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Post by dshadoff on Jul 26, 2021 1:45:39 GMT
I've also been working on a mouse adapter for the PC Engine to use modern mice... Tonight, I got it working... but a couple of things need to happen before I can publish: 1) I'm using a pre-release branch of the pico-sdk, so I will wait until it goes to proper release 2) While debugging, I determined that I misunderstood the bit-sequence for multi-bit output from PIOs... so I need to get a new board revision (you can see the bodge wires in the second picture). While I submit the board revision for production, I will also submit a PC-FX version of the board, and should be able to make the needed program adjustments by the time they get back. Meanwhile, I'll also test more mice for compatibility. Here are some pictures of the prototype board (anybody have ideas about enclosures ?):
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exodus
Punkic Cyborg
Posts: 160
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Post by exodus on Jul 26, 2021 21:30:59 GMT
Pretty neat! For enclosures have you tried talking to Todd Gill? he does a lot of specialty enclosure design for unusual mods or devices. twitter.com/ToddsNerdCave
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gilbot
Punkic Cyborg
Posts: 137
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Post by gilbot on Jul 27, 2021 3:50:00 GMT
It'd be neat to be able to use a generic mouse. One concern though, how are the Select and Run buttons handled? Via the mouse wheel? Or will there be two micro switches on the adaptor? (I see two black dot... things on the connector's board, but since I have no knowledge in electronics I don't know what they are. If they're indeed switches then it's fine.)
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Post by dshadoff on Jul 27, 2021 4:55:53 GMT
Many mice have "back" and "forward" buttons on the thumb side (right hand). These match the "run" and "select" buttons from the PCE mouse very closely. Here's an example picture:
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gilbot
Punkic Cyborg
Posts: 137
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Post by gilbot on Jul 27, 2021 12:23:22 GMT
I think it's not "many" mice though. I never used one (and never saw one... until now when I saw this photo).
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Post by dshadoff on Aug 1, 2021 21:34:14 GMT
It's about 40% of mice (targeted primarily at Windows machines) that have those side buttons these days - mostly wireless, and the cheapest mice don't tend to have them. I've been using them consistently for probably 20 years now; they became popular around the time when internet "surfing" went mainstream, and were the predominant type for several years until later when cheaper models decided to remvoe those buttons again. The side buttons mean "back" (as in, go back to the previous website or link), and "forward" (as in, "oops, I didn't mean to go back").
Putting that aside though, I now also have a version of the mouse code - for the same basic circuit - working on the PC-FX. My updated board revision will arrive in a couple of days, and the pico-sdk looks like it might be getting close to a release.
The main thing that's bothering me on this design is that almost no mice use USB-C, so an adapter is needed if I use that board (or if I use any board which uses a micro-USB connector). So now I'm taking a look into designing a board which uses the microcontroller directly, so I can mount a USB-A socket.
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Post by turboxray on Aug 2, 2021 0:53:40 GMT
I mean if it requires an adapter for the plug, that's not so bad.
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gilbot
Punkic Cyborg
Posts: 137
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Post by gilbot on Aug 2, 2021 5:19:02 GMT
It's about 40% of mice (targeted primarily at Windows machines) that have those side buttons these days - mostly wireless, and the cheapest mice don't tend to have them. I doubt that. I usually use the cheapest of the cheap mice (and keyboards) as I think it's not worth to pay that much on these consumerable items, so that should explain why I've never seen a mouse with these extra buttons. However, the wireless Fujitsu mouse that I'm now using does not have these buttons, and it's not a very cheap one (not top of the line obviously). I got it with my new laptop 2 months ago (for stupid reasons I was without access to any computers at home for more than 3 years). The (wired) Lenovo mouse that came with the set I'm using at work doesn't have these buttons either. This just shows that these mice are a thing but I think the adoption could not be as great as 40%. It's more likely 10-20% to me.
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Post by spenoza on Aug 2, 2021 11:54:56 GMT
Gilbot, I don’t know where you buy mice or where you live, but most of the mouse options where I live, from the cheapest of the cheap up to the high priced items, almost all have those two buttons.
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Post by dshadoff on Aug 2, 2021 15:21:13 GMT
Since the PC-FX Mouse doesn't have those buttons, any mouse will be fine for that (except those for Apple which only have one button).
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Post by dshadoff on Aug 6, 2021 22:38:46 GMT
New (fixed) board and short 8-pin DIN connector:
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