News about proprietary mice made by Digital Equipment Corporation (Now includes mouse use with DEC VTx00 terminals or 3rd-party terminal clones) ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Date: 9 Dec 1996 22:27:04 GMT From: Stephen Hoff Hoffman Subject: Re: mouse pinout? In article <329375D2.728D@ENGSYS.MICRO.HONEYWELL.COM>, GRAY writes: :Can anyone please provide pinout for a VSxxx-aa type of mouse? Pinout: 1: signal GND; 2:TXD; 3:RXD; 4:-12V; 5:+5V; 6: not used; 7: device present -- shorted to pin 1; shell: protective ground. End view of mouse cable connector: + 5 6 7 3 4 +1 2+ Where + indicates a connector key. Signaling is RS-232-compatible 4800-bps 9-bit bytes (8 data, 1 bit for parity (odd)) with mark <-6V and space >+4.6V on transmit, and mark -15 to 0.8V and space 2.8 to +15V on receive, with minimum DC load of 3000 ohms to ground... Reports are via three-byte `tuples'. Here are the meanings of the bits in the tuples: Bits 7 to 0: Byte: 1 0 0 SX SY L M R 0 0 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0 1 0 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0 2 Bit 7 is the frame synch Sx, SY: sign bit: positive (1) or negative (0). L,M,R: mouse button state: down (1) or up (0). Xn and Yn are X & Y displacements, with n0 as LSB. If X and/or Y overflows, the maximum is reported. :Can this thing be adapted to PC plug? The typical VSXXX-nn `hockey puck' mouse is not normally considered compatible with the typical PC mouse... Most any problem of this class is surmountable (or `surface-mountable' :-) with enough solder and the appropriate ICs and discrete parts... But not nearly as easily nor as cheaply as one can acquire a PC mouse or a PC trackball... -------------------------- pure personal opinion --------------------------- Stephen 'Hoff' Hoffman OpenVMS Engineering hoffman@xdelta.enet.dec.com OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): http://www.openvms.digital.com ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Path: utkcs2!stc06.ctd.ornl.gov!news.er.usgs.gov!jobone!news2.acs.oakland.edu !wolverine.hq.cic.net!chi-news.cic.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com !news.bbnplanet.com!news1.digital.com!pa.dec.com!nntpd.lkg.dec.com Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 14:08:41 +0000 Organization: OpenVMS Engineering Message-ID: <332FF369.65319344@star.enet.dec.com> References: <01bc3343$681540e0$b6195f80@why> <5gmp3p$2om@usenet.pa.dec.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: fgkaxp.zko.dec.com From: Fred Kleinsorge Subject: Re: DEC round mouse Stephen Hoff Hoffman wrote: > > In article <01bc3343$681540e0$b6195f80@why>, "Mark Phillips" writes: > :Would anyone know how to connect a DEC round mouse to a PC, are their > :converters. I would really like to use the round mouse (3button) > ... > > The older LK-series keyboards, the older synch-on-green `uni-synch' > video monitors, the older `hockey-puck' mice, and the MicroVAX-console > DB9 serial connections are not PC compatible. In addition to > > ... > > [This conversion can certainly be done... How good are you with a > soldering iron or wire-wrap tool, a patch-board, some discrete and > integrated components, and maybe a 'scope?] > > ... The round mouse is actually a serial mouse (rs232 compatable) that runs at 4800 baud. It gets power from pins on the interface. Its protocol is similar to many mice, but as anyone who has been cursed with supporting mice may know, they are all slightly different. Because of this, you would need to spin a mouse driver for the PC to decode the mouse data. When this mouse was first specified, mice were not "standard" equipment on most PCs. The nice thing about this mouse, that was different than many other mice and tablets, was that it sent a power up ID, and you could request its ID. A lot of mice at that time simply started sending data, and could not be asked for an ID. It was also specified as hot-pluggable, which you still can't do with most PS/2-style mice on PCs today. -- Frederick G. Kleinsorge | Standard disclaimer: All opinions OpenVMS Engineering | expressed are mine, and not those of my Digital Equipment Corporation | employer, or any one else with half a kleinsorge@star.enet.dec.com | clue. No refunds on sale items. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Path: utkcs2!stc06.ctd.ornl.gov!news.er.usgs.gov!jobone!news2.acs.oakland.edu !newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!gatech!news-relay.ncren.net !newsgate.duke.edu!solaris.cc.vt.edu!news.new-york.net!news.spc.edu !spcuna.spc.edu!not-for-mail Organization: St. Peter's College, US Message-ID: References: <01bc3343$681540e0$b6195f80@why> <5gmp3p$2om@usenet.pa.dec.com> Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 20:05:37 GMT From: Terry Kennedy Subject: Re: DEC round mouse Stephen Hoff Hoffman writes: > In article <01bc3343$681540e0$b6195f80@why>, "Mark Phillips" > writes: > > The older LK-series keyboards, the older synch-on-green `uni-synch' > video monitors, the older `hockey-puck' mice, and the MicroVAX-console > DB9 serial connections are not PC compatible. In addition to certain > rather obvious connector differences, one also has to contend with > differences in the wiring and in the signaling protocols used by > these devices -- most (all?) the underlying designs pre-date the > "commodity" PC IC interfaces. The original "DEPCA" PC network interface card (not to be confused with any other DEC PC network interface cards, many of which are also named "DEPCA" 8-) had a connector on the back for the hockey-puck mouse. So the logic to interface it to a PC definitely existed. Of course, DEC stopped supporting this card and mouse on the PC, so you can't get current drivers for it... Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.spc.edu St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA +1 201 915 9381 (voice) +1 201 435-3662 (FAX) ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Path: utkcs2!stc06.ctd.ornl.gov!news.er.usgs.gov!jobone!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu !cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com !news.bbnplanet.com!news1.digital.com!pa.dec.com!usenet Message-ID: <5qdbjv$ogu@usenet.pa.dec.com> References: <33C538BF.C1A0280@iso.net> Organization: Digital Equipment Corp Reply-To: hoffman@xdelta.zko.dec Date: 14 Jul 1997 14:03:43 GMT From: hoffman@xdelta.enet.dec.nospam (Stephen Hoff Hoffman) Subject: Re: Pinouts for DEC mouse/tablet In article <33C538BF.C1A0280@iso.net>, William Van Tuyl writes: : : Can anyone provide me with the pinouts for the DEC : mouse/tablet. I am trying to convert a DEC graphics tablet : for use in a PC. One has the pinouts, the voltages, and the signalling differences to contend with. The pinout is the easy part... The pinout, voltage, and signalling scheme are all listed in the QDSS graphics controller documentation. Anyone with an old VAXstation II/GPX manual (or any other GPX-based VAXstation manual) will have the needed QDSS documentation: _VCB02 Video Subsystem Technical Manual_, EK-104AA-TM. Appendix D covers the tablet. (And the entire interface description is rather more than I want to retype here...) -------------------------- pure personal opinion --------------------------- Hoff (Stephen) Hoffman OpenVMS Engineering ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [the following thread found at the Google (nee Deja.com) Usenet archive at http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=a691e436f9d52422&seekd=940248896#940248896 ] Newsgroups: comp.emacs From: Yanko Sheiretov (yanko@mit.edu) Subject: Mouse on DEC terminal Date: 2001-01-12 13:34:05 PST Hi Is there any way to get emacs to recognize and use a serial mouse attached to a DEC terminal, e.g. VT420? More specifically, I'm using a Falco 5420MP terminal in VT420 mode connected to a linux system. The terminal has a serial mouse. Any way to use it? Would that work better in one of the other terminal personalities, i.e. Wyse or Tektronix or something? Yanko ....................................... Newsgroups: comp.emacs Date: 2001-01-14 00:50:03 PST From: Eli Zaretskii (eliz@is.elta.co.il) Subject: Re: Mouse on DEC terminal Yanko Sheiretov wrote: > > Hi > Is there any way to get emacs to recognize and use > a serial mouse attached to a DEC terminal, e.g. VT420? Take a look at xt-mouse.el, which is part of the Emacs distribution, at least in the latest Emacs versions. Perhaps you can hack it to work for your DEC terminal? ....................................... Newsgroups: comp.emacs Date: 2001-01-18 07:40:01 PST From: Yanko Sheiretov (yanko@mit.edu) Subject: Re: Mouse on DEC terminal Cool, I didn't even know about xt-mouse. My other problem is, though, that I can't find the DEC specs on the appropriate escape sequences to enable the mouse and then to interpret the mouse reports. Any ideas? (The xterm escapes do not seem to work.) YS ....................................... Newsgroups: comp.emacs Date: 2001-01-19 03:20:06 PST From: Thomas Dickey (dickey@saltmine.radix.net) Subject: Re: Mouse on DEC terminal Yanko Sheiretov wrote: > Cool, I didn't even know about xt-mouse. My other problem is, though, > that I can't find the DEC specs on the appropriate escape sequences to > enable the mouse and then to interpret the mouse reports. Any ideas? > (The xterm escapes do not seem to work.) they're different. I haven't done much with it, except add some test screens to vttest, but XFree86 xterm implements the DEC mouse controls as well as xterm - see http://dickey.his.com/vttest/ http://dickey.his.com/xterm/ (report bugs) -- Thomas E. Dickey http://dickey.his.com/ ftp://dickey.his.com/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////