Can I use a trackball with Lion?

You have said it all - Kensington has dropped the ball, and nobody has picked it up. Do Kensington read these things? Anybody from Kensington out there who can respond?

I too dislike many aspects of Lion, and am glad I still have 10.6.8 on another disc, so that for the many things that won't work with Lion I have a fall-back position.

Unfortunately, it looks like Macally may drop the ball too. I sent them a message on Friday suggesting that they either update their driver, sell an update on the Mac App Store, or send me the code and I'll try and fix their driver. So far no response, but I have a glimmer of hope in the fact that their driver also supports their EcoMouse and RFMouse which are still in production.

If anyone wants to chime in, tell them about it at techsupport@macally.com.

I also have a problem. The Kensington Expert Trackball (wired, bought some weeks ago) is useless after the Lion upgrade. I can only use the 2 main buttons! I wish I hadn't upgraded so early...

Hello coxorange,

I looked on the Kensington site to see if this so-called Expert Trackball was still in production. I didn't find that, but I did find a thing called an Expert Mouse, which, oddly, is actually a trackball. And it is still in production.

Please click that link and look at it. Is that what you got? Did you purchase it new? Since it still in production, you should be contacting Kensington and asking, and then demanding, that they update their driver to work with OS X Lion. It can't be that hard to do. If they get enough complaints, they should do it.

Thanks for your answer! You are right, it's called Expert Mouse though it's a Trackball.

I found out, that only on the US site Expert Mouse there is no software for Lion.

(The one you can get there is from 2006!)

But I found suitable TrackballWorks software on the Kensington UK site

http://eu.kensington.com/kensington/en/gb/o/15/sku/498/64325/kensington+expert+o ptical+trackball.aspx

of 2010 and a Beta-version of July 2011.

Since the 2010 version works fine under Lion I'm happy with it. 🙂

I hope this will also help others with problems with old Kensington software.

Thanks again!

The Expert Mouse, which is a trackball, #64325, works perfectly with Lion using the Kensington Trackball Works software. All buttons, scroll wheel, cursor just great. I got some conflicting info from Kensington before I learned this, but all is well now.

macrls wrote:

The Expert Mouse, which is a trackball, #64325, works perfectly with Lion using the Kensington Trackball Works software. All buttons, scroll wheel, cursor just great. I got some conflicting info from Kensington before I learned this, but all is well now.

🙂 Just what I learned.

I just installed the latest driver - trackballworks 1.1.0. I have an expert mouse pro (64213) and I can confirm it does not work.

In system preferences it tells me "no supported device found" and yet the guy on the phone told me when a new driver is released it will work on my model. I also have a turbo mouse and that gives the same error. (both of these are trackballs in spite of their names)

Just adding myself to the list of those in mourning over the loss of the Turbo Trackball, or more specifically, the software support for this comfortable device. I have been a computer user day and night for many years and I contend with various repetitive stress issues, including carpal tunnel syndrome. I have found the best defence is to cycle the tools I use, from Expert Mouse, to a gesture enabled tablet, and a conventional mouse and of course, the Turbo Mouse. Over the years, I've tried tons of ergonomic tools and I have always kept the Turbo Mouse in my rotation. I vary the amount of time I use each tool in my rotation to maintain the least amount of damaging repetitive stress. For instance, the tablet can only be used one day at the time before my wrists and fingers ache. I have used the Turbou Mouse for extended times (weeks, possibly months) before experiencing any shoulder or wrist issues.

I sincerely hope someone of consequence happens by this thread. Please toss your Kensington faithfuls a bone and include the Turbo Mouse as a legacy device. Or better yet, bring it back in black and silver, with bluetooth!

I don't understand the problem. I bought the new Kensington Expert Mouse, which is just like the old trackball (in spite of its name) and with the new Trackball Works software, it works with Lion better than the old one.

I was initially resistant to spend the money, but there was nothign else out there closely like it, so I did, and was very glad, because I could programme into it all the gestures I have use for years, and more.

Bite the bullet and spend the money.

I have an Expert Mouse running 10.7.3. I downloaded the driver and it works perfectly. Happy roaring!

The Kensington Expert Mouse PRO and Lion do work together. Including all 6 DIRECT LAUNCH buttons, and the 4 mouse buttons around the track ball. I haven't figured out how to get the scroll wheel to work, but that can most likely work as well. You do NOT need the Kensington software in order to make it work either. My solution was to use Keyboard Maestro purchased from their web site.

First a note about Keyboard Maestro. To run correctly, it can't be sandboxes. You need to purchase it directly from the developer. They are www.stairways.com.

Second, the Kensington does fully work, all buttons, but Keyboard Maestro is a bit buggy, but I have work arounds, so you will get the Expert Mouse pro working just fine.

Load and launch Keyboard Maestro. (KBM). Launch the editor. The bug with Keyboard Maestro is you need to put a pause in between each command. I use a .5 second command. IN ADDITION, when you want to type text of some kind, do not tell Keyboard Maestro to paste in the text, have it TYPE it in. You get that option. If you follow both my rules above, your expert mouse pro will work. Keyboard Maestro also replaces my Quickeys 4.0, but that is another store.

I will offer an example to make the button at the top right of the track ball a double click. I am not a TEC writer, so I will do my best. Launch KBM. First click on the bottom left plus sign to add a Group. Rename it to MACROS FOR ALL PROGRAMS. Create a shortcut with KBM by clicking the center plus sign for ADD MACRO. Give it a name. I called mine DOUBLE CLICK. If you look closely you will see a green plus sign with the command NEW TRIGGER. Click it to open a pull down menu. The second from the bottom option is DEVICE TRIGGER. You will be using this option for all the track ball functions to work. Notice the blue box that shows up and says NONE. While it is blue, press the button that is the top right button of the track ball, or any button you want to become a double click on the Kensington Expert Mouse, (KEM). The word NONE is replaced with USB/PS2 WHEEL MOUSE BUTTON 5. Now, YOU ARE NOT DONE! Just to the right, is a double arrow and next to it are the words that say IS PRESSED. Click on the words and change them to IS RELEASED. OK, you now have a button on the Expert Mouse programed, but it is doing nothing. Now you need to do your first action. The first action must be a PAUSE. If you don't put one, KBM sometimes does not work. To put a pause in, click on the DISPLAY HIDE ACTION LIST plus sign at the bottom right plus sign. On the left, click on the folder called CONTROL FLOW. The list of actions the first item is PAUSE. double click it. Change the time from 1.5 seconds to .5 seconds. In the Categories section click on INTERFACE CONTROL. In the center, double click on MOVE OR CLICK MOUSE. This action will show up in the right window. You need to make 4 changes here. Where it says CLICK, click on it and change it to DOUBLE CLICK. Where it says FRONT WINDOW'S TOP LEFT CENTER click on it and change it to CURRENT MOUSE LOCATION. And as a CyA, click on bot box that says RESTORE MOUSE LOCATION.

Your KEM now does a double click when you press the top right mouse button.

To type text, or what ever, using the direct launch buttons, at the step for new trigger, push the direct launch button of your choice. Instead of a mouse click, insert an INSERT TEXT command and type your text. Remember, KBM will not PASTE correctly, so change the command to TYPE IT IN, as instructed above. If you have any questions, or have any cool macros that can do really great things with you KEM, please email me back at garbagetester@yahoo.com. Put EXPERT MOUSE in the subject and it will get read. Russ

For my Kensington Expert "Mouse Trackball" I've just downloaded and upgraded to the new version of TrackballWorks (1.1.0), which now supports "inertial scrolling". Works fine.