Two & Three-button mice

[cjackson]

What's inside a 2 or 3-button mouse and how is it wired to either the PS/2 connector or the Serial connector?

C. Jackson

[Paleo Pete]

Inside a mouse? Lessee...the last one I dissected had a heart, stomach, intestines, kidneys, lots of gooey stuff that looked kinda yucky, bones, a tiny brain in there somewhere...Oh, wait...wrong mouse...

Most of them I've disassembled had a small circuit board, a momentary contact switch for each button, and a wheel setup that tells the computer where the mouse is relative to its previous position. The rubber ball at bottom of the mouse turns two of these wheels, one for each axis, and transmits a signal to the computer that corresponds to the movement of the mouse. Serial and PS/2 mice are relative pointing devices, which means they send a signal to the computer that tells it where the pointer is in relation to its last position.

Optical mice use a light beam passed through similar wheels with slots that tell the computer where the pointer is in relation to the number of pixels on the monitor screen, by use of a reflective pad, usually metal, that contains a grid corresponding to the screen. Optical mice are absolute pointing devices, which means they send a signal to the computer that tells it where the pointer is in relation to starting coordinates on the screen.

The momentary contact switches complete electronic circuits which tell the computer to initiate certain tasks, the left button usually acting similar to pressing the [Enter] key, the right button performing a secondary task, such as opening a menu window, which is correlated to a certain key combination. The middle button works the same way, but usually acts as either a double click or a scroll control, depending on how you configure it.

Both serial and PS/2 mice work in the same manner, but through different interfaces. The wires connected to the computer simply carry the data signals to the connector on the motherboard, or on older computers, to a connector on a controller card. The motherboard then sends a signal to the CPU, which interprets the signal and informs Windows of the requested task.

The specific wiring is another story, I've never tried to trace it, so I really have no idea how it's wired. It simply has a number of wires that run from the circuit board on the mouse to the connector, and the computer knows what to do by the signal sent, and which wire sent it.

You might be able to find pinouts if you take a look at my website below, and look for the Hardware Book. Great reference for connector pinouts.

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[cjackson]

To Paleo Pete:

Thanks for your response. I'll check out the net address you recommended.
My problem is making a 3-button mouse work on a laptop PS/2 input. The cursor moves fine, but there is no response to the buttons. The serial port on the laptop doesn't handle the mouse either. I've solved it by buying a 2-button mouse, but I want to know how things work -- that's my nature.

Thanks again!

Cjackson

[Paleo Pete]

From what I've seen in the forums, laptops seem to be a bit picky about mice. Don't have any good advice, I haven't tinkered with laptops much. Logitech makes some of the best mice around, and you might try their drivers, I've seen very few mice that won't work with the older Logitech driver, from about the time Win 98 was released. I have a Fellowes working on it right now, and I've run my Mitsumi off this machine with Logitech's drivers. Using whatever generic driver Win 98 installs on it now...Not sure about the newer Logitech driver, I'm using it now, but with a Logitech mouse on a win3.11 machine. Haven't tried it on other brands yet.

Check the website for the manufacturer of your machine, they might have a specific driver for the machine, no telling. Check SimTel, they might have a generic driver that may happen to work. I have a link to SimTel on my site also. Loads of utilities for any OS.

------------------
If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[cjackson]

To Paleo Pete:

Once again, thanks!

cjackson

[HoogieManHeinous]

Software Software Software man. Your win 3.11 machine was never designed for use with a three button mouse without special software to translate. My old laptop used a three button trackball mouse on 3.x, but two of them did the same thing. There might be an older piece of software out there to help you, but three button mice came with the internet and newer machines so your going to have some fun finding it. Look on logitechs website for some hints man.

Goodluck

[Paleo Pete]

Hoogie: I didn't say it was a 3 button mouse, since I don't own one. If I did it would be on this machine, not the win3.11 machine. win3.11 only supports left click. The Logitech driver is all that's required, it has options for 2 and 3 button mouse, you set it for whichever you happen to have, and for how the third button is to be used.

------------------
If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)