[off-topic] hardware question with PS/2 keyboard adaptor

[gavinwc]

Hi people,

Thanks to anyone who sacrificed some computing time to contemplate my issue
dealing with legacy hardware, but if anyone is interested I can report the
issue "closed" :-).

After occasionally searching for product and researching ideas online I
eventually resolved to simply buy a more recent usb touchpad and "gaffer
tape" it onto my contour keyboard over the top of the original touchpad.
Ugly.

As it turned out I was trying to upgrade legacy HW with semi-legacy HW! No
one seems to be making a simple, small stand-alone touchpad in recent
times. I could have scavenged one from an old laptop I suppose, but I
imagined the connectivity issues would be a problem.

So, I found a small Adesso usb unit (branded Cirque internally with
separate two-button operation. I remember they used to be "fairly" common,
but are now mostly listed as "unavailable" online). My unit was newly made
in 2010. Imagine my surprise when gutting the new touchpad unit and I found
that I was able to sandwich it into my old keyboard wrist-rest with
judicious use of hot glue internally. To cap it off, a bit of soldering of
ribbon cable saw a visually seamless replacement by tapping into the
original two-buttons in the keyboard.

Marrying old tech with semi-old feels a bit "steampunk" like those stereo
radio units that look WWII era while having digital internals, but it gets
me what I want!

I'm sure you folk have plenty of similar stories. Feel free to share to add
to the collective knowledge base :-)

Gavin

On Tue, 27 Feb 2024 at 09:51, gavinwc <gavin.chester at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi group,
>
> Trip down memory lane to see if you have any solutions:
> Remember when ergonomic or contoured keyboards first became all the rage,
> if not before then at least in the '90s? Around the turn of the millenia I
> tried a few different ones, but settled on a logitech "New Touch" keyboard,
> mostly because of the convenient integrated touchpad located in the wrist
> support.
>
> After leaving it languishing in a cupboard for years I decided to drag it
> out again because I was spending time doing a lot of typing and hankered
> for the old ways :-). This required sourcing a PS/2 > USB adaptor because
> PS/2 used to be "the" thing back then for input devices.
>
> Now herein lies the problem: I didn't want to spend a fortune on the
> adapters (throw good money after bad) and I didn't want to create waste by
> "junking" the Logitech and getting something comparable with USB. So, I
> bought two types of cheap adaptors and am having the same problem with both
> - the touchpad is VERY choppy/jittery. It's the classic 60x45mm touchpad
> with separate L+R buttons, but the smallest movement of your finger pad
> causes a jittery mouse pointer that jumps back and forth over around 3-5mm
> range on screen, which often makes it hard to hit a selection, as you would
> imagine.
>
> From my limited electronics background, I've been thinking that this is a
> A>D resolution problem, like the adapter is only using a chip with, say, 8
> bit resolution and not able to provide the smoother experience that a 16
> bit chip might? (More memories - I used to have this brilliant USB adapter
> that had 2xPS/2, 9-pin serial, and printer port all in one unit, but seem
> to have lost that).
>
> Q 1/ Would a more expensive adapter provide a better experience, after
> checking its specs to see if it's got higher resolution?
> Q 2/ Is this an issue that might be handled with software tweaks in the
> touchpad settings?
> Q 3/ Should I surrender to having to replace this keyboard (couldn't find
> any modern equivalent that had the integrated touchpad)?
>
> Thanks people :-)
>
> Gavin
>
>
>
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