A Trackball Problem

A Trackball Problem

For the last three years I have promoted the use of the Elecom Huge, a trackball mouse that I have adored from almost the moment I first bought one. I loved it so much, I bought another for my standing desk, and then bought a pack of four different size Elecom trackers from Amazon.

It is an excellent trackball, with a design unlike any other and great customizability. It just has one problem: it breaks.

If you held one of these things, it wouldn’t seem like it’d be fragile, and it really isn’t. But I’ve now had three of them break on me in different ways, and it has busted my obsession with this brand.

The first one just stopped working. New batteries, different connection type, nothing fixed it. The second one I got, that one had a huge gouge in the ball, and that caused the sensors to go wacky. Even replacing the ball didn’t help. The third one is like the first, it just has stopped connecting most of the time. I even tried on another computer, and it does the same inconsistent connection as it does on my main PC.

I love these things, but it’s obvious that they’re not well made. Either that or I’ve gotten some duds, but I’m going to lean towards the former. It saddens me, because I this trackball has been my favorite of all I’ve tried.

But, I can’t see myself buying another. Despite my love for it, I just can’t buy one at 60 bucks when they don’t last more than a year. That’s just not economically a great idea.

So the question I must ask now is, what’s next. I bought a thumb tracker from ProtoArc, but it is not okay. Granted I’ve only given it a few minutes, so I need to do better on actually trying it, but I don’t think thumb trackers are for me anymore. It just requires a lot of movement of the thumb. I will put it through it’s paces before I make a final decision on it, but I do not think that it is long for my desk.

That means finding a finger tracker that will do well. The problem is that the form factor of almost ever finger tracker on the market is square or trapezoidal. The shape of these devices is not great for ergonomics, as they don’t really fit your hand (it’s one of the reasons why the HUGE was so good.) I will end up trying one or two of these, but IDK if I will be happy with any of them. Someone recommended the xkeys ltrac. It looks like it might work, but it’s also $160, and that is steep. I’m not opposed, but I’d love to try it before I make that kind of commitment. I guess I can always send it back, but still.

I have thought about just sticking with the MX Master 3, which is what I’ve been using since the HUGE died. I haven’t hated using a regular mouse again like I thought I would, but I also miss the trackball. So, I don’t know where I will go. It will be an adventure, to be sure. I had thought I had found the God-tier tracker with the HUGE, but it looks like my journey isn’t quite over.

Edit: Since this post was uploaded to Patreon, I did end up getting my HUGE to work once more. Though for how long, I do not know.