VOGONS


First post, by rickdeckard

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Hi, guys!

tl;dr I have a MS Serial Mouse 2.0A that I'm looking to use on a system that only has a PS/2 mouse port. The mouse supports both Serial and PS/2 protocol, so I only need the passive adapter to make it work. I have one such adapter I found in a drawer, but god knows where it came from, because it doesn't work with the mouse. Probing the connections, it doesn't match any pinout I found online, so it might be for something completely different - no idea.

Does anyone have the original passive adapter that came with this mouse in the box and is kind enough to probe the connections for me and jot down the pinout? I'm hesitant to try any other diagrams I find online, either on Google or here on vogons, since there are way too many different versions out there and I'm afraid to damage the mouse by just connecting pins and see if it works. There's risk of putting 5V into a clock or data wire and I'd very much like to avoid that.

For a longer story, my end goal for this is using this serial mouse (and maybe this other one, the famous soap-bar mouse, both of which are Serial) connected to 2 computers (Win 98 and DOS) through a KVM which only supports VGA and PS/2 keyboard and mouse.

Thanks in advance!

Reply 1 of 3, by rasz_pl

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Microsoft had two differently wired passive adapters 😐 Re: Microsoft PS/2 to serial pinout?

https://github.com/raszpl/FIC-486-GAC-2-Cache-Module for AT&T Globalyst
https://github.com/raszpl/386RC-16 memory board
https://github.com/raszpl/440BX Reference Design adapted to Kicad
https://github.com/raszpl/Zenith_ZBIOS MFM-300 Monitor

Reply 2 of 3, by rickdeckard

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rasz_pl wrote on 2024-10-21, 21:24:

two differently wired

Amazing. 😆 I was hoping to find someone here that actually has the adapter that came with this exact mouse and probe it for me.

Yes, that thread was one of the most promising. I'll investigate and see what exactly connects to what, to try and make sure I don't put voltage into one of the data lines. Another thing I was thinking of while trying to fall asleep 😄 was to take the mouse apart and have a look at the wires that leave the PCB. It should be pretty straightforward finding the ground and 5V lines, and then it's a matter or trying the Data and Clock lines either one way or the other, which shouldn't be dangerous.

Thanks for the help!

Reply 3 of 3, by CharlieFoxtrot

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I have two MS PS/2 PS/2 mice with adapters and they indeed aren’t cross compatible for some odd reason. I once plugged one of the mice to the adapter from the other and it didn’t work.

Neither of my mice is the one you pictured, though. They are both from late 90s and the other one is the cordless model.