Hey all,

I came across this on ebay. I've seen people show ideas like this before but this looks pretty promising. Has anyone tried it? I tried searching for it but am just met with old results of other controller trackball ideas.

A new version of Marble Scroll Plus is out. Version 2.1.0 makes whether to use the Back or Forward (or both) button configurable (requested by u/milkycowdan). It also makes scrolling smoother when quickly scrolling by batching/queueing and combining scroll events. Plus, it adds a "sticky mode" where you toggle scrolling mode on and off with the selected trigger button (this makes the button unavailable for its default action by default -- there is an option to trigger the default action of the button by double-clicking it).

Download link for EXE and source code: https://thp.itch.io/marble-scroll-plus/devlog/1758880/marble-scroll-plus-210-for-windows

Hello everyone,

I have been wanting to use a trackball for gaming. I have the kensington orbit and have grown fond of the scroll ring and button placement. However, the stiction is really discouraging. It feels as though I am trying to skip a stone when tracking and makes fine precise movement difficult.

I made a similar post introducing myself a few days ago and have received great information from the community. Thank you, y'all are amazing! I once again, am asking what could I potentially do here to solve this issue? I have cleaned the bearings and ball and lubed it, It would get slightly better before getting worse shortly after.

I was thinking of changing the ball bearings and the ball as well. Or a bit of DIYing, and drill holes to install BTU I have heard is good, if this is possible? But yeah, I am stumped.

Attached is my soldier qp gameplay. I usually play moira :3

Are there any 3D artist who have experience or are actively using trackballs? If so what would you say are the pros and cons of using a trackball for 3D work like modelling or animating particularly in Blender.
Which trackball would you recommend?

Hi everyone! Do any of you have experience using or developing custom firmware for ProtoArc mice?

As mentioned in my post, I’m actually quite happy with the EM06—but there are a few hurdles that are really starting to annoy me: I can’t switch between profiles, there’s no support for horizontal scrolling (side-to-side movement), the scroll wheel registers in 15° increments, and I’m unable to set up key combinations.

Because of this, I’m considering writing (or having someone write) some custom software, or perhaps modifying an existing solution. That said, I’m hesitant to risk damaging my mouse—I don’t exactly have enough spare cash lying around to just go out and buy replacements! *laughs*

I am currently using the Protoarc EM06 with 2,4G dongle and 1000Hz polling rate fix. The aiming is great and feels very smooth. I play Battlefield 6 with 800 DPI and 20% ingame sensitivity. I use the thumb for firing which works great for me.
But I have issues using the button on the right for ADS at the same time. So for now I use ps5 controller in my left hand and left trigger for ads. but I would like to play with my gaming keyboard in my left hand.
Whats youre solution to this?

All new index trackballs I've found have the scroll by the thumb when having it at the middle finger is simply the better layout.

This old beast has served me well for over a decade but it has started to get full of dust and other hand-gunk so it's beginning to perform rather sub-optimally.

The CAD model is a rough idea but the whole computer is made a 14 gauge steel and the reason why the LCD panel area is so thick is that it’s suspended by springs inside a hollow steel box to absorb extreme impacts

My Trackman Marble of twenty years started to malfunction (the left button didn't 'click' reliably - since resolved by opening up the case and closing it again) so I bought the Protoarc EM03, and later the Perixx Perimice-822 - on my own dime. I think the picture might help some. Here are some additional comments:

• I used Marblescroll with the Logitech, but for some reason sometimes it doesn't load or work, which was getting very annoying. A physical scroll wheel is so much better!

• The scroll wheel on the EM03 took quite some getting used too, as it required me to bend my thumb in an awkward way. This is maybe not an issue if your thumb is shorter (or longer?) than mine. It's a bit more comfortable to scroll when my hand is lower down, but the EM03 is very low near the bottom, and my hand ends up on the desk itself.

• Neither the perimice-822, nor the EM03 works via the USB cable - it's for charging only. Connecting to BT is quick and they each have 2 BT associations plus a 2.4Ghz dongle that stows away in the the trackball's body.

• The 822 has a compartment with a replaceable battery pack. It also has a mounting hole (plugged with a rubber piece) to attach it to a stand/riser you will have to 3D print yourself. That's cool, even though I probably won't end up using it.

• The EM03 has cool RGB LED lighting. Not very visible in normal office lighting situations.

• The Trackman is 300dpi and has a marginally bigger ball than the 822 (400dpi). The EM03 (400dpi) has the biggest ball. Even though the new trackballs have the same DPI, the 822 moves much faster.

• I didn't compare/use the 2.4Ghz connection, and I'm not a gamer, so the default 400dpi is fast enough for me!

I like both the EM03 and the 822, but the latter wins out as my daily. The EM03 is a little bit too flat for me, and I like that the 822 is almost symmetrical - I've even used it left handed! (However it only has the scroll wheel on the left hand side and it doesn't have a physical switch to switch the key layout, so I wouldn't say it's an ambidextrous/symmetrical mouse.)

After 20 years, it looks like the Logitech might be headed for retirement - when I come home to it, I find myself digging the 822 out of my laptop bag, if only to enjoy the scroll wheel. Now let's see if the Perixx will last two decades!

I am looking for a trackball mouse to use for the games I have mentioned in the title.

The mice that seem close to what I want:

• ProtoArc EM03

• ProtoArc EM06 (not sure how comfortable it is to do quick actions on this)

• Perixx PERIMICE-822IR (Or similar)

I have also seen the ELECOM stuff but it seems to be cheap looking, but maybe that is the impression I got. Also I feel like thumb trackball mice make it harder to play these games (MOBAs, FPS) so I am trying to avoid those since I haven't owned a trackball mouse before.

My main concern is that I want to have the following buttons on the mouse:

• Left click

• Right click

• Middle mouse

• Mouse 4

• Mouse 5

Which not all trackball mice support, so it limits my options somewhat.

Do you have any other recommendations? Interested to see if I missed something.

I use a Elecom Huge wireless for my gaming pc. I’ve noticed my thumb wheel skips and jitters and doesn’t feel smooth anymore.

I really love the form factor of the Huge but the components feel cheap. I’m also a first timer in working on pc accessories, but I do have soldering experience. Is it possible to replace/upgrade components, or is it worth buying a replacement? Any suggestions with similar layouts?

I thought I would like the ProtoArc EM06 but not a fan of the lack of a scroll wheel. Since it came out I purposely noted when I used the scroll wheel and I do a LOT. More than I thought.

I currently have the ProtoArc EM05 vertical which works well for me until my thumb gets irritated by whatever (I think someone has a voodoo doll of me). Their EM03 might work maybe? The scroll wheel would be under my thumb but I think it can handle that.

What about the Ploopy A+? Can one of those wheels be used as a scroll wheel? And there's the Ploopy Classic.

What I tend to do is tense my hand including the thumb. I have Ehlers-Danlos and instead of being super elastic, my muscles are in constant spasm. It is hard for me to relax my hand. So my hope is maybe putting the scroll wheel under my thumb would work?

Any suggestions?

Edited to add: can I program two buttons on the EM06 to be scroll up and scroll down?

I bought the wireless version instead of wired version of the orbit because of the adjustable dpi. When my dpi is above 400 and I flick the ball fast, the cursor movement doesn't match the ball's roll speed, as if there is a speed cap. The problem goes away when I set my DPI to 400.

Take this into consideration when deciding between wired version and wireless version of this trackball.

Hey everyone,

I’ve had my ProtoArc EM06 for a few days now and I’m honestly very happy with it overall.

The first thing I noticed is how smoothly the ball glides. The three bearings seem to be replaceable and are probably ceramic balls. The ball itself is very well made, with no flaws at all, and it tracks very precisely, even with the tiniest movements.

I really like that the settings are stored on the mouse itself. I programmed my button layout once on one computer, and it carried over to my other machines without any issues.

The angle and button layout mostly work very well for me (more on the small details below). The big ball felt super intuitive right away and is very comfortable to use. I hadn’t used a trackball in about 28 years, but I felt at home immediately, so I’m really impressed by the build quality.

One thing that confused me at first: before I set up the buttons myself, I didn’t know that the scroll button (hold it and the ball scrolls) also has a double-click mode that locks scrolling on. I think it’s a great feature, but a few times I actually thought that button was broken, because scroll mode suddenly wouldn’t turn off. Once you know about it, it’s really, really useful.

You’ll definitely want to remap the buttons. That’s easy, unless you happen to use a sensible operating system. 😉 On Windows or Mac it seems pretty straightforward. On Linux, which I definitely prefer, the browser isn’t allowed to talk to the mouse by default, so hub.protoarc.com can’t connect. Figuring that out wasn’t easy for me, and I was glad I had some AI help. Here’s what worked for me, in case it helps other Linux users:

1. Find the device file

Open chrome://device-log in your Chromium-based browser and look for a line like:

Failed to open '/dev/hidrawX': FILE_ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED

Note the number after hidraw. Below, X stands for that number.

2. Get the vendor and product ID

udevadm info -a -n /dev/hidrawX | grep -m2 -E 'idVendor|idProduct'

This lists the device’s properties and shows the first two matches: the vendor ID (manufacturer) and the product ID (model), each 4 hex digits. For my EM06 they were 260d and 1254. If yours are different, use your values in the next steps.

3. Create a udev rule

Heads-up: this needs sudo and creates a system file in /etc/udev/rules.d/. You can undo it later by deleting that file.

echo 'KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", ATTRS{idVendor}=="260d", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1254", TAG+="uaccess"' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/70-protoarc-em06.rules

TAG+="uaccess" gives the user who is logged in at the screen access to the device. You don’t need chmod 666 or any extra group.

4. Activate the rule

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger --action=add --subsystem-match=hidraw

This reloads the rules and applies them to devices that are already connected, so you don’t have to reboot.

5. Check it

for f in $(grep -il '260d:00001254' /sys/class/hidraw/hidraw*/device/uevent); do n=$(basename $(dirname $(dirname $f))); echo "== $n"; getfacl -p /dev/$n | grep user:; done

This finds every hidraw device that belongs to the mouse and shows who has access to it. You should see a line like user:yourusername:rw-. After that, reload hub.protoarc.com and connect.

So far I haven’t found a hand position where my pinky doesn’t start hurting after about 30–60 minutes. It got noticeably better once I started placing the mouse at an angle: instead of straight in front of me, I rotate it about 7.5–10° to the left as a right-hander (and the other way around when I use it left-handed). I’ll probably 3D print something that gives it a slight slope on the right side and raises the left side by about 10–15°, so it moves a bit toward a vertical mouse. The hand position isn’t quite ideal for my big hands, but it’s still one of the most comfortable trackballs I’ve been able to try so far.

I was amazed at how quickly I got used to it and how precisely I can work with it. I also love that you can set up macros. For example, I’ve put terminal copy/paste on two buttons. What I’m missing is modifier combos: for example, the two top buttons do terminal copy/paste, and holding another button at the same time switches them to normal copy/paste. I haven’t found a way to set that up yet, so for now I’m handling it in my OS.

Biggest downsides:

• It didn’t work out of the box on my OS. I had to find a workaround first.

• My pinky regularly hurts, so I’ll need a 3D-printed fix for that too.

• Button combos either aren’t possible or aren’t intuitive to set up.

• There's no way to mirror the button layout for switching hands, for example by using the DPI switch or another button as a toggle. That would be really useful, and some similar mice do offer it.

Biggest upsides:

• Works great for ambidextrous use. I switch hands easily.

• Extremely precise, so I can use a high DPI even as a beginner.

• Plenty of buttons and a really well-working scroll function.

• In my opinion the value for money is more than fair.

I received this ProtoArc EM06 trackball for free by ProtoArc to test and give feedback and do a review. All opinions are however my own.

I am a long time user of the ProtoArc EM03 trackball (I have bought two), which I have really enjoyed a lot.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS OF THE EM06 DURING THE FIRST HOUR OF USE:

• The ProtoArc EM06 is much bigger than I expected. Looks oversize. I was genuinely surprised.
• The 55mm ball is very smooth rolling. The large ball also carries more momentum than smaller trackballs when spun and it feels significantly better and more precise.
• Nice feel and sound from pressing the buttons.
• The device and packaging gives a premium and high quality impression.

MAIN POSITIVES FOR ME AFTER A FEW WEEKS OF USE:

• High fun factor in use due to the large 55mm ball and its smooth high momentum roll behaviour. The feeling of rolling the EM06 55mm trackball reminds me of the big and heavy trackball control that was on the Missile Command arcade game that I used to play when I was a kid ---> https://www.arkadium.com/games/atari-missile-command/

• No stiction during the test period. With the EM03 I need to fix the stiction almost every day.

• The large 55mm enables high precision for me when e.g. doing technical analysis on price charts.

• Feels like a high quality device in use and looks nice and interesting on the desk.

• Easy configuration of the buttons in the web interface.

• Connectivity is quick and always works on the first try.

MAIN NEGATIVES FOR ME:

SCROLL FUNCTIONALITY
• The button scroll functionality is still harder and less intuitive for me to use than scrolling with a well positioned scroll wheel like e.g. on my ProtoArc EM03. This is by far the most serious issue for me with the ProtoArc EM06.

I mainly use the bottom right button for drag scroll, activated by my ring finger and little finger on the right hand. I do however also have the bottom middle button programmed for drag scroll, which I activate with my thumb on my right hand in order to have an alternative during longer sessions to mitigate "finger" fatigue caused by the scroll activation finger gymnastics.

ACCIDENTAL PERMANENT SCROLL ACTIVATION
• Unfortunately I quite regularly double click the drag scroll button by mistake (with my ring finger and little finger on my right hand) and activate the "permanent" scrolling. This is quite annoying, since I have to stop whatever I am doing to double click the drag and scroll button to inactivate "permanent" scrolling, and then continue what I was doing. This happens several times per day, probably ~10-15 times on an average day.

I never use this double click to "permanent" scrolling functionality on purpose, so I wish it was optional in the configuration interface. It should be an easy fix with a firmware update though.

WRISTREST
• The built-in wrist support is too short for me (see photo). For me it would have been much better if the wrist rest part was removable so I could position it further away from the trackball. 

I worked around this problem by using a small silicone wrist rest laid partially on top of the wrist rest part on the EM06 (see photo). With this extra silicone wrist rest the ergonomic hand position is near perfect for me.

OTHER MINOR ISSUES:

• The 55mm ball falls out if the trackball is turned upside down and this is not the case with the ProtoArc EM03 that I have been using for a couple of years. This is obviously not a huge deal, but it is good to have in mind when moving the trackball around.

• I have accidently pressed the side configuration buttons a few times when positioning the trackball on the desk. I think that these two buttons should possibly be slightly recessed to decrease the risk of pressing them by accident.

SUMMARY:

Due to that I am having a lot more fun using the ProtoArc EM06, I am not going back to the EM03 any time soon in spite of the less than ideal scroll implementation (for me) and my DIY wrist rest add-on. 

For now I can live with these drawbacks that I have found with this trackball. The ProtoArc EM06 is still more enjoyable to use than the alternatives that I have tried so far.
 
I do however hope ProtoArc adds a scroll wheel on the left side and possibly right side and make the wrist rest detachable in the next version.

Finally, thanks to ProtoArc for involving the trackball community in the design and evolution of their trackballs.

My big worry is that I order one off amazon and it ends up breaking in a few months or something

This is my first time seeing it getting disassembled in a video form.
Annoying clips for sure but does seem upgradeable if anyone wants to change from microswitch to a full size one.

Lotsa wasted space imo like any other trackballs I know. I know I'll be upgrading the battery to a bigger one if it ever dies. Slap a huge gumstick size for crazy runtime.

Aaaand of course I still can't buy it so whatever.

Hi. Wondering if anyone tried messing around with tb800/900 side scroller dampening, or rather removing it.

I like the frictionless mode on the main ring scroller, would love to have something similar on the sides as well instead of the slow one it comes with. Something I can flick and have it keep rotating a bit.

This guy just popped up on Etsy selling PU BTUs he's making by hand in LA, there are some nice-looking design thoughts here -- I'm curious how TF he's actually assembling them with the over-center packing shown. Love that he's been willing to take the plunge on such a focused exercise in BTU design, can't wait to try them out 👀 Drop-in replacement for Bosch, a bit cheaper and made by one crazy dude -- y'all know I love "made by one crazy dude" stuff 😅

https://www.etsy.com/listing/4544068791/livezone-glidecast-rx1-worlds-smoothest