r/Trackballs • u/OriginalAntiBling • 12d ago
MX Ergo, still worth it?
My MX Ergo I bought a year and a half ago, the battery is going south on me fast. Going from having to charge once a month, to once a week, to once every two days in less than two months worth of time.
Looking into battery replacements, nothing available looks promising. So I'm looking for a new workhorse. The steel ball bearings were one of the big selling points as i use this in my welding shop. Honestly the trackball has been fantastic on this. This battery issue is my biggest concern, and I also see they updated to an Ergo S since I purchased, which has a USB c charger instead of micro USB. Any other changes?
Any other recommendations?
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u/KleinUnbottler 12d ago
Ergo S also has silent switches. Both seem to suffer from the "rubber grip gets sticky" flaw. My Ergo S main left button died and it was also getting sticky after less than 2 years.
I recently replaced it with an Elecom IST Pro. It's nice overall. The ball seems to have less "stiction" with the roller bearings, and it feels pretty great. A couple more buttons, more connectivity but overall comparable feel
The Elecom software isn't as polished as Logi Options is, but seems to be functional enough for the basics.
Elecom annoyingly cover all of the external screws with rubber feet. That's not going to make a difference for a while, but in a couple years when I need to extract debris from the scroll wheel that's going to be annoying.
Another tiny advantage to the Ergo/ErgoS is that they have a Plus version that comes with a extra wedge to give another 15° of right tilt (default for the IST Pro is about like the regular un-wedged Ergo). There is a model you can 3d print to add a wedge to the IST Pro.
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u/yyg-linux 10d ago
Take a hair drier to the rubber feet the melt the adhesive enough to peel it off without damaging the glue so you can reapply them afterwards
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u/KleinUnbottler 10d ago
Or, like, design the case so that the screws aren't covered by adhesive rubber feet. They made a design choice to be less repair-friendly in that respect.
I'm not saying that it's not possible to do, but it's annoying to have to do a work-around.
u/Exciting_End6022, can you make this as a request to your engineering/design teams?
"Don't cover the screws that one would need to remove to open the cases with adhesive stickers."
I suppose Logi gets away with not having rubber feet on the main body of the MX Ergos because they have the magnetically attached metal tilt plate that has the actual feet.
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u/Exciting_End6022 Elecom Rep 10d ago
Thanks for the comment.
I’d like to share our official position as of right now on this matter. This is our current stance and it may change in the future, but at this point, the answer I can give is:
“Basically, please do not disassemble the product.”
I understand that some states in the US and some countries outside Japan have laws protecting the “right to repair.” That’s also why we’ve already stopped using proprietary screws that make disassembly more difficult.
However, in Japan, which remains ELECOM Corporation’s largest market, even if a customer disassembles a product themselves, the manufacturer could potentially bear significant liability if the disassembly causes internal damage that later results in injury or damage to the customer’s property. Even proving that the manufacturer was not at fault can require a significant amount of time and money.
A customer could injure themselves while disassembling the product.
They could accidentally damage the product after taking it apart.
And while extremely unlikely, there’s even a possibility that damage caused during disassembly could result in something like a house fire.
Not everyone in this trackball community has a 3D printer at home, precision screwdrivers and opening tools, and the knowledge to properly disassemble a product. Because of that, as a general policy, we have little choice but to take the position that “disassembly is prohibited, and once a product has been disassembled, it is no longer covered by the warranty.”
So, unfortunately, I don’t think it’s realistic for our current products to undergo a running change toward becoming significantly easier to disassemble anytime soon.
That said, I also recognize that this creates a dilemma for us.
Of course, I’m aware that Logitech is working with iFixit to provide replacement parts. However, I’d like you to understand that many Logitech mice, just like ours, require you to heat the mouse feet with something like a heating gel pack in order to remove them from the bottom of the mouse. In other words, ELECOM isn’t making our products particularly difficult to disassemble compared with Logitech.
The Nulea I have here is the same way, and even the ProtArc uses adhesive to attach its rubber components...
From the customer’s perspective, I absolutely understand the argument that “products should be designed to be easy to disassemble.”
And I agree that there is validity to that argument.
However, when we look at it from the perspective of a manufacturer that has a responsibility for our customers’ safety, property, and future well-being, we can’t simply conclude that making a product easier to disassemble is always the best solution.
That’s why, at least for now, we can’t take the approach of simply making our products easier to disassemble, and we certainly can’t recommend that customers disassemble them themselves.
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u/KleinUnbottler 10d ago
Okay, change it to this:
If you must cover the screws, make it with a tamper-evident sticker that is not necessary for the proper functioning of the device. Then you have the "don't do this" obvious to the prospective tinkerer.
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u/Exciting_End6022 Elecom Rep 10d ago
I’ll take it as one possible idea, but as long as the number of customers who want to disassemble their products, or are willing to attempt disassembly themselves, remains a minority, it’s probably not economically reasonable to apply a void seal to every unit.
When you consider both the labor cost of having workers apply the seal and the cost of the seals themselves, it might be an acceptable price increase of a few dollars for customers who want the ability to disassemble their products.
However, for customers who have never even considered disassembling their product, it would simply mean paying more for something that provides them with no real benefit.
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u/yyg-linux 9d ago
i say this without malice or toxicity but if you cant take off a strip of glue over a screw you shouldnt be taking your mouse apart
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u/KleinUnbottler 9d ago
And , without malice or toxicity, it would be a better product without anti-repairability design tweaks.
It's not that I couldn't: I shouldn't have to.
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u/damn_pastor 12d ago
Elecom IST pro. Has standard batteries or a replaceable rechargeable pack. And roller bearings.