Touch pad/track pad. Thoughts?

[mrbishop]

So I'm thinking about wanting to add a track pad to a future design. Does anyone e have experience with this? Just how bad is it going to suck?



I stripped that laptop down like a dirty pirate hooker.

[neverused]

I was going to do this with a unibody Mac book pro my wife doesn't use anymore but that model integrated the controller into the main pcb so I gave up on breaking it out.

[jdcarpe]

Maybe a track point, too?

¿Por que no los dos?

[No_joke]

All depends what protocol the touchpad uses and whether or not you know the pinout.
If it's PS/2 then it's super easy with a little arduino library https://github.com/saces/PS2-Mouse-Arduino/tree/94f6cf38086b82365eaec6dcf588e03aed6363f2
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be too difficult to port it to C and use it with TMK... Actually, I think TMK already supports PS/2.

[mrbishop]

well so far 2 things. the track pad i found is super tiny and the buttons it uses are membrane but that should be somewhat easy to remedy. the other thing to everyone's point i dont know the protocol however it does have a 4 wire output leading me to believe it could be PS2. i know the Teensy supports mouse movement and TMK's does too i think somewhere.

i like the idea but i'm not sold on it just yet. might be a fun thing to tinker with at the very least. i may see if i can find a nice bluetooth one and just make a pocket it drops in. like the apple one or the logitech one however i'd prefer a bluetooth one if i go that route as i dont want to take up unneeded USB ports UNLESS i can add a USB hub to a keyboard design. that would be kinda hot too.... *gears turn*