Serial Trackball --> Modern Computer

[samsonlonghair]

Some love 'em; Some hate 'em. Trackballs are my preferred way to mouse around. My old Kensington Expert Mouse is my favorite. It's built like a tank. I replaced the original plastic ball with a nice heavy pool ball.

Unfortunately, I have no way to use my favorite trackball anymore. This old beast uses a serial cable for communication and a floppy disk to load drivers.

How can I use this trackball on a modern Mac or PC?

[ApolloBoy]

A serial to USB adapter should do it.

[Hobie-wan]

A serial to USB adapter should do it.

Yup, at work we give these to customers to control a relay box for some door release stuff and it works fine for that so it should be fine for a serial trackball too. Just so you have a starting search point, it is a Tripp-Lite Keyspan model USA-19HS.

[CRTGAMER]

Some love 'em; Some hate 'em. Trackballs are my preferred way to mouse around. My old Kensington Expert Mouse is my favorite. It's built like a tank. I replaced the original plastic ball with a nice heavy pool ball.

How can I use this trackball on a modern Mac or PC?

Love Trakballs! I have both the Kenningston and Inland as well as a few Logitech Marble Trakballs. You are right, the Kenningston is built like a tank! The steel rollers under the ball will eventually scratch up any Pool Ball so the white Cue Ball is a good choice. The Inland also takes standard sized Pool Balls and since it has plastic rollers underneath, an 8 ball works perfect without any long term scratch issues.

Concur with others, there are USB adapters that work with the right drivers.

IO Gear Serial Adapter GUC232A
The adapter is designed for Serial Modem connections thru USB, Thanks to Google Images to help me identify who made this. I downloaded and backed up the drivers for both PC and Mac. Pleased to now have the capabilities of my Kenningston Expert Mouse Trakball working thru USB! A perfect Trakball for Mame games. The ball is a standard regulation Billiard Ball size, easily drops out to fit the Inland Pro Track housing. I was going to order a spare Cue, instead placed an order thru Amazon for an 8 Ball in the corner pocket.

Though the Kenningston and Inland are great mechanical Trakballs, I have found the Logitech Marble Mouse to be just a bit more accurate. Though not Regulation Arcade sized as the beautiful Kenningston, there are some large models. Instead of rollers, they use a sensor eye just like the laser mice.

Either way either style of Trakball also can be made to work great on consoles too. Try it with a SmartJoy Frag on the PS2 or Xbox; only certain USB controllers can be adapted (Kenningston works) to the older PS/2 round pin connectors.



SmartJoy Frag with info on Kenningston Trakball and IOGear USB Serial Adapter:
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 65#p400265

[Ivo]

I have a couple of optical trackballs. These work quite well for most stuff.
But when I played marble madness with one of them (only got the 2nd one later and haven't tried), it seemed not to track the faster rotation that is useful there (and sort of mandatory for clearing some of the later jumps).

[CRTGAMER]

I have a couple of optical trackballs. These work quite well for most stuff.
But when I played marble madness with one of them (only got the 2nd one later and haven't tried), it seemed not to track the faster rotation that is useful there (and sort of mandatory for clearing some of the later jumps).

Kick the sensitivity in Windows Mouse settings all the way up.

If the ball has a lot of mechanical drag, it might need cleaning. I put 3inOne oil on the ball supports underneath, just a drop and keep the oil clear of the sensor pickup. The Trakball should really freewheel for at least 5 seconds when flicked with the finger. This is the advantage of the Trakball; the quick spin as well as precise control by stopping on a dime with the finger.

Even the older mechanical Trakballs can be improved by cleaning the gunk off the rollers and lubricating the bearings inside with 3inOne oil.

[samsonlonghair]

Thanks for the help, gentlemen. I'm eyeing this adapter:Sabrent USB 2.0 to Serial (9-Pin) DB-9 RS-232 Adapter Cable 6ft Cable with Hexnut connectors (SBT-FTDI). What do you think?

Once I have this hardware, how will I approach software? I understand this adapter requires drivers of its own; will that handle communication with my serial trackball, or do I need to install separate drivers? The drivers for my Kenginston expert mouse come on a floppy disk. I think I might have a usb floppy drive buried somewhere, but I'd rather not screw around with it if there's a simpler solution.

Thanks for posting pictures, CRT. I'm probably not going to use a smartjoy as I have no plans to use my trackball on a console. Just a PC and (if possible) a Mac as well. I do appreciate you mentioning 3inOne as this trackball hasn't been lubricated in fifteen years.

When I was googling trackballs, I came across this bad boy:

I have never seen something so beautiful and so ugly at the same time. I want one of these, but not for a hundred and thirty dollars.

[isiolia]

Once I have this hardware, how will I approach software? I understand this adapter requires drivers of its own; will that handle communication with my serial trackball, or do I need to install separate drivers? The drivers for my Kenginston expert mouse come on a floppy disk. I think I might have a usb floppy drive buried somewhere, but I'd rather not screw around with it if there's a simpler solution.

You need the driver for the adapter, but past that nearly anything should just act like the device is just plugged into a serial port (the possible exceptions I can think of would be very low level stuff, like software license dongles). I've used them to flash firmware or to connect to scoreboards and stuff with no fiddling needed.

If you would need the software when plugged into an actual serial port, then you'd still need it here. Otherwise, it should just work.

[samsonlonghair]

Serial communication is a funny thing. In the world of USB we have standard human interface devices that work plug-n-play, but every serial device I have ever used needed it's own special software to communicate.

[samsonlonghair]

I just double-checked. The driver on my floppy disk is made for Windows 95. It seems unlikely to me that I can make this bit of software work on Win7 (let alone OSX). Kensington makes a software called "mouseworks," but they stopped suporting serial communication a long time ago.

Someone posted a workaroundthat maybe sorta kinda mite have a chance of working. This workaround is for an expertmouse 7.0, not for my expertmouse 5.0 so who knows?