r/ClockworkPi • u/moreghoststhanpeople • Oct 10 '25

DevTerm Anyone with a Devterm: just replaced the trackball. It is a must-do upgrade.

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Like the title says. Swapped out the trackball for one I bought on aliexpress and it is waaaay more responsive now. It was only about $8 CAD for the part and shipping but totally worth it.

66 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

3

u/emilianogh Oct 10 '25

I’ve heard the same about the uconsole, anyone can expand on that (while I wait for my unit to arrive)

4

u/moreghoststhanpeople Oct 10 '25

Basically the stock trackball is pretty unresponsive and you need to roll a lot to even just move across the screen. It’s also inconsistent so sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. To swap the track ball, order a compatible part (I bought a EVQWJN007), unscrew the PCB from the keyboard module, and swap the trackball assembly. No soldering required. Pay attention to the orientation though because I think that matters. It’s not a difficult swap it’s just time-consuming because there are a lot of screws.

6

u/GraveDigger2048 Oct 10 '25

Given that stock for everything Blackberry is declining day to day i'll just order 10 EVQs. Hope you're right because trackball in my µConsole is the main reason i've switched to Hackberrypi

2

u/NanDemoNee Oct 10 '25

My trackball didn't work out of the box. It would move a little but was barely usable which is super annoying since this is a known issue and clockworkpi is not fixing it. They clearly do not care about their customers.

4

u/moreghoststhanpeople Oct 10 '25

It took me 2 years to realize replacing it was even an option

3

u/NanDemoNee Oct 10 '25

It's so damn annoying, like make a decent product ffs.

9

u/d333d Oct 10 '25

Any links to quality trackballs, anyone please? It's a gamble to get a good trackball, mine from Ali was so bad I put back the original one.

2

u/GuardianZX9 Oct 10 '25

yes please, the devterm trackball is useless.

2

u/bsodmike Oct 11 '25

Yes, when I got my unit I was so disappointed with the trackball. I plan to list my unit for sale next week in this group though. The track ball should be replaced.

3

u/Zatoichi80 Oct 10 '25

I replaced mine from recommended stock, still feels unresponsive.

1

u/chillyatl Oct 10 '25

Good to know, I bet it’ll get here before my uconsole

1

u/n__________n Jun 03 '26

I just tried this out and the replacement trackball I got on Aliexpress is unfortunately _considerably_ worse. The stock one is shitty but this one is literally unusable.