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geekhack Community => Input Devices => Topic started by: zmurf on Thu, 22 July 2010, 06:33:41

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: zmurf on Thu, 22 July 2010, 06:33:41

This question have most certainly been asked before. But I haven't been able to find any information about it anywhere.

Is there any manufacturer of point stick devices that actually sell them through retailers together with a control board? I'm sure that I've seen Alps Stickpointer™ ( http://www.alps.com/WebObjects/catalog.woa/E/HTML/InputDevice/ ) for sale somewhere on an electronic parts retail shop. But without a control board, which is kind of useless for me since I don't even know where to begin for building my own controller.

It would be nice to be able to actually buy a new pointing stick of some sort and build into my own keyboard, instead of slaying an old IBM keyboard to get hold of one.

Do anyone know which point stick manufacturers there are and how to get in contact with them for buying pointing stick devices and control boards from them?

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: woebtz on Thu, 22 July 2010, 15:51:13

I've never heard of these guys, but it looks like some Eee modders use parts from them:

Cool catalog:
http://www.interlinkelectronics.com/catalog/MousePointing

Pics:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=9503

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: Input Nirvana on Thu, 22 July 2010, 16:22:13

Note the length of the actual stick. For a mechanical switch keyboard the pointing stick needs to be much longer.  This is 7/8" from blue line to tip of red. PS/2

(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=6944&stc=1&d=1279833579)

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: ch_123 on Thu, 22 July 2010, 16:40:02

Alps used to make them. Not sure if they still do.

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: zmurf on Fri, 23 July 2010, 02:46:15

@woebtz:
Thanks! I never seen that site before, but it seems to be what I'm looking for. :)

Quote from: input nirvana;205431

Note the length of the actual stick. For a mechanical switch keyboard the pointing stick needs to be much longer.  This is 7/8" from blue line to tip of red. PS/2

Well.... that really isn't a problem. I actually helped a friend making a trackpoint+mechanical keyboard hack several years ago. In that hack I ripped apart a IBM UltraNav USB keyboard ( http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-45868.html ) to get hold of the trackpoint and mounted it in a Keytronic keyboard that he loved. The UltraNav has a short trackpoint, but I just extended it by drilling a small hole in the top of it, gluing a part of a paper clip in the hole, and then gluing a small metal rod over the paper clip. It's still working great.

Myself I have a IBM Trackpoint USB keyboard ( http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-4WKSWX.html ) which I been really happy with for as long that I can remember (bought it in 2002 or something). But the rubber domes have become REALLY deteriorated after many years of heavy coding on it.

I just ordered a Cherry G80-3000LQC (Cherry MX clear switches) and my plan is to hack in a trackpoint in it. But since I these days work in 64bit Win7 there seems to be no drivers for the version of trackpoint that sits in my IBM keyboard (I believe it is a trackpoint IV?), which makes it extremely slow, and it's not possible to program the third mouse button. So I think it would be nicer to get some other trackpoint to mount in the keyboard.

I really hope I made the correct chose when ordering the 3000LCQ with clear switches instead of the 3000LXC with brown switches. I have only used Cherry Browns, and I thought they where great... but I want my keys to have a little more force. And the way I have understood it the clear is basically browns with more force?

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: zmurf on Fri, 23 July 2010, 06:30:15

Quote from: woebtz;205417

Cool catalog:
http://www.interlinkelectronics.com/catalog/MousePointing

Omfg! Those things is £92 per unit (including VAT)! :eek:
I'm actually able to buy a new Thinkpad USB keyboard with trackpoint for much less than that. (http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:item.detail?GroupID=38&Code=55Y9003¤t-category-id=E9ADAEB6787146E29B78400A33E7FE8A)

Ok... then it's settled. I will either buy a new trackpoint keyboard and rip it apart to get hold of a trackpoint unit with controller, or I will rip apart my old IBM trackpoint usb keyboard.

I actually believe that I will buy a new Thinkpad USB keyboard with trackpoint and rip apart. That way I also get 64bit Win7 drivers. :)
Sure, I will have to extend the stick. But that really isn't that much work. And it also makes it possible for me to integrate the extra media keys and the page backward and page forward keys that the thinkpad keyboard have... I really like the page backward/forward keys. :)

Or do anyone know if there is any 64bit Win7 drivers for the IBM Trackpoint USB keybord? I haven't been able to find any myself...

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: Input Nirvana on Fri, 23 July 2010, 11:46:03

Quote from: zmurf;205545

@woebtz:

Well.... that really isn't a problem. I actually helped a friend making a trackpoint+mechanical keyboard hack several years ago. In that hack I ripped apart a IBM UltraNav USB keyboard ( http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-45868.html ) to get hold of the trackpoint and mounted it in a Keytronic keyboard that he loved. The UltraNav has a short trackpoint, but I just extended it by drilling a small hole in the top of it, gluing a part of a paper clip in the hole, and then gluing a small metal rod over the paper clip. It's still working great.

Thanks for that info, it's actually very helpful. :)

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: Input Nirvana on Sat, 24 July 2010, 00:58:58

Laptop IBM Ultra Nav USB.....sort of like this? And then extended the pointing stick?
I'm trying to figure if this is the whole controller for the trackpoint. Just find and connect the power/data?

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: zmurf on Sat, 24 July 2010, 04:10:06

Quote from: input nirvana;205870

Laptop IBM Ultra Nav USB.....sort of like this? And then extended the pointing stick?
I'm trying to figure if this is the whole controller for the trackpoint. Just find and connect the power/data?

That looks quite familiar. Care in mind that it is at least 4-6 years ago I did that modification. So I don't exactly remember how it looked. Otherwise it's the same base length as the one that I extended.... As I wrote before. I drilled a really small hole in the top (approximately 1mm deep) , glued a part of a paper clip (the paper clip part was equally long as how long the extension was going to be) into the hole, and then I filed a small, hollow metal rod with glue and pressed it down over the paper clip part. (I hope that is a good explanation how I did it.).

The glue I just was a sort of epoxy glue. I let it harden for a while before I pressed the metal rod over the paper clip so it didn't flow over the trackpoint part.

Anyway. I didn't either understand if that was the entire controller or just the trackpoint. So I ended up actually integrating the whole IBM Ultra Nav USB keyboard PBC in the Key Tronic case. Cutting the Key Tronic keyboard cable and soldering it directly to one of the IBM keyboards USB ports. So when he connects his keyboard to the computer, the computer thinks that he just connected two keyboards. :)

I'm going to contact my friend and ask him if he can open up his keyboard and take some pictures.... Maybe it will be a little easier to understand then how I did it.


Edit:
I found one who have dissembled a new Lenovo USB keyboard with trackpoint. http://picasaweb.google.com/arkadiusz.wahlig/ThinkPadUSBKeyboardWithTrackPoint#

So now I also place an order on one of those keyboards. As soon as I get both my new keyboards I will take a lot of pictures when I'm hacking them together. :)

Title: Point stick manufactures and retailers?
Post by: microsoft windows on Sat, 24 July 2010, 16:17:11

Quote from: input nirvana;205431

Note the length of the actual stick. For a mechanical switch keyboard the pointing stick needs to be much longer.  This is 7/8" from blue line to tip of red. PS/2

Show Image

(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=6944&stc=1&d=1279833579)

That Trackpoint looked like a match for a second.