VOGONS


First post, by andreja6

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So I've been searching everywhere for a serial port mouse which wouldn't cost a life fortune and couldn't find one online. I ended up finding one at a thrift store, and no device driver can detect it. Its absurd! i don't know how i can go about testing the mouse, and how to repair it. Any ideas? Are there any DOS specific drivers for this mouse? And if its done for, can anyone point me to a serial mouse which isn't overpriced?

Reply 1 of 10, by c0keb0ttle

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Is it a real serial mouse or are you using a ps2 adapter?

Reply 2 of 10, by darry

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Is the serial port enabled in BIOS if it is integrated on the motherboard ?
Is your serial port a header on the motherboard to which a ribbon cable ending in a male DB9 is connected ?
If so, are you sure it has the right pinout ? There were at least 2 common variants .

Reply 3 of 10, by 133MHz

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Windows should pick it up automatically. If you haven't used the serial port for anything else before I'd follow darry's advice and check that your serial port is working properly, preferably with a small loopback adapter that you can easily build inside a spare DE-9 plug. If the port is good the most common failure mode for an ordinary wired mouse is the cord fraying near the mouse end due to the constant flexing of the cable. Using a multimeter in continuity mode you can find out if any of the wires had broke inside the cable - if that's the case you can cut the cable and reconnect the remaining good piece to the mouse PCB.

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Reply 4 of 10, by andreja6

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133MHz wrote:

Windows should pick it up automatically. If you haven't used the serial port for anything else before I'd follow darry's advice and check that your serial port is working properly, preferably with a small loopback adapter that you can easily build inside a spare DE-9 plug. If the port is good the most common failure mode for an ordinary wired mouse is the cord fraying near the mouse end due to the constant flexing of the cable. Using a multimeter in continuity mode you can find out if any of the wires had broke inside the cable - if that's the case you can cut the cable and reconnect the remaining good piece to the mouse PCB.

The serial port works, i tested it with PUTTY and HyperTerminal to my main machine and Duke Nukem 3D over 9600 baud. I have heard that the common DB9 serial ports supply +5 volts, however the mouse says +12, -12 14mA on it... Not sure what this means though
KD7JwKm.png
The end connector seems loose, like the cable itself feels very floppy. It's a direct serial plug, no adapter. I wonder if the wire itself may be busted. If that's the case, is it possible to just replace the cable itself? I know it kind of ruins its "originality" if i do that, but honestly so does it being totally busted

Reply 5 of 10, by andreja6

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So I opened the mouse, it turns out pins 1 and 2 have no continuity. I'm not sure what they would connect to, but only 3 of the 4 wires connect to something

Does anyone know what type of connector this is?
ErqPIX5.png
Also, anyone have a pinout diagram?

Reply 6 of 10, by gdjacobs

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What's the distance between pins? It kind-of looks like a Molex mini-lock style connector.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 7 of 10, by andreja6

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Its about 1mm separated between each hole. about 2mm for each separator+pin
the connector is 9 millimeters by 3 millimeters not counting the two fins that prevent wrong way insertion, which would make it 4 millimeters wide in that area.

Its similar to the ones used on sound cards for CD headers sortof

Reply 8 of 10, by andreja6

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Seems that ground (Pin 5) is the one that has no continuity... i may try sticking a wire into the connector just hanging by the side to test it out
t12O8.gif

Reply 9 of 10, by andreja6

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Got a pinout for the cable. The header is the reverse of that
xnTC4ut.png

Reply 10 of 10, by Sime7

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andreja6 wrote on 2018-08-11, 19:07:

So I've been searching everywhere for a serial port mouse which wouldn't cost a life fortune and couldn't find one online. I ended up finding one at a thrift store, and no device driver can detect it. Its absurd! i don't know how i can go about testing the mouse, and how to repair it. Any ideas? Are there any DOS specific drivers for this mouse? And if its done for, can anyone point me to a serial mouse which isn't overpriced?

I found I have the same serial MS mouse 2.0A and after much searching I found a driver here
https://www.uwe-sieber.de/util_e.html
I used the MS mouse 602 driver and it worked a treat.
Prior to this I made the mistake on getting a MS BUS mouse driver 1.0 which did not see my serial mouse because its BUS and gave a mouse hardware not found message
Doh!
-Good luck 😀