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Vintage Kensington trackballs

Posted: 14 Sep 2016, 01:21
by vivalarevolución
Hey all,

I am looking to buy a vintage Kensington trackball or two. The particular kind I am looking for is like the current Kensington Expert with a flatter profile and four buttons in an off-white color. I am wondering about models and part numbers. The ones that I have found are these. Are there any other models that are similar that I could be looking for?

64210 with ADB connector
kensington-turbo-mouse-trackball-for-macintosh-mac-os-7-to-9-powerpc-adb-v5-0-bd23715606e65d6ee0e6954e336b4c0d.jpg
kensington-turbo-mouse-trackball-for-macintosh-mac-os-7-to-9-powerpc-adb-v5-0-bd23715606e65d6ee0e6954e336b4c0d.jpg (28.71 KiB) Viewed 7223 times
s-l300.jpg
s-l300.jpg (9.86 KiB) Viewed 7223 times
64215 with serial or PS/2 connector
kensington-64215-expert-mouse-5-0-trackball-serial-ps2-nice-8a362291466bbb1445ac8b979f92b032.jpg
kensington-64215-expert-mouse-5-0-trackball-serial-ps2-nice-8a362291466bbb1445ac8b979f92b032.jpg (25.47 KiB) Viewed 7223 times

Posted: 14 Sep 2016, 17:48
by andrewjoy
If you want the older ones thats the only 2 i know of.

I am not 100% as i have never had one but that old one should be the right size for a standard US pool ball. They help massively on the original Ltrack

Posted: 14 Sep 2016, 17:50
by seebart
I'd love one of these and I'm sure I won't have any luck finding one. :x

Posted: 15 Sep 2016, 04:47
by vivalarevolución
seebart wrote: I'd love one of these and I'm sure I won't have any luck finding one. :x
I could proxy for you, if necessary. There are tons on Ebay here.

I did purchase the 64215 with both serial and PS/2. Excited to plug directly into on the PS/2 port on my rig and free up a USB port.

Also, I did find there is a part# 64217, which has a USB connection.

Posted: 17 Sep 2016, 20:48
by vivalarevolución
The Kensington Expert Mouse 5.0 (part# 64215) with serial/mouse port connecters arrived yesterday (Oddly a few hours after the tracking said it arrived).

It didn't work on Linux Manjaro at first, but the next time I tried with it plugged it before I woke up my computer, it did work. Not sure what it is going on there.

It has the basic three button functionality, which is all I am looking for, but the cursor movement is a little slow. It actually has a more robust feel than any current Kensington trackball on the market. I think the CST trackballs are the only ones on the market with a better build quality.

Posted: 18 Sep 2016, 04:16
by elecplus
I have one of these, new in the box. https://www.kensington.com/us/us/7024/l ... 934XPkrLZ4 PS/2 and USB.
Kensington Expert Mouse Pro.JPG
Kensington Expert Mouse Pro.JPG (637.96 KiB) Viewed 7095 times

Posted: 18 Sep 2016, 14:25
by vivalarevolución
Any idea what the buttons on top do? I did not bother with that model because I figured the top buttons would be useless on Linux.

Posted: 18 Sep 2016, 14:43
by davkol
They should be configurable. According to Amazon reviews, it should be usable with generic software like X-Mouse Button Control (whatever that is).

Posted: 18 Sep 2016, 15:43
by 0100010
Xmouse is what I use with old Trackman FX trackballs to enable a scroll lock button.

Posted: 18 Sep 2016, 16:21
by elecplus
vivalarevolución wrote: Any idea what the buttons on top do? I did not bother with that model because I figured the top buttons would be useless on Linux.
IF you read the link I posted, it tells you what the buttons do :-)

Posted: 25 Dec 2016, 06:02
by drevyek
Just got a 64217 in the post. Very cheap on eBay, USB converted. The trackball is very smooth, and it works perfectly. The buttons are well stabilized, and feel fantastic regardless of where they're pressed. The Blue label is also a big plus. Looking forward to replacing the ball with a pool ball, for a bit of colour.

Posted: 28 Dec 2016, 02:32
by vivalarevolución
drevyek wrote: Just got a 64217 in the post. Very cheap on eBay, USB converted. The trackball is very smooth, and it works perfectly. The buttons are well stabilized, and feel fantastic regardless of where they're pressed. The Blue label is also a big plus. Looking forward to replacing the ball with a pool ball, for a bit of colour.
I agree with your experience. The mouse is very solid, the trackball is smooth, and the buttons feel great to touch compared to modern trackballs.

Forgot about the pool ball compatibility. I will be getting one of those. Probably something loud and obnoxious:
Spoiler:
Image
Image

Posted: 05 Jan 2017, 01:00
by drevyek
Any luck in getting a driver to configure the buttons for windows? I tried using the Kensington driver package, but it doesn't accept it.

Posted: 14 Jan 2017, 00:00
by vivalarevolución
drevyek wrote: Any luck in getting a driver to configure the buttons for windows? I tried using the Kensington driver package, but it doesn't accept it.
When I was googling around about my Kensington Expert Mouse I found mention of some third-party software that will work to allow button customization with the vintage Kensington mice. I can't think of it off the top of my head. Maybe this is the one that I found mentioned:

http://www.highrez.co.uk/downloads/XMou ... ontrol.htm

In other news, I unplugged my Kensington Expert Mouse from my Linux machine and now it will not read the mouse after I plugged it back in. Fickle monster.

Posted: 15 Jan 2017, 14:29
by vivalarevolución
Okay, I got the Kensington working again when I unplugged and replugged the serial-to-PS/2 adapter, but it all turned off my computer when I did this. Odd, but it now works.