Tale of a "broken" trackball

Finally, it’s here, after assembly and excitedly powering up the device I was met with disappointment and a bit of confusion. Everything appears fine until I attempt to move to cursor left, then nothing. My thumb franticly moves left and for a brief moment the cursor follows then nothing. That was the first and last time the trackball would move my cursor left. So I began to troubleshoot.

Things I tried that didn’t work;
*Rotate the trackball part 180 degrees on the PCB.
Nothing changed.

*Thoroughly clean the trackballs mechanical bits.
Nothing changed.

*Observed /dev/input/by-id/usb-ClockworkPI_uConsole_20230713-event-mouse
No update when rolling left carefully.

*Update keyboard firmware.
No change.

At this point I decided to take the device apart and have a close look at the PCB and its components.
*First I connected the keyboard to my pc using the USB connection.
The problem persisted there too.

*I use my phones macro mode to have a close look at the pins of the sensor responsible for reporting the movement in question.

      I see what looks like a connection outside of the solder.

*Next I turned on my soldering iron, applied flux and attempted to reflow the parts connections.

After reassembling the device the trackball was fully functional. SUCCESS!
I hope this will be helpful to anyone experiencing trackball issues.

8 Likes

Nice job!
How do you like your uConsole?

Overall I am enjoying the uConsole. I’m a student who bought the device to practice C development while riding the bus. So far it has worked for that purpose. The metal case gives it a rugged feel. However I do want for something protecting the screen from my greasy mitts.

3 Likes

That’s great!
Can’t hurt to program on the bus.
I thought I saw some posts on screen protectors which I will likely get when I get my device.