ThinkPad nubbin PS/2 refit

[conartist6]

Anybody think it would be possible to use a thinkpad nubbin as a standalone PS/2 device on a normal computer? I'm new to the sort of thing, but I've got a drawer full of miscellaneous wires, dead laptops, and a dead thinkpad keyboard (ALPS model, with working nubbin). As far as I know the keyboard and mouse both interface using a normal PS/2 protocol. I assume at bare minimum I would need to tap actual wires into the keyboard's mobo connector, find a pinout, and splice the correct ones up to a PS/2 cable. I don't really know what that sort of connector it called, but its extremely common sort of thing (NOT a ZIF design). Basically just looking for reactions as to the plausability of something like this, and if possible terminology relating to parts I might need to do it. Thanks!

   -conartist6

[lowpoly]

This should work. Here's a lot of info:

http://jedipad.org/

[ch_123]

It seems to me somehow that using the Trackpoint as a standalone device would be to completely miss the point of the Trackpoint.

[Viett]

You could use it as a sort of analog joystick. Very useful for games.

[conartist6]

I can think of all sorts of uses for something with this functionality, if only I could get it working. As I see it there are three major hurdles. Firstly: soldering. I need to figure out how to get an electrical connection to the traces on the board, either using some form of fine soldering or some other tricky method. Maybe one of those pens that dispenses conductive materials, for use adding traces to pcb? Secondly, I need to figure out exactly which pins do what. The connector to the motherboard has a significant number of pins (40, say?), which is obviously more than the PS/2 spec accounts for (even for two devices). As for the trackpoint, it is in two parts (I'll post an image once I get my camera back). The first part contains almost nothing aside from the nubbin, and it is difficult to tell what exactly is even doing the sensing. Four traces leave that piece of pcb for a second piece, soldered directly onto the first, which must be the ps/2 controller. 8 traces leave that controller headed for the mobo. So: which of these traces do I care about, and how do I separate them out? The PS/2 spec is for pins, but the wikipedia page specifies that only four of them actually do anything. Additionally, this device provides three axes worth of information, as opposed to the two which a PS/2 mouse would be expected to (I am here referring to its pressure sensitivity). The jedipad site seems to indicate that the interface is pin-compatible with PS/2, so long as a usb/ps2 converter isn't in the way. This should be fine, since my desktop has a PS/2 port. The site also has documentation which should help me figure out at least what each of the eight pins I have to work with might do. Finally, to get to any interesting applications of the pointing device (such as joystick), I presume that I'll have to do a bit of driver hackery. Anyway, all this is just thoughts for the moment, until I have a definite place to start (such as a ribbon-style cable with pin outputs on one end that I could connect to the outputs on the tp chip).

All for now,
   conartist6