I have a 3b1 that I think is mostly complete and working, but I'm missing the mouse. Is there anything unique about the mouse (other than its looks)? Can another mouse be made to work with it? I've seen the mouse listed on eBay but for $$$$. Thanks, Win
On Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 1:35 PM Win Heagy via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I have a 3b1 that I think is mostly complete and working, but I'm missing the mouse. Is there anything unique about the mouse (other than its looks)? Can another mouse be made to work with it? I've seen the mouse listed on eBay but for $$$$.
I wasn't quickly able to find any schematics of the keyboard, just the mainboard, but the 3B1 mouse plugs into the 3B1 keyboard via a proprietary connector. It's _not_ a generic mouse physically. The keyboard connects to the CPU via serial interface (through a 6850 UART) so it's possible that the mouse is an ordinary serial mouse of the era. There must be some magic in the keyboard that reads mouse events and sends them up the serial line to the CPU. The other trick is it's a three-button mouse which was not common in personal computers of the era. -ethan
The 3B1 mouse looks like a stylized version of the Logitech C7 mouse of the same era. On Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 2:19 PM Ethan Dicks via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 1:35 PM Win Heagy via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I have a 3b1 that I think is mostly complete and working, but I'm missing the mouse. Is there anything unique about the mouse (other than its looks)? Can another mouse be made to work with it? I've seen the mouse listed on eBay but for $$$$.
I wasn't quickly able to find any schematics of the keyboard, just the mainboard, but the 3B1 mouse plugs into the 3B1 keyboard via a proprietary connector. It's _not_ a generic mouse physically. The keyboard connects to the CPU via serial interface (through a 6850 UART) so it's possible that the mouse is an ordinary serial mouse of the era. There must be some magic in the keyboard that reads mouse events and sends them up the serial line to the CPU.
The other trick is it's a three-button mouse which was not common in personal computers of the era.
-ethan
On Fri, Nov 01, 2019 at 01:25:33PM -0400, Win Heagy via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I have a 3b1 that I think is mostly complete and working, but I'm missing the mouse. Is there anything unique about the mouse (other than its looks)? Can another mouse be made to work with it? I've seen the mouse listed on eBay but for $$$$.
I opened mine up and took pictures. http://www.pdp8online.com/misc/3b1_mouse.jpg http://www.pdp8online.com/misc/3b1_mouse2.jpg Found this thread. Conclusion seems to be it talks TTL serial. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.sys.3b1/nawn1zyNWMg You would likely need to make an adapter to convert some other mouse to the 3b1 protocol.
On 11/2/2019 11:16 AM, David Gesswein via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On Fri, Nov 01, 2019 at 01:25:33PM -0400, Win Heagy via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I have a 3b1 that I think is mostly complete and working, but I'm missing the mouse. Is there anything unique about the mouse (other than its looks)? Can another mouse be made to work with it? I've seen the mouse listed on eBay but for $$$$.
I opened mine up and took pictures. http://www.pdp8online.com/misc/3b1_mouse.jpg http://www.pdp8online.com/misc/3b1_mouse2.jpg
Found this thread. Conclusion seems to be it talks TTL serial. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.sys.3b1/nawn1zyNWMg
You would likely need to make an adapter to convert some other mouse to the 3b1 protocol.
That SC87347P // R6-6805 // JG28509 chip is an MC6805 microcontroller; if someone has a mouse like that they could lend me for a month or two, I could extract the firmware from that chip, which will probably help a lot for making a device to use a modern mouse instead of the original one. Also, it is needed for proper 3B1 emulation, so its win-win. -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu@gmail.com jgevaryahu@hotmail.com
participants (5)
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David Gesswein -
Ethan Dicks -
John Ruschmeyer -
Jonathan Gevaryahu -
Win Heagy