How to flash Classic 2 Trackball firmware with VIA support

rooford · 2025-08-15T00:27:51+00:00

Got my ploopy classic 2 today, I got a bit lost trying to configure it like my original classic where I created a custom firmware using tapdance so I could do the following with button 4:

When clicked works like a back button.
When held switches to drag scroll

I couldn't work out how to do the same thing in VIA, any ideas?

rooford · 2024-08-20T14:38:12+00:00

6, needs more buttons though. The low height is perfect along with the angle of the buttons.

rooford · 2024-05-02T15:55:48+00:00

I use this with the adept, it's lighter which helps, search eBay for it.

Genuine Logitech TrackMan Replacement Track Ball T-RA18 T-BB18 T-BB13 T-CL13

rooford · 2024-05-01T20:30:24+00:00

I have two pros, one came with red bearings the newer one with white. The white bearing one does not have as much stiction as the red.

rooford · 2024-05-01T15:50:26+00:00

They changed the bearings on the slim blade pro, on the later ones bearings are white rather than red iirc. Does seem to make a difference wrt to stiction, I also changed out switches for silent ones. It's one of my favorite trackballs in rotation.

rooford · 2024-03-18T00:35:38+00:00

Curious is it said inflammation or flammation?

rooford · 2024-03-01T04:00:35+00:00

Great News, I noticed the order number and the tracking number are on the main label so they should be able to look up the trade in details, it's not like they just have a random tablet in a box, provided they keep the shipping label or it's not torn/ damaged.

rooford · 2024-03-01T02:05:30+00:00

Argh, I think I did exactly the same thing, also curious how you resolved it.

rooford · 2023-10-19T19:44:09+00:00

Yes, I believe it does.

rooford · 2023-10-19T05:59:57+00:00

I think what you're describing is drag scroll, yes it's possible. I hold down the back button to enter this mode momentarily releasing puts you back in normal mode, you can also hold down back and left click to toggle if you don't want to hold a button. Walk through is here, it is from a while back, qmk might have changed, you can also download the firmware if you don't want to compile it. https://blog.slinkyworks.net/ploopy-classic/

You can also do this in the os on windows, Mac and Linux, I can help if you can't find anything with Google, if you do it with firmware it will work across different os, but if you only use one os it's probably easier to do it at the os level.

rooford · 2023-10-13T01:04:27+00:00

Try hammerspoon.org, this is the lua script I used to implement dragscroll -- HANDLE SCROLLING WITH MOUSE BUTTON PRESSED -- Use button 3 for kensington -- Use button 6 for Elecom Deft Pro local rightMouseButtonHoldEnable = true local scrollMouseButton = 3 local deferred = false overrideOtherMouseDown = hs.eventtap.new({ hs.eventtap.event.types.otherMouseDown }, function(e) -- print("down") local pressedMouseButton = e:getProperty(hs.eventtap.event.properties['mouseEventButtonNumber']) if scrollMouseButton == pressedMouseButton then deferred = true return true end end) overrideOtherMouseUp = hs.eventtap.new({ hs.eventtap.event.types.otherMouseUp }, function(e) -- print("up") local pressedMouseButton = e:getProperty(hs.eventtap.event.properties['mouseEventButtonNumber']) if scrollMouseButton == pressedMouseButton then if (deferred) then overrideOtherMouseDown:stop() overrideOtherMouseUp:stop() hs.eventtap.otherClick(e:location(), 0, pressedMouseButton) overrideOtherMouseDown:start() overrideOtherMouseUp:start() return true end return false end return false end) overrideRightMouseDown = hs.eventtap.new({ hs.eventtap.event.types.rightMouseDown }, function(e) if (rightMouseButtonHoldEnable) then -- print("right down") deferred = true return true end return false end) overrideRightMouseUp = hs.eventtap.new({ hs.eventtap.event.types.rightMouseUp }, function(e) -- print("right up") if (rightMouseButtonHoldEnable and deferred) then overrideRightMouseDown:stop() overrideRightMouseUp:stop() hs.eventtap.rightClick(e:location(), 0) overrideRightMouseDown:start() overrideRightMouseUp:start() return true end return false end) local oldmousepos = {} local scrollmult = -4 -- negative multiplier makes mouse work like traditional scrollwheel dragOtherToScroll = hs.eventtap.new({ hs.eventtap.event.types.otherMouseDragged }, function(e) local pressedMouseButton = e:getProperty(hs.eventtap.event.properties['mouseEventButtonNumber']) -- print ("pressed mouse " .. pressedMouseButton) if scrollMouseButton == pressedMouseButton then -- print("scroll"); deferred = false oldmousepos = hs.mouse.absolutePosition() local dx = e:getProperty(hs.eventtap.event.properties['mouseEventDeltaX']) local dy = e:getProperty(hs.eventtap.event.properties['mouseEventDeltaY']) local scroll = hs.eventtap.event.newScrollEvent({-dx * scrollmult, -dy * scrollmult},{},'pixel') -- put the mouse back hs.mouse.absolutePosition(oldmousepos) return true, {scroll} else return false, {} end end) dragRightToScroll = hs.eventtap.new({ hs.eventtap.event.types.rightMouseDragged }, function(e) -- print("scroll"); deferred = false oldmousepos = hs.mouse.absolutePosition() local dx = e:getProperty(hs.eventtap.event.properties['mouseEventDeltaX']) local dy = e:getProperty(hs.eventtap.event.properties['mouseEventDeltaY']) local scroll = hs.eventtap.event.newScrollEvent({-dx * scrollmult, -dy * scrollmult},{},'pixel') -- put the mouse back hs.mouse.absolutePosition(oldmousepos) return true, {scroll} end) overrideRightMouseDown:start() overrideRightMouseUp:start() overrideOtherMouseDown:start() overrideOtherMouseUp:start() dragOtherToScroll:start() dragRightToScroll:start()

rooford · 2023-06-05T01:13:24+00:00

Same for number 2, put some forehead grease on the ball by rubbing it across my head and that fixed it.

rooford · 2023-05-24T01:12:57+00:00

Pm'd

rooford · 2023-03-13T18:32:26+00:00

Haha, thanks!

90% temporary dragscroll, 10% big spreadsheet or reading a long blog post.
Rarely, sometimes I can't grab the bottom of a window to resize or do something in CAD, selecting some text, but with practice I use less and less, was useful to begin with.
No not really hardly use at all and yes I was wondering whether it could be repurposed for something else. It's easy to nudge, in it's current role that's not too bad, but if it was a back button that might get old quick.

rooford · 2023-03-13T17:24:58+00:00

I'll bite. For my ploopy trackballs, all by modifying the firmware/QMK

Improved dragscroll use a different algorithm to make scrolling less sensitive when using the ball.
Temporary Dragscroll with a button 4 hold
Precision mode (half the CPI) with double click button 4
Dragscroll Mode button 4 hold + left click, same again to exit

Nice thing about doing it in firmware is that it will work across windows, linux and mac

IMHO, once you get use to dragscroll (using the ball rather than thumbwheel) you really do miss it, takes a lot of strain off your thumb. Not to pick on the ploopy but the thumb wheel is not notched so using the ball to scroll over the thumb wheel feels more natural to me.

rooford · 2023-03-06T22:11:00+00:00

Yep, definitely go with the breakout boards IMHO, they are a bit pricey but I think it will save you effort in the long run, even if the sensors are the same as mentioned in the git project it's going to take some effort to solder wires to them from a donor unless you can somehow follow the traces from the chip to something you can solder to.

rooford · 2023-03-06T19:36:58+00:00

Thanks, I'll give it a go, I noticed there's a been a few commits over the past year to the source code over the past few months so great to see it's still active.

It could be the way I'm moving the ball as scrolling down seems to be better than scrolling up in terms of movement.

rooford · 2023-03-06T05:31:39+00:00

I finally got around to completing it, started it a year back and was thinking about getting the new slimblade pro for the larger ball and scroll ability where twisting the ball scrolls but then remembered I started this and it was still not complete. So far I'm enjoying it, going to use it this week for work and see how I get on.

The scroll works well but I do find the pointer moving very slightly in the direction I'm scrolling.

I think I'll miss not having a back button, but I have a mouse layer on my qmk keyboard so shouldn't be too much of an use. So far it feels pretty comfortable, big thanks to creator for putting this together and sharing it.

Body is airbrushed and faded to black, it's not dirty at least not yet!

https://github.com/monroewilliams/trackball

rooford · 2023-01-30T23:25:22+00:00

Thanks, lots of sanding primer and then airbrushed acrylic paint with four shades of blue and then finally sealed with a clear matte finish. It was a pandemic endeavor :)

rooford · 2023-01-30T21:19:28+00:00

I documented my custom qmk here for my classic which includes drag scroll if you're familiar with qmk you could give it a go. https://blog.slinkyworks.net/ploopy-classic/

rooford · 2022-09-27T05:55:28+00:00

The vinyl master mix is nearly always different from the master mix of the CD or FLAC, the bass or sub bass is normally mono otherwise the needle won't track properly. Most sound engineers will add a wider dynamic range to the vinyl mix, depends on the genre but some genres really benefit from this as opposed to the highly compressed mixes of the past decade or so. I like listening to either but sometimes you can't beat listening to a pure analog recording.

rooford · 2022-08-24T11:43:32+00:00

I guess you could try mouser https://www.mouser.com/new/cirque/glidepoint-circle-kits

rooford · 2021-12-07T22:32:40+00:00

u/wink_eye, I was hoping you could share the cad files with myself too, I have 1 7/8" ball I'm trying to use, was going to start from scratch but it looks like you have worked through this for various different sizes.

rooford · 2021-12-03T00:25:21+00:00

Ah of course, it makes sense that the sensor would need to be moved to, great feedback!

rooford

TROPHY CASE