PS/2 Mouse support on C64 and VIC20
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From: Gene Buckle on 13 Nov 2009 10:30 To: David Murray Re: PS/2 Mouse support on C64 and VIC20 By: David Murray to comp.sys.cbm on Thu Nov 12 2009 07:30 pm > I wanted to raise this topic again.. For those who are unfamiliar, a > little refresher.. A couple of years ago I developed a mouse driver > for connecting a PS/2 mouse directly to the userport of a Commodore David, if you're going to develop a bit of hardware in order to connect a PS/2 mouse to the user port, why not go a little bit further and build an adaptor that would allow a person to connect a PS/2 or USB mouse to the standard 9 pin joystick port? Having 1351 compatability(sp) would give you the widest audience and could be done with a few parts and a PIC or AVR uController. g. --- Synchronet 3.15a-Win32 NewsLink 1.91 The Retro Archive - telnet://bbs.retroarchive.org
From: U. v. Bassewitz on 13 Nov 2009 11:20 David Murray <adric22(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > I wanted to raise this topic again.. For those who are unfamiliar, a > little refresher.. A couple of years ago I developed a mouse driver > for connecting a PS/2 mouse directly to the userport of a Commodore > DTV without any extra hardware. But the driver didn't work on a real > C64 because I had to disable badlines on the DTV before I could get > reliable operation. Here is a small board for the Atari, that - according to the developer - should also work for the C64 (but this is untested): http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/134949-advance-orders-for-cmi08-ps2-mouse-interface/ I have one, but haven't built and tried it until now, so apart from posting the link I cannot comment ... Regards Uz -- Ullrich von Bassewitz uz(a)spamtrap.musoftware.de 17:18:04 up 4 days, 1:44, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.08, 0.08
From: RobertB on 13 Nov 2009 11:41 The Indivision Micromys PS/2 adapter at http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=877 Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug The Other Group of Amigoids http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/ Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network http://www.sccaners.org
From: David Murray on 13 Nov 2009 14:57 > maybe it makes more sense to build an adaptor that converts a PS/2 > mouse into a 1531 compatible mouse and plugs into the joystick port. Hmm.. Seems we have a concensus.. Everybody wants to plug it into their existing joystick port. Okay, I understand the benefit of this. But I should point out that the hardware to do this is much more expensive. A good example is the device already being sold for this purpose which costs around $40. My design would cost only $1.49 for the cost of a Mini-DIN connector or could even be done for no cost at all if the person wanted to solder the cables from the mouse directly to the userport connector (I wouldn't recommend) but you get the idea. Also I believe direct interaction with the PS/2 mouse would give more reliable and accurate results. granted, I've never tried this converter device, but I have tried my own design and the mouse movements are just as natural as you would expect on a modern PC. And it would leave the joystick ports free for other stuff. As for software compatibility. I'm sure that is important to some of you. But I really do not currently use any software on the 8-bit platform that uses a mouse. The only software I ever did use was GEOS 128 and I have no need for that in this modern world. Even my favorite drawing program of the time, Doodle, only used a joystick. So.. My reasoning is that the direct connection of the PS/2 mouse is the best way to go into the future.
From: Mark McDougall on 13 Nov 2009 17:47
David Murray wrote: > Hmm.. Seems we have a concensus.. Everybody wants to plug it into > their existing joystick port. Okay, I understand the benefit of > this. But I should point out that the hardware to do this is much > more expensive. A good example is the device already being sold for > this purpose which costs around $40. IMHO this is by _far_ the best option, as it gives instant compatibility with all exsiting mouse software. I don't think $40 is unreasonable given the nature of the product either - I made a small batch of Amiga PS/2 adapters and it cost just about that to manufacture each one. > Also I believe direct interaction with the PS/2 mouse would > give more reliable and accurate results. I've never used a C64 mouse, but I gather you're implying that the mouse is _not_ as smooth & accurate as the PS/2 version - yes??? Then perhaps the inaccuracies are inherent in the original mouse itself, rather than the protocol and/or frequency at which the mouse is sampled? In that case, using a PS/2 adapter would alleviate those problems. Regards, -- | Mark McDougall | "Electrical Engineers do it | <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug> | with less resistance!" |