Old trackball won't work on modern laptops

Maybe the serial port is a fake ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

it.

No :-)

It's done some serial com already.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Windows does not detect a serial mouse to well if you already have one in the PS2 port. the simplest thing to do is to get a RS-232 9pin to PS2 serial port adapter.

--
"I'm never wrong, once i thought i was, but was mistaken"
Real Programmers Do things like this.
http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5

Currently there is nothing in the PS2 port. But the laptops, of course, do have a touchpad.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

You can fix that problem by adding \NoSerialMice to the boot.ini. Search the MS knowledge base to make sure I am correct (it is something like that). You can also stop windows enumerating serial devices in the registry if you are real keen. TAke note though, it is different from XP and NT, so you have to check the MS knowledge base.

[snip]

Do you have "Fast User Switching" turned on?

MS Help mentions that Serial Devices can be used for people with handicaps and hooked up to Serial Ports but only with turning off that option in WindowsXP.

Search Help on "SerialKey device"

Robert

[snip]

There you go, Joerg. Right under both our noses. Thanks, Robert! Stored away for later use.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

(These are probably way beneath you, but sometimes we overlook the simplest things.)

Have you checked the BIOS settings to be sure COM1: is enabled?

Is there any chance that you could need a 9-pin to 9-pin null modem?

I also vaguely recall from my old DOS days that there were at least 2 alternate pinouts for the 9-pin port. You should ask Logitech what pinout they used.

hope that helps

Joe

["Followup-To:" header set to sci.electronics.design.] On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:17:46 GMT, Joerg wrote in Msg.

EAGLE works fine under Linux. And if all you want to do is draw schematics while on the road you can even temporarily use the free edition, and then do the layout on your paid-for Windows version.

robert

Full confession: I don't even know what that is.

Thanks, Robert, will try later today. First I have to repair our pool sweep. Again. Its freaking expensive hose became brittle (!) and broke.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

It is. Has worked with other things, piping data out of the logic analyzer etc.

Hmm, could be.

Well, it works on the big PC which supposedly should have the same pinout on its ports. But that one runs NT4.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Joerg skrev:

any old serial mouse should be recognized by XP, I believe most serial mouses and such "steal" their power from the serial port, it may not be enough with a low power serial port driver in a laptop

-Lasse

Ah, that could be a clue. Might be time to get the screwdriver and meter. Or buy a new trackball and try to get used to that but the "modern" ones seem to be designed for smaller hands. Or maybe I should quit chopping my own firewood so my hands fit the new trackballs...

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Do you have a Palm device? The Hotsync manager is notorious for grabbing the com port and not letting go...

--Gene

Not all RS-232 ports are created equal. If the trackball only has a 9 pin serial, it likely is powered by drawing current from the serial port. This was a common practice, but had problems. On a desktop, especially older ones, the RS-232 was powered from the PC's +/-12Vdc supply, plenty of current from the drivers. On newer boxes, in particular laptops, the serial port may only be 5 or 6 volts and practically no current from the charge pumps in the drivers. Your trackball may not have any power. Jack Peacock

no, the protocol is different as are the voltages.

some mice were designed to operate from either a serial port or ps/2 and shipped with an adaptor that merely changed the shape of the plug.

it's possible that this trackball predates all that.

well yeah, for that pricew he can almost certainly get a better trackball than the one he's got.

Bye. Jasen

Should be under add new hardware. generic serial mouse or similar.

Bye. Jasen

Yes, this was already pointed out and I guess you may be right. This trackball was designed in the days where RS232 was truly 12V, or at least more than 9V. The puzzler is that a Wang laptop from the late 80's and also a Compaq Contura laptop from the early 90's were running that same trackball just fine.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

A "real" analog engineer would build an adapter box and supply external power... perhaps even add circuitry to convert to USB ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.