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Bus mouse-ST mouse adapter

N

NathanAllan

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ARGH!! My hands are cramping and my eyes are blurry from working with those tiny wires and cups! I found a pinout for the bus mouse that I have, but I can't find wires small and tough enough not to break yet fit into the crimp-cups of the din9 connectors! And when one of those wires slip under your fingernail -YEOUCH!! I might just not have patience. Does anyone here?? I'll even pay you to do this. Not a firtune, but it'll be worth your time if your fingers are more nimble than mine.

Would it be easier to just have these things made-to-order from china? I know there are machines that make cables.

ARGH!!
 
Or if you can trace the leads from inside the mouse (using a multimeter or likewise), cut off the mini-DIN connector and solder a DB9 connector directly to the cable. It requires you to know which lead goes where, though.
 
Maybe I was doing this the hard way. A preconfigured mouse is an Atari mouse, and they're so rare they're expensive. I'd rather not go that route and buy my way out of this paper bag. I can cut off the end and do it that way, though. I just like to avoid cutting things, it increases the chances I will mess it up, heh heh. But I'll do it as a last resort. I guess I just got frustrated. Sounds like a good step. You got it, Terry.
 
I was about to say that they were cheap, but then I looked around and they're rare! I mean to buy. I just have this one cause I bought it years ago from a place in Tennessee on the off chance that I would use it someday. I think I paid fifty cents for it. Having it configured as an Atari compatible would sure bring up the value, IMHO. If you can find them.

That custom cable place got back to me, and they don't work with mini-din connectors at all.

I'd like to know if there's a place to get the molded plastic db9 connectors without the screwholes on the sides. Maybe snap together? Glue even?
 
Heh. The Amiga has screw fasteners on its DB9 mouse/joystick ports, so one could fasten a full housing. There are more or less slim housings, but if the port is too tight to not accomodate a housing, it doesn't matter. The screws themselves can be removed from a such housing.
 
Small update on the mouse idea. I opened the mouse and it has a 10-pin connector that comes right off, so I can attach a new cable completely. I'm gonna hope that the little electronics store that's here has that connector. It's a header of some measurement. If they don't have it they may know what it is specifically so I can order it.
 
Have you considered looking for a switchable Amiga mouse, or an Amiga mouse at all? From what I understand, only a few wires are swapped. I have a "Zydec" with a Amiga/Atari switch on the underside. On the inside, there are two five pin headers which the cable connects to. It also has an IC from Philips marked PC74HC14P / 746510T / Hnn9136PC.

http://www.cbm.sfks.se/pics/amigamouse.jpg
 
What do I know, maybe the switch does more than swap a few wires? Still, many 3rd party mice from that time were switchable to reach as large market as possible.
 
I've seen serial mice that were switchable between 'MicroSoft' & 'PC Mouse' modes, but I ain't got a clue what the difference might be. In fact, I'm looking at one right now (trackball, actually) that has the switch.

--T
 
I have an Amiga/ST switchable mouse. It's an Eclypse.
Unfortunately it's on my "to fix" list. ISTR that the wiring wasn't too different on them. Only reversing a couple of leads. From what I remember the cursor went the opposite direction from which way you moved it. You might do a search in the comp.sys.Atari newsgroups for converting one. You might even ask if someone on it has a mouse.

I subscribe to a large Yahoo ST group :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atari-midi/

You might ask there if anyone has a spare ST mouse. I'm
relegated myself to using a big clunky Atari-branded mouse at the moment until I can fix the Eclipse.

Good luck.

Lawrence
 
I'm sure it can't be that complex, if it only takes a switch to make it comaptible from one to another. I like wiring my own stuff up, so this bus mouse is a challenge renewed, now that I am not gonna be usign the mini din connectors and attaching a whole new cable. I hate to have to order such a small part, and I'm hoping that I can get it from that local store. It'll save me a coupel of bucks and I get to play with the multimeter a little, heh heh. But if I mess it up I can get an amiga switchable from somewhere (like you said, comp.sys.Atari). They're more common than atari mice and cheaper(I just hope that that dreddnott comes through with that harddrive-- sweet!).

Nathan
 
I found this description:

Author: Brigitte and Eric McCormack <earthshaker AT midsouth.net>
Subject: On using Amiga mice with Atari STs.......
Date: 06/28/1999

I fiddled around with this last night and found that if pins 1 and 4 are swapped (i.e. pin 1 Amiga to pin 4 Atari and pin 4 Amiga to pin 1 Atari), the Amiga mouse behaves normally on an Atari ST. Also, pin 5 (Amiga end) should be connected to pin 9 (Atari ST end) for RMB support. Pin 9 (Amiga end) and pin 5 (Atari ST end) are not connected at all.

I haven't been able to test the RMB portion yet, but if the pinouts I derived the rest of it from are correct- then it should do OK.
Click to expand...

Code: 
Amiga DB9F                     Atari ST DB9M
PIN  Usage                     PIN  Usage
  1  Yb-----\  /-----------------1  Xb
  2  Xa------\/------------------2  Xa
  3  Ya------/\------------------3  Ya
  4  Xb-----/  \-----------------4  Yb
  5  RMB----------\              5  N/C
  6  LMB-----------\-------------6  LMB
  7  +5 VDC---------\------------7  + 5 VDC
  8  GND-------------\-----------8  GND
  9  MMB N/C          \----------9  RMB

It is a little strange, as I found pinouts on the Internet indicating that both the Amiga and Atari ST have LMB and RMB on the matching pins. Pins 1-4 on the Amiga are marked V-pulse, H-pulse, VQ-pulse, HQ-pulse which doesn't quite match the functional labels above. If you get ahold of a regular Amiga mouse, it could be worth trying to swap wires inside the mouse according to the instruction above, and if it doesn't work well, try some more.
 
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