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Information on PS2->USB hack for dual mice

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Bgnome:

--- Quote from: LJHalfbreed on August 26, 2004, 07:06:58 pm ---
Blah... my brain is hurting. So you don't think having both PS2 cables from spinner and trackball 'combined' into one PS2 cable would work? I would think that if you kept the power line separate and had that connected to a toggle, it would 'emulate' yanking out the cord and popping it back in real quick.

I can draw all this in a crappy MS paint jpg if that will explain better.

-LJ

--- End quote ---

that should be what happens if you wire it that way.  the ps/2 port wasnt made to be hot-swappable.  you should be ok switching it a couple times in a row or once in a while but there is a chance that the computer goes skitzy and you will need to reboot.  but if you aer sticking with it, you could wire an extension to the front of the cab so you can plug/unplug your cp easily..

otherwise, you are looking at a usb ball mouse hack or buying ps/2>usb adapters..

btw, just some info on what ive got going.  i soldered a ps/2 splitter for my laptop (win 98se) which allows me to use a kb and mouse or 2 mice on the same ps/2 port.  tried it on my pc (win xp) and it didnt work.  also tried plugging in 2 mice on the 2 ps/2 ports and it didnt work.

LJHalfbreed:
Yeah... I'm thinking you're right... Just gets me mad because I went out of my way to make that way sweet (to me at least) old-school MS mouse hack http://web.archive.org/web/20010306112623/http://people.ce.mediaone.net/chadh/spinner.htm that totally works beautifully so far, and I went through all that trouble for nothin'.

I'm going to try to make a USB spinner hack (and leave the TB as straight PS2) and see how that works again. I tried originally with a PS2 mouse, but it was all futzy and I kept having problems with backspin<->no sensitivity and it was just stupidly annoying.

Out of curiosity, did you make it all by scratch, or did you go off one of the byoac-mentioned tutorials?

OH YEAH...

So I was looking into pinouts and such, and found a place where (somehow) they explained that certain laptops are geared to be able to work with Y-connectors for simultaneous mouse/keyboard usage. IIRC, there are 6 pins on a PS2 cable, and 2 are normally 'reserved'. Somehow the laptop uses those (or doesn't) to determine which of the two inputs is which. I could put a laptop in here, but I think that totally defeats the purpose (Still can't use two mice).

And, of course, even though there are 4 'wires' in both USB and PS2 cables, PS2 uses 5v, G, Data and clock, where usb uses 5v, +data, -data, and ground.

Stupid electronics. :P

And thanks for all your help Bgnome!

-LJ

Bgnome:
for my trackball, i used a ps/2 mouse hack.  i did some research on bob robert's site and another which i cant recall at the moment.  even though it was a logitech mouse, the only hiccup i had was that the transmitter actually looked like a receiver and vice versa but it worked.

the splitter is based on that circuit you mentioned.  the 2 extra pins are used for the data and clock lines of the second device, (pins 1 & 2 are data and pins 5 & 6 are clock for device 1 and 2, respectively).

as for backspin/sensitivity, you really have to play with it.  you can try to adjust the mouse settings, (turn off acceleration) or you can try making custom encoder wheels, (several examples of cutouts or black/white designs).

good luck with your efforts and let us know how it turns out..

LJHalfbreed:
No problem... Wish I knew something about HTML, because then I'd get a page going to post pics of all this stuff. As it stands right now, I'm reduced to running to the garage, taking pics, scanning them in, and sending them over email.

I'm thinking I'm going with the USB spinner... the trackball works so nicely now that I'm afraid to even touch it. Any suggestions on mouse to use? I've got some dell mice around here, but don't know how that would work.

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