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Rs232 trackball keyboard to USB
Posted: 03 Jul 2020, 14:38
by Jesseg
Hey DT,
recently received a Chicony 5581 with a trackball. It has a DIN plug as well as a serial RS232 for the trackball. I have one of those ugly blue converters that connects it to USB but it doesn't seem to work. I tried installing all sorts of drivers but it doesn't want to work.
Has anyone had any luck with this kind of thing?
Thanks!
Re: Rs232 trackball keyboard to USB
Posted: 03 Jul 2020, 17:29
by TheBug
You are probably better off modifying the trackball to become USB native. Kick out the old stuff and put in a USB controller.
Serial really sucks for mouse functions as it is too slow.
Re: Rs232 trackball keyboard to USB
Posted: 03 Jul 2020, 22:09
by DMA
Ugly blue converter doesn't work because it can't understand what trackball is trying to tell it.
TMK/QMK must have lots of different serial modules, so if you can find the service manual or otherwise figure out the protocol - you can copypasta some RS232-USB converter pretty quickly.
If you can reflash that blue converter - the task is a bit easier as you just need to interpret bytes coming off the serial (and probably teach it to send start signal - some devices require an init sequence before they start sending data)
PS: RS232 is fast enough for trackball - you just can't spin it fast enough for linkspeed to matter.
Re: Rs232 trackball keyboard to USB
Posted: 04 Jul 2020, 03:21
by Jesseg
DMA wrote: ↑03 Jul 2020, 22:09
Ugly blue converter doesn't work because it can't understand what trackball is trying to tell it.
TMK/QMK must have lots of different serial modules, so if you can find the service manual or otherwise figure out the protocol - you can copypasta some RS232-USB converter pretty quickly.
If you can reflash that blue converter - the task is a bit easier as you just need to interpret bytes coming off the serial (and probably teach it to send start signal - some devices require an init sequence before they start sending data)
PS: RS232 is fast enough for trackball - you just can't spin it fast enough for linkspeed to matter.
I'm pretty new to this kind of stuff but I might give it a go
Re: Rs232 trackball keyboard to USB
Posted: 04 Jul 2020, 19:27
by DMA
Jesseg wrote: ↑04 Jul 2020, 03:21
I'm pretty new to this kind of stuff but I might give it a go
Go ahead! Things are not that hard (though need some curiosity and persistence). Just figure out the ground and power and put huge labels on them so you don't accidentally swap them.
Although for RS-232 the power supply is separate. Ground only then.