 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 <hoffman@xdelta.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Re: mouse pinout?


In article <329375D2.728D@ENGSYS.MICRO.HONEYWELL.COM>,
GRAY <GRAY@ENGSYS.MICRO.HONEYWELL.COM> 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

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Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Path: utkcs2!stc06.ctd.ornl.gov!news.er.usgs.gov!jobone!news2.acs.oakland.edu
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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 <kleinsorge@star.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Re: DEC round mouse


Stephen Hoff Hoffman wrote:
>
> In article <01bc3343$681540e0$b6195f80@why>, "Mark Phillips"
<markp@hitl.washington.edu> 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
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Organization: St. Peter's College, US
Message-ID: <E7995D.9sI@spcuna.spc.edu>
References: <01bc3343$681540e0$b6195f80@why> <5gmp3p$2om@usenet.pa.dec.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 20:05:37 GMT
From: Terry Kennedy <terry@spcuna.spc.edu>
Subject: Re: DEC round mouse

Stephen Hoff Hoffman <hoffman@xdelta.enet.dec> writes:

> In article <01bc3343$681540e0$b6195f80@why>, "Mark Phillips"
>   <markp@hitl.washington.edu> 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)



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Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
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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 <wvantuyl@iso.net>
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  <hoffman@xdelta.enet.dec.com>



 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

[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 <yanko@mit.edu> 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 <dickey@radix.net> <dickey@herndon4.his.com>
http://dickey.his.com/
ftp://dickey.his.com/

 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

