Mouse ball slipping

[yorgle]

I have a couple classic blocky Amiga mice from the A1000/A500 era. Both of them have issues tracking the ball properly.  I've cleaned the ball, but the ball remains smooth/slick. It doesn't have the rubbery grip that it used to have.

Does anyone have suggestions for cleaning the ball or treating it with something to restore the grippiness?  It would be really nice to move my cursor vertically at some point.

[Lurch]

I don't usually clean the mouse ball, it's usually the rollers that are the fault. The build up with this black furry stuff and it needs to be scrapped off :-)

[bloodline]

I have a couple classic blocky Amiga mice from the A1000/A500 era. Both of them have issues tracking the ball properly.  I've cleaned the ball, but the ball remains smooth/slick. It doesn't have the rubbery grip that it used to have.

Does anyone have suggestions for cleaning the ball or treating it with something to restore the grippiness?  It would be really nice to move my cursor vertically at some point.

Yeah, don't really clean the ball. The rollers, as lurch said, are the bit that need cleaning. They will be covered in gunk.

[yorgle]

The rollers were visibly clean.  I had removed the crud from them a while ago. I'll just try re-cleaning the rollers again.  it has been a while.

[tone007]

Could also probably swap the ball with one from a newer PC mouse if yours really has gone shiny, I don't actually have an old Amiga mouse in front of me at work to test the size but they might be the same.

[zipper]

You could roughen the ball surface with emery paper - done it.

[paul1981]

If you take the ball out and roll the two rollers by hand does the mouse pointer move as expected? Just wondering whether the sensors are blocked with dust or whether it is indeed your ball that's the problem.

[Kesa]

I used sandpaper on mine to make the ball rough and sticky. It worked great. But be careful not to over do it as the ball must remain perfectly round. If you buckle the ball it will not spin smoothly as i found out. But i was lucky as i had a couple of spare balls so it wasn't an issue

[Damion]

Sometimes the ball just gets impregnated with dirt/dust over the years, usually IPA gets them clean enough to bring the rough texture back.

[Ral-Clan]

Squirt some dish soap on the mouse ball and a little hot water.  Scrub it all over then wash it off with hot water while rubbing it with your fingers (that sounds funny).  Usually makes the ball as good as new.

[yorgle]

Many thanks to all of you for the excellent suggestions!  The rollers were pristine, but the ball was slick.  I ended up cleaning the ball with Rubbing Alcohol to get it clean, then scrubbing it with a scouring pad (since i couldn't find sandpaper) to give it a little more bite.  It works perfectly now!  Thanks again to y'all!

For what it's worth, I'm getting my Amiga 1000 + Genlock set up for Barcamp Rochester, this Saturday, so that people can draw over live video of themselves, then have it automatically post screenshots (via my DV Camcorder + eyefi sd card) to a tumblr blog... here's some test output from it:  http://amigapics.tumblr.com/  I'll probably write up a full blog post about it when it's done.  It's a smörgåsbord of old tech mashed together for fun!