The world's best trackball was built to break 

Thank you!! I’ve got similar experience. But you saved me the trouble writing it all out :) This trackball is not a goner, just needs more patience and care. At first I was happy he tried lubing the “sealed, non serviceable, just buy a new one” bearing… it’s a shame he didn’t go quite far enough.

They make a "contact cleaner" now - basically weak brake cleaner that is 100% safe of plastics and is meant to be used on electronics, works like a champ on motor windings

I was about to post the same. As long as flat spots have not been worn into the bearings, I have had lots of success rebuilding “sealed” bearings by soaking them in a solvent, drying and relubricating them. I’ve had plenty of success with sealed skate bearings, and I wouldn’t think that these would be much different. The only tricky part of course would be to find a solvent that is tough enough to break through the grime, but is also safe for the board/plastics.

@@getinkt338 I actually think I have seen screw that holds the axle-bearing assembly separately (at 4:38). but may be I am mistaken. so it can be taken out separately from the PCB.

yeah seems like he really didnt even try lol

Depends on the type of plastic. Not all are malleable

@@jackgerberuae Since it's been heat staked it definitely is malleable, that's kind of the whole point of heat staking 😄

It definitely looks like the reflective pattern is glued on. There's some yellow goop visible at the edges which could be grease but I doubt it. The pattern also doesn't look centered.

Absolutely fixable. The heat stakes can just be carved off and replaced with a screw and fender washer of the proper size (this is the standard fix for old IBM Model M keyboards with broken heat rivets). The bearings look to be off the shelf with encoder wheels glued to them. They should be easy to replace as you just need to match the physical dimensions (shaft diameter, outer diameter, and width). For the encoder wheel, it should be possible to remove it with the use of heat, solvent, or mechanical means (depending on the adhesive used), or you could just print a new one up on a laser printer (bonus points for doing a thermal transfer of the print to aluminum).

Ah the classical term, wich took an eternity to perform. I know the struggle… :D

Beat me to it. Heat them with a very tight nozzle or soldering iron tip touched around the outside let the metal components soak in the heat slow and they will potentially suck in oil or cleaner to get them going. My only worry would be the internals might be plastic but what are you out at this point? I have to use a torch to remove/reinstall bolts on some farm equipment. Heat frees them and cooling them down locks them in place something you want on spinning blades of death but often lots of penetrating oil is used on red hot bolts that have soaked in rust as they get very hot in operation too. I have touched an iron to a stuck hard drives spindles and got it to spin just like putting them in the freezer can get them going again. Big bolt or small bearing usually once warm it will soak in the also hot oil. May not last but it will as they say make the harvest. Avoiding fire hazards by not suggesting them there are solvents and oils you can try mechanics and machinists swear to brands like religions which is another reason I won't suggest one, do all this in a well ventilated area with a fire extinguisher and the usual generic warnings. I also keep medical syringes on my bench just for shooting high pressure jets of cleaners and oils into very small spaces mostly cleaning pots and old flux from under components things like that. You only get one or two uses out of them running straight alcohol as it eats the plunger but I buy them by the box from farm supply. If you ever wanted a mini bench top pressure washer to just blast something clean there you go. Just happen to be the same size needed to vaccinate horses so double business purchase win for me.

@@JamesHalfHorse we were farming when I was growing up, and now I’ve got a 1acre garden and a little garden tractor with a cat0 3point and tool bar, shanks sweeps and little offset disk that had all sat parked for over 20 years before it was given to me, the old torch with penetrating oil smoke show has become one of my early go to practices. The number of twisted off bolt heads and cracked sockets has gone way down even with cheater pipes on breaker bars.

I would have started with a degreaser. No point letting that old nasty grease be in there.

Will definitely remember that when looking for peripherals. Good, human-based service is impossible to find anymore.

I had a similar experience- called to get a replacement ball for my wired Expert Mouse, two days later I had an entire replacement unit in my mailbox!

I would have tried different solvents, like isopropyl alcohol, to clean the ball bearings, before giving up, because it seems unlikely that regular use would wear out these ball bearings, there is almost no load on them and the amount of rotation they were subjected too, is easy to imagine, would be far lese when used as a trackball mouse, than in some motor assembly. It is very, very likely, that what got the ball bearings stuck, is grease from the hands of the user, and probably the previous owner have cleaned up the mouse, which seemed to be in very good condition, and also unsuccessfully used regular machine oil, without attempting to clean out the grease inside the ball bearings. Meaning - it is not too late to save the trackball mouse. If the previous user even was a smoker, a nice combination of nicotine, grease from the hands, possibly fram any food the user ate etc. would be the culprit, you cannot just use sewing machine oil and smooth that out! If isopropanol didn’t work, I would have moved over to acetone, though this may ruin the plastic, so should be dripped on, very carefully. Am sure other viewers here, would have even better suggestions than me, what to use, but surely isopropanol could be tried first, maybe regular alcohol, again - being careful not to ruin the plastics.

My problem with the modern one, which isn't saying much as it's sitting on my desk as I type this.... the scroll ring is scratchy and bad and feels cheap.... but the rest, perfectly fine, I've had it for a while now

But that would melt the plastic standoffs.

@@Toonrick12 they could be re-melted afterward, or epoxied

What he needs is brake cleaner or even WD40. It needs a solvent to break down the grease. As far as the bearing being gone, I seriously doubt it. You could run these bearings bone dry for 100 years and never put a micron of wear on them. It's low speed with very little loading on them.

@@tarstarkusz WD40 and working the wheels a lot will get them loose again, I had the same exact problem with a serial mouse for the Apple II where the vertical control was locking up and WD40 got it back to spinning

Old grease like this is a common problem on the old knitting machines I refurbish. I found a few hours in a car on a sunny day will provide enough heat to get the grease moving and test the machine before going digging in for a repair.

A dremmel? This isn't the 8-Bit Guy!

I was thinking that or on the outer housing with a 1/32 ".01325" or in that range drill bit at 12 and 6 o'clock positions. Blast the old grease out with WD and replace with new. Blend the edges back flush with a small file so the ball with not get nicked up.

I’ve successfully done this exact fix on the ADB version. I first drilled 3 needle holes in the side of each bearing. Then ultrasonic cleaning was successful for free spin. I chose to use Moebius oil (watchmakers) and sealed the holes by press-fit inserting tiny copper wire. Not positive, but I’ll estimate the repair was 15 years ago. Still smooth today.

@@thaddeusmcgrath this is exactly what I just wrote too, and I am glad so many people are writing the same thing, now I want to see him try it lol , he actually might

@@trombonista92 Cool, also when I see those sealed bearings in reminds me of my youth with skateboarding and similar bearing used we called German speed bearings. The Chinese made skateboard bearings are crap. I still spin the wheels in Wal-Mart and all have those crap Chinese bearings. I remember getting a set of German bearings, man it was like night and day!

Makes a gorillion dollars and has no plot or substance whatsoever

@@ozzie_goat Which describes most movies from the past 25 years.

"Giga Crap" would be more accurate

Which will be a flop, like all Marvel movies nowadays 😢.

Less M-She-U and more M-Squeak-U

Neat. And I thought my Logitech TrackMan Marble still working great since 1999 was impressive.

Ditto. I modded it to ADB and it worked a treat.

The thing is that there was a point in time when people expected things to last a long time (5-10+ years at the least) and those things generally were made to last. Lots of cities and towns have had to do urgent plumbing repairs because the original cast iron pipes were designed to last ~100 years. Consequently people got used to things being low maintenance and, collectively, forgot why that was possible. So while most of the era of "personal computing" likely occurred much later, after things changed, there was a time when things were substantially different. Nothing lasts forever, anyway.

Thouest knoweth the secret of the trackball! To convince people to use one instead of a mouse ~80% of the time, open a spreadsheet and make the cells very small. Now compare using a mouse vs. a good trackball. No brainer. A good glassy trackpad might be better because of gesture patterns you can use, but a mouse is definitely worse than either of those.

To what level though? Many people who complain about things not being serviceable are ham-fisted bofoons who can't even replace batteries in a remote control. I don't think user serviceable is a good end goal, because users tend to be poor repairmen. The goal should be things being easier to repair, and spare parts available, and not locked down to dedicated and costly service centers who just as commonly just replaces the entire product anyway. Back in the day TV repairmen were commonplace, these days they have all died out because TVs and similar technology cannot be fixed even by dedicated service people. The goal, therefore, should be to make things easier and more accessible to repair, together with political decisions which make it cheaper to actually hand your electronics in for repair rather than just buying new.

With such a standard why would anyone try to make and sell devices at all? Are you prepared to deal with the consequences of having no market at all?

@@markn866 If the only way we can have a market is that we destroy the earth, then yeah, I'm fine with "having no market at all" 🤷‍♂ However, that's a very dystopian way of looking at things, and completely surrendering to capitalists. You can do things right, be sustainable, and have a slow and steady profit in the meantime. The issue is right now is that there's a lot more, and faster, profit to take shortcuts that destroy the earth, pollute the environment, and cause people (often in developing countries) to suffer as a result. How callous do you have to be if you have no issues building your comfort on their shoulders?

"This is the best solvent to dissolve all organic stuff." Noted for when I need to get rid of a body.

@@FlyboyHelosim not for purpose,

I bought a brand new trackball this year and it doesn't look like it has any bearings at all. The ball seems to just glide over three tiny, smooth, non-moving nubs. Maybe that results in a bit more friction than a bearing-based trackball, but since this is my first time using a physical trackball (I've used the Steam Controller and Steam Deck's trackpads for a while) the level of friction seems normal to me.

Optics can still be fouled up by dust, grease, and other gunk. And the lens can become scratched or damaged. It's a lot less common and doesn't happen as quickly, but they're not immune to other kinds of issues.

@@jnharton Yes, and I clearly said "immune to the issue here", meaning the seized bearings. Dust, finger oils, etc can and do build up in the model I have, but all it takes is a quick wipe with a paper towel and the sensor is recessed a bit, so very difficult for anything to get to it to scratch it, and can be cleaned with a cotton swab dipped in IPA. MUCH more robust design than the older models.

Rather than adding plastic, just use some small self-tapping screws.

These also get clogged up with skin and dust as well and are hard to clean well.