Re: Old trackball won't work on modern laptops

et472@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Black) wrote in
news:eorhcg$o6j$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Joerg (notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) writes:
Since I have to do a largish schematic and won't be in the office the
whole time I wanted to connect my trusty old trackball to a laptop.
This old mouse still boasts a, gasp, 9-pin serial connector. But you
know how it is, when you get used to a tool no matter how ancient you
don't want to miss it. Just as I still miss that wonderful
Fahrvergnuegen of my first car...

Tried it on two laptops, a Dell and a new Twinhead that surprisingly
also came with a RS232 serial port. Neither recognized that anything
"new" was connected nor could I find any setup in Windows (one is XP,
the other NT/2000). I am sure I can dig out the old mouse drivers but
they are from the days when Windows were still those glass thingies
that you use Windex on.

How do you get an old serial port mouse working on a "modern" laptop?

You find the places where the switches are, and the where the
optocouplers are. Then you buy a suitable mouse, be it PS2 or USB,
likely the older the better. Then you open up the mouse, connect the
switches and optocouplers of the trackball to the places where the
switches and optocouplers on the mouse go (it might be smart to
disconnect the existing switches and optocouplers, so they don't
provide false data), and then you have a trackball that plugs into a
PS2 or USB port.

Michael



the last optical Logitech mouse I bought came with an adapter; USB to PS/2.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net
.

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