Re: Legacy serial mouse

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

--- On Wed, 10/19/11, Kari Eveli  wrote:

>
> As it is increasingly difficult to find new legacy-capable
> hardware, I was pleasantly surprised to find a new serial
> mouse to replace my old MS serial mouse, which was jerky and
> hard-to-use. I have a networked legacy PC upstairs for
> running DOS and Win 3.11 natively. The machine does not have
> USB, and if it had, it would not be supported by the
> operating systems.
>
> This rodent works with MS drivers, is optical (laser), and
> has a special mouse pad. All in all, it just works fine.
> Recommended, if you need a serial optical mouse for legacy
> setups.
>
> US retailer:
> http://www.pcrproinc.com/servlet/the-1298/2-BUTTON-OPTICAL-SERIAL/Detail
>
> Other countries (worldwide shipping more economically
> available from this vendor, ships from Canada):
> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SERIAL-DIGITAL-OPTICAL-MOUSE-4-PANASONIC-CF29-CF28-/230642225503#shId
>

For whatever it may be worth, there are also various converters
on the market, going from "A" to "B" for different types of
input ports. It is likely a second-best option, but sometimes
you have little choice. I've reluctantly had to scrap PS/2
connections on the later boxes, which are all-USB. What I
found was that the converters on the market range from useless
to very good, depending on the chipset they have and how well
or completely it translates the signals. For PS/2 to USB,
I've had great results from one made by SIIG.


 Jordan