A Little Help With 5200 Trak-Ball Lubrication & Button Replacement...

[Indrid Cold]

Howdy folks, it's been a while since I've been here, and I truly appreciate everyone who can chime in here in this thread.  I have two concerns.

 

1) The trak-ball itself is very "thick" or "sludgey".  By that, I mean that the ball itself moves very slowly. I'd like to open it up and put some kind of oil on the bearings so that the ball moves more freely and faster. My question is, what would be the best kind of lubricant - would it be something as thick as 3-in-1 oil, or something thinner like WD-40?  If anyone has any experience with this, I'd truly appreciate some reliable info.  Thank you!!!

 

2) The red buttons on the track-ball unit (all four of them) are very difficult to get to work. I have to really press down HARD on them to get them to work which really, really sucks. I'd like to get all new button "inlays" or whatever you call them, but I've never seen them available anywhere. The CONTROLLER button inlays are all over the place, even eBay, but I've never seen any button fixes for the trak-ball.

 

If anyone knows where to get the button silicon inlays, once again I'd be grateful to here from you. Thank you again! 

 

[RB5200]

29 minutes ago, Indrid Cold said:

would it be something as thick as 3-in-1 oil, or something thinner like WD-40? 

There are specialty bearing oils that would be the best choice, but out of your choices, The 3 in 1 would be the better choice here, but don't over do it, a few drops per bearing, and alot of the times at the age of some of these, it's just better to replace the bearings.

The red fire buttons use a dome contact style switch (like what's in a CX-40 type controller) vs a silicone carbon pad style. They are usually cleanable and can be reused without issue. If there is damage to them then you need to replace the domes with new ones.

[+x=usr(1536)]

6 hours ago, RB5200 said:

There are specialty bearing oils that would be the best choice, but out of your choices, The 3 in 1 would be the better choice here, but don't over do it, a few drops per bearing, and alot of the times at the age of some of these, it's just better to replace the bearings.

 

This.  Console5 sells trak-ball replacement parts, and I can recommend their bearings and optocoupler wheels having used them in several trak-balls.

 

If oiling them, agreed that 3-in-1 is probably the best choice.  However, as these bearings were originally packed with grease, it won't do anything to really revive the grease.  They may feel better for a while, but will re-clog over time.

 

6 hours ago, RB5200 said:

The red fire buttons use a dome contact style switch (like what's in a CX-40 type controller) vs a silicone carbon pad style. They are usually cleanable and can be reused without issue. If there is damage to them then you need to replace the domes with new ones.

 

In addition to this: each fire button has a plastic tab holding its part of the PCB to the upper case.  If those tabs are missing or damaged, the board will move enough when the button is pressed that it may not close the contacts in the dome switches.  This can be repaired with some epoxy and right-angled brackets made from pretty much any small-gauge scrap metal you may have laying around.

 

 

[Indrid Cold]

On 3/12/2024 at 9:07 AM, x=usr(1536) said:

 

This.  Console5 sells trak-ball replacement parts, and I can recommend their bearings and optocoupler wheels having used them in several trak-balls.

 

If oiling them, agreed that 3-in-1 is probably the best choice.  However, as these bearings were originally packed with grease, it won't do anything to really revive the grease.  They may feel better for a while, but will re-clog over time.

 

 

In addition to this: each fire button has a plastic tab holding its part of the PCB to the upper case.  If those tabs are missing or damaged, the board will move enough when the button is pressed that it may not close the contacts in the dome switches.  This can be repaired with some epoxy and right-angled brackets made from pretty much any small-gauge scrap metal you may have laying around.

 

 

Thank you very much Mr. x=usr(1536) (Ms.?)

[Indrid Cold]

On 3/12/2024 at 2:34 AM, RB5200 said:

There are specialty bearing oils that would be the best choice, but out of your choices, The 3 in 1 would be the better choice here, but don't over do it, a few drops per bearing, and alot of the times at the age of some of these, it's just better to replace the bearings.

The red fire buttons use a dome contact style switch (like what's in a CX-40 type controller) vs a silicone carbon pad style. They are usually cleanable and can be reused without issue. If there is damage to them then you need to replace the domes with new ones.

Thanks RB, sent you a PM.   

[christo930]

On 3/12/2024 at 1:50 AM, Indrid Cold said:

My question is, what would be the best kind of lubricant - would it be something as thick as 3-in-1 oil, or something thinner like WD-40?  If anyone has any experience with this, I'd truly appreciate some reliable info.  Thank you!!!

 

You should clean the bearings first.  WD-40 will do for that. It will break down the old stuff, but it is not an oil or lubricant.  The same people who make 3 in 1 also make light machine oil. I don't have it in front of me, but I've used it before. The bottle shape and size is identical. My corner store guy uses is for his deli slicer.    That is what I would use, not 3 in 1.  Though, to be honest, it probably really doesn't matter as these bearings are never moving at high speed.  The problem with 3 in 1 is it is a detergent oil.

 

The best stuff I've ever used is Singer sewing machine oil.  It is a very high quality light machine oil.  There's also some stuff called Phono Lube.

[+x=usr(1536)]

35 minutes ago, Indrid Cold said:

Thank you very much Mr. x=usr(1536) (Ms.?)

 

'Mr.' works just fine   Glad it helped!

[+x=usr(1536)]

17 minutes ago, christo930 said:

WD-40 will do for that. It will break down the old stuff, but it is not an oil or lubricant.

 

It's really good to hear that someone else understands that WD-40 is a penetrant, not a lubricant.  For stuff like this, it's 100% appropriate to use it as long as it's understood that that is the case, and while it may help for a bit it's not a solution.  Ditto light oil, which will be functionally-equivalent to WD-40 but with some lubricating properties.  Those properties will break down as the oil becomes contaminated with the old grease and any dirt that may have made its way into the bearing, but it will give some temporary relief.

 

@christo930: that wasn't aimed at you specifcally - I just saw the opportunity to jump onto the soapbox and decided to run with it   You did make excellent points, however.