in your power supply, they check the disk and read it into memory first. I've done it pretty often and not yet had a problem. Knock on wood, watch it fail now that I said that, argh!
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: EverythingIBM on Thu, 01 July 2010, 00:08:32: Quote from: TexasFlood;198192
The thinkpad flashing code has some checks built in. They remind you to plug in your power supply, they check the disk and read it into memory first. I've done it pretty often and not yet had a problem. Knock on wood, watch it fail now that I said that, argh!

I'm never flashing any of my IBMs, I'd be sweating a storm. I'd need a test computer... I guess that's what HPs and Dells are good for.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: chimera15 on Thu, 01 July 2010, 00:39:35: Most of these older trackballs use mechanical optics, and they always get worn and the ball becomes difficult to move. I would be surprised if it was any good.

a4tech still exists as a company. I looked at their driver section, and they don't have a downloadeable driver:

http://www.a4tech.com/

They make this oddity which is better known:

http://www.a4tech.com/product.asp?cid=1&scid=11&id=78
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: TexasFlood on Thu, 01 July 2010, 00:42:00: Quote from: EverythingIBM;198198
I'm never flashing any of my IBMs, I'd be sweating a storm. I'd need a test computer... I guess that's what HPs and Dells are good for.

The laptops I feel pretty safe flashing plugged in with a fully charged battery, desktops and routers make me nervous unless they're on a UPS. The power here is pretty stable, but it only takes 1 time in 1000 to toast something. I like the IBM blades I flashed recently, they keep a backup copy of the firmware that you can recover from. There is automatic way to do it and if that fails, a DIP switch to manually switch over to it. And yes, on one blade, we used the DIP switch so it was nice to have it available.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: itlnstln on Thu, 01 July 2010, 07:35:03: Quote from: EverythingIBM;198113
Well, I certainly found that interesting... any idea how good those things are?

Chimera would be the best person to ask; he's owned every trackball in existence.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: chimera15 on Thu, 01 July 2010, 08:16:14: Quote from: itlnstln;198236
Chimera would be the best person to ask; he's owned every trackball in existence.

I already answered. But I'm glad you reminded me, one thing you might consider with those old com port trackballs as well is that their drivers may not work with a windows xp+ or other gui os's. That may be as well why they don't offer them on that site. I tried to get one my old ones working and wouldn't. It may be that it was just dead though not sure. I tried with a com port/ps2 adapter. Might have more luck with a usb/com port adapter.

That said, with input devices like those and old trackballs it's plausible that there's someone out there that has written a new driver that will work, so.
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: EverythingIBM on Thu, 01 July 2010, 14:28:29: Quote from: chimera15;198205
Most of these older trackballs use mechanical optics, and they always get worn and the ball becomes difficult to move.

Do you mean wheel-based like ball mice? I've never had any of those wear out (although did see some wear on the wheels).

Now I'm getting anxious for the IBM L40!
Title: WINTRACK trackball
Post by: chimera15 on Thu, 01 July 2010, 18:38:42: Quote from: EverythingIBM;198366
Do you mean wheel-based like ball mice? I've never had any of those wear out (although did see some wear on the wheels).

Now I'm getting anxious for the IBM L40!

(http://www.hykw.com/tbfan/gallery/assim/images/DSCN0381.jpg)

Those little plastic looking rubber parts that run on the trackball that drive the mechanical-optic sensor, get worn and misshapen, causing the cursor to not move in a particular direction, but also tend to add drag to the ball. Also the metal rollers, or some use of course static bearings, tend to get a depression in them, or worn down eventually which adds even more resistance.

Interestingly enough, this is another version of the Wintrack, it only uses metal rollers:

http://www.hykw.com/tbfan/gallery/wintrack.shtml (http://www.hykw.com/tbfan/gallery/wintrack.shtml)

Most older trackballs tend to combine the terrible need for the mechanical optical roller, and bearings, which just makes them relatively harder to push than a fully optical trackball. Those that don't, and run ball on steel bearings tend to have a lot of slippage. I'd be curious if the DT225, for as well as this type if it doesn't use rubber to ensure a good grip doesn't tend to slip a lot.