Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!bath63!pes
From: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Needed:  Trackball converting instructions
Message-ID: <1744@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 16-Oct-87 05:25:56 EST
Article-I.D.: bath63.1744
Posted: Fri Oct 16 05:25:56 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Oct-87 22:02:27 EST
References: <238@ur-tut.UUCP> <1881@aramis.rutgers.edu>
Reply-To: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee)
Organization: AUCC c/o University of Bath
Lines: 22
Keywords: 8-bit trackball ---> ST trackball


Conversion of the trakball to look like a mouse is fairly simple, because
the needed signals are present inside the trakball but are simply not
brought out.  Some time ago (probably nearly a year) I posted instructions
for how to do a conversion which *adds* mouse mode so that the original
2 modes (joystick and tablet) still work.  Unfortunately I'd had that file
stored on our mainframe and it was lost in a disk crash; but if anyone still
has a copy they could repost it.  Someone else, slighly later, posted a
conversion which *converted* the trakball (so it no longer worked in the
original modes).  A similar one was published recently in one of the UK
computer mags.  If things get desperate, I'll try to find a copy of my
original to post.

The conversion (and how the thing works in the first place) is sufficiently
trivial that anyone who's donw 1st year digital circuit design, and an
electronics catalog which tells what the 4 IC's inside the thing are, should
be able to figure it out from first principles, with no test equipment.
(Just follow the traces on the board.)

Big problem with a trakball is that it is not as convenient as a mouse when
doing things which require that you press or hold a button while moving
the mouse.