Driver software for Kensington Turbo Mouse Pro on 10.7

Question

My wife has an old Kensington Turbo Mouse Pro (pictured).

It's built like a tank and refuses to die, and that longevity seems to be causing trouble.

I just upgraded her computer to Lion. The old driver software will not run (I think this is a 32-bit vs 64-bit kext problem). I downloaded the current driver software, and it does not recognize the trackball--my suspicion is that this old trackball is not on that driver's list of recognized devices, but I don't really know.

The thing does nominally work without any custom driver software, but without control over the extra buttons, and with tracking speed that seems too slow.

If there's a way to make Kensington's current driver software work with this thing, I'll try that. If there's third-party software, I'll look into that.

-- later --

Spoke with Kensington support. They claim new driver software will be released Oct 28. Will update again then.

Answer 1

Your wife has excellent taste in input devices. I use the same trackball daily, and if I can't also find a solid Lion solution, I'll be heartbroken (not to mention much less productive).

History:

Kensington shipped four models of this type. The Expert and Turbo versions had slightly different coloring, and each came in wired and wireless versions.

• K64213 Expert Mouse Pro
• K64214 Turbo Mouse Pro
• K64245 Expert Mouse Pro Wireless
• K64240 Turbo Mouse Pro Wireless

The good news:

According to Kensington's drivers page, TrackballWorks™ 1.1 for Mac was released on Oct 19, 2011.

^{[Note: yes, that's TrackballWorks, not MouseWorks—the latter was last updated in 2009.]}

The Installation/Notes file says:

Requirements:
Apple OSX 10.5.6 Leopard
Apple OSX 10.6.x Snow Leopard
Apple OSX 10.7.x Lion

Description: Enables trackball customization: button functions, pointer speed and acceleration, and scrolling speed and direction.

Languages: English

Installation: Save the DMG file to your desktop and double-click on it. Click on the installer package icon when it appears. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the software.

The bad news:

I haven't been able to get it to work, and I'm not the only one.

Kensington support says:

TrackballWorks - Supported Kensington Devices

Which Kensington trackball models are compatible with the software application TrackballWorks?

Kensington TrackballWorks is compatible with SlimBlade TrackBall model K72327, Expert Mouse model K64325, Orbit Trackball w/Scroll Ring model 72337, and Orbit Optical Trackball K64327.

Note that all the supported models have numbers greater than K642nn.

Workarounds?

1. There are some reports of success with TrackballWorks, so it's worth a try.

2. There are third-party mouse drivers. Some people have switched over to using USB Overdrive. I'm currently trying out SteerMouse, which makes the trackball work, but only has limited button support.

   Neither focuses on supporting Kensington devices, or trackballs in general, which makes things problematic.

Answer 2

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 (it doesn't work with the sandboxed version from the App Store). Even then you have to add a .5 second pause between commands and use TYPE IT instead of pasting when inserting text.

As an example let's create a macro to assign a double click to the top right button of the track ball:

• Launch Keyboard Maestro
• Click on the bottom left plus sign to add a Group.
• Rename it to MACROS FOR ALL PROGRAMS.
• Create a new macro 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. 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 finally, click on bot box that says RESTORE MOUSE LOCATION.

Now you are all done and can use the top right button to perform a double click.

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.

Answer 3

If you want to use this trackball with all its buttons with a huge selection of programmable functions (you will not get all the original functions, however) go get you a Mac & SteerMouse. You can buy a used MacBook for the price some want for this trackball.