I decided I'd had it with these motherf-ing snakes on the flakey left button in my Logitech PS/2 Trackman Marble. It constantly registered double clicks when it shouldn't, and wouldn't "hold" a click-and-drag no matter how hard I pressed it, just letting go at random times. This was obviously infuriating - this thing is on my main KVM & I use it for everything.
I opened it up & found the switches were Omron D2F-F-3-7s. I ordered some new ones off the big auction website for $4 shipped. Easy enough.
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...then I decided I didn't feel like waiting 30-40 days for those to arrive, so I opened up the switch itself to see if I could bend the contact pad back into shape:
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Well, nope. It quickly became clear there was NO WAY I & my meat fingers were going to get this back together in anything resembling a workable form. The photo is deceptive, but these components are tiny.
So I dug through my stash of mice, and found this knackered Logitech ball mouse of similar vintage. Popped that open and sure enough, three identical switches:
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I gave it a quick test & all three buttons were working fine, despite the mouse having seen better days.
A bit of textbook desoldering & resoldering later:
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(I fit the former middle-button switch onto the trackball, thinking it'd have the least amount of wear.)
Incidentally I have a few of these mice in better shape, and a couple other models of Logitech trackball, so I'll keep the rest of the mouse parts on-hand in case I need to fix another one.
Gave the new switch a quick test, and yep, working great!
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Decided not to do the right button, since it's still fine, and I would have been replacing a worn right switch with a worn right switch. If I have any problems with it, I'll swap them both out when my brand new switches get here.
I also dusted out the inside (there wasn't much, I keep this thing pretty clean) and put some dry silicon lubricant on the metal rollers that hold the ball in place. It's SO smooth to use now, and the new button works & even feels a million times better. For only an hour's work or so, I'm pretty damn satisfied with the result. Should've done it ages ago.
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