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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: rich1051414 on Fri, 12 January 2018, 19:07:49

Title: Serial Trackball keyboard issues
Post by: rich1051414 on Fri, 12 January 2018, 19:07:49

I recently came across a keyboard using an interesting alps clone switch, but that isn't what this is about. It is about the trackball. I have attempted to get it running, but I have no experience adapting serial mice to USB, so I am not exactly sure where the problem is, if it is the keyboard, or if it is my process for adapting to USB, so any help would be great.

Here is picks of the keyboard:

[attach=2]
[attach=1]

I am using a passive serial to PS2 adapter for the mouse, and then using a ps/2 keyboard and mouse USB dongle, and I have tried 2 different ones, both did not work. Also I tried using a native PS/2 port with a break out cable, that also didn't work. When I do hook the mouse up, the Mouse LED lights when I press one of the click buttons, but it sends nothing to the OS, at least, nothing it recognizes. Am I doing something wrong?

The keyboard itself works fine, it is just the trackball section and mouse buttons I cannot get to function.

Title: Re: Serial Trackball keyboard issues
Post by: Tactile on Mon, 15 January 2018, 23:24:01

You might get some ideas by looking at this thread (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=68612.0).

Title: Re: Serial Trackball keyboard issues
Post by: rich1051414 on Tue, 16 January 2018, 08:06:47

Quote from: Tactile on Mon, 15 January 2018, 23:24:01

You might get some ideas by looking at this thread (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=68612.0).

Unfortunately that is for bus mice. This trackball has a serial connector, so I THOUGHT it would use the same protocol as PS/2 for mice, but maybe I am confused about this. At this point, I am not really sure if I am converting it wrong, or if there is something wrong with it.

I am currently waiting on a serial to USB adapter with a chipset known to work in linux and windows 10. From what I understand, if I hook a mouse to it, windows will automatically recognize it as a USB mouse, but we will see how that goes. Also, it seems to pull too much power to power both the keyboard and mouse from a single USB connector, so that may explain why my USB dongles won't work, but still not sure about that. Either way, once the USB to serial connector arrives, I can confirm if it is actually sending data or not.

Title: Re: Serial Trackball keyboard issues
Post by: Tactile on Tue, 16 January 2018, 10:11:45

Since he converted from <something> to USB, I thought you might get some ideas to use for your project. And the level of detail, I thought, would be informative. Sorry that it wasn't helpful.