A semi longtime UHK user here! I’m still rocking my UHKv1 with Keycluster and Trackball modules from 2020. Recently I’ve noticed my trackball module not registering the ball movements at all. Or… well.. It does sometimes wiggle a little bit when I try furiously rotate the ball but it’s mostly in unusable state. I have been cleaning the ball with light soap water every now and then and previously this kind of issues were fixed by that. But this time it’s not the ball that’s dirty. Probably something else.
So I thought UHK is made to be repaired so why shouldn’t I go and unscrew the few screws in the Trackball module, take it apart, and see if I could clean some inner parts to make it work again. I was surprised I didn’t find any disassembly instructions in Repair & modding - Ultimate Hacking Keyboard though. There is articles for Trackpoint and Keycluster but nothing for Trackball. And when I tried just unscrewing it feels like something’s still holding it from the side of the buttons.
So I guess my first question is that am I blind or is there really not a disassembly guides for Trackball? And second one is whether I’m dumb cause I can’t get this apart by just unscrewing the few screws there is and then go with it.
Also if others have experienced similar issues feel free to lend me a hand here to resurrect the module
Of course right after posting this I got it off I kept on trying and prying and finally it did come loose so I got the top half off from it. There was no magic I think Just careful wiggling around until it came off.
But at least this stage doesn’t yet help much in finding ways to resurrect this module.
I realize now I was a bit vague on the actual problems I’m having cause I was quite focused on getting this thing open in the first place
The best I could describe the module functioning is that it’s quite unreliable I would say. Oftentimes the cursor movement can be said to work but it might get stuck and not move one way much at all even if the ball does rotate that way. Sometimes it’s just that the cursor movement isn’t as stable as the ball movement would have it to be. It kinda lags. Sometimes the movement staggers. Like if I move the ball to left the cursor might move left a bit, then slow down, sometimes even to a halt, then get up to speed again, and then back slowing down.
This happens with all the 3 balls that came with the module. I have the metal ball, semi translucent red plastic ball, and the black plastic ball. Behavior seems to be pretty much the same with all of them.
I was also wondering… could it be just the led sensor to be saying it wants to retire or something?
I kept on trying and prying and finally it did come loose so I got the top half off from it. There was no magic I think 