Kensington Slimblade Trackball Disassembly

Written By: Ludovic
  • Comments: 1
Kensington Slimblade Trackball Disassembly

Difficulty

Easy

Steps

4

Time Required

1 hour

Introduction

This trackball is of a very robust construction; I have been using it for my work since 2009.

I appreciate the ball's inertia; crossing the screen only takes a flick. The large buttons allow a great deal of freedom of positioning your fingers. The four buttons are programmable and accept 6 commands.

In normal usage the trackball can get dirty, but the ball and optical sensors are easy to clean with a microfiber cloth. However, as with all mice, the interior cannot be cleaned without disassembly. I recently lost the use of the right click.

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    • Remove the ball and flip the base over.

    • Take off the rubber feet hiding 4 Phillips (PH1) screws using a spudger.

    • Remove the rubber crown hiding 3 small Phillips (PH0) screws.

    • Remove the seven screws.

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    • Using an opening pick, pry up the lower case from the bottom.

    • Tilt the lower case to the left to access the USB cable that is routed through a channel in the lower case.

    • Loosen the cable retainer to free the lower housing.

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    • Flip up the retaining lever of the ZIF connector on the horizontal optical sensor.

    • Remove the cable from the connector.

    • Flip up the retaining lever of the ZIF connector on the vertical optical sensor.

    • Remove the cable from the connector.

    • Remove the 3 Phillips PH0 screws securing the circuit board. They are marked with white circles.

    • Remove the circuit board by carefully lifting with a spudger. Place it on a stable support to dust off the micro contacts.

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    • Dust the button contacts by pressing on them with a spudger and blowing into them with a hand blower. Repeat ten to twenty times for each of the four contacts.

    • Remove the screws from the horizontal displacement sensor.

    • Dust the sensor as needed. (This one is surprisingly clean.)

    • Do the same for the vertical displacement sensor.

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow the instructions in reverse order.

Author

Ludovic

Member since: 18/09/17

737 Reputation

One comment

Thanks a lot for this tutorial. I have successfully removed the annoying speaker in it. Do you have any suggestions for trackball lubricant. its not smooth when it gets dry.

Akhil -