So, as I showed in my "bag-o-bones" thread in the general chat section, I got a bag full of odds and ends cables from a friend. In that bag were also two TRS-80 analog joysticks and mouse. The TRS-80 color computer line, at least up to the Coco 3 and possibly it as well (I haven't studied it to know if they add more controller ports), only use analog potentiometer inputs for joystick and mouse movement. So this, of course, got me thinking about using them on the Atari with programs that use paddle or touch tablet control, since those are the controllers on the Atari that are also using analog potentiometer lines controlled by the POKEY. Atari trackballs and the compatible ST/Amiga mice are great, but they are all digitally based because with the trackballs, Atari wanted them to work with the 2600 and 7800 too, which don't have POKEY's so they had to make them digital. The ST also does not have analog potentiometer input on it's controller ports, so they went digital with the ST mice too. The problem is that because both trackball and ST mouse are digital, special software has to be written for them to work on the 8-bit Atari. Some has been for both. But, when it comes to what I'm most interested in, graphic art, the best programs use or have options to use the Atari touch tablet wich is analog and uses the Atari's pot lines on the joystick ports just like paddles .I like my Atari touch tablet to draw with using compatible programs like Atari Artist and Rambrandt, but just like doing art on canvas or paper, an artist doesn't just use one brush or one pencil, there are many different types we use. And with graphic art on the computer, sometimes different controllers work best for different things. Plus, while the Atari touch tablet can be used with one hand since it also has a button on the stylus (assuming the button still works), otherwise you have to use the buttons on the tablet which then requires two hands, and even if the stylus button does work still, the tablet could shift on you. A mouse is one hand only. So the light went on in my head right away when I found out the TRS-80 color mouse was analog, that I could convert it to Atari 9-pin port and use it in place of a touch tablet when I want too. And the TRS-80 mouse's case shape just happens to match the Atari 800 and peripherals just like the ST mouse's wedge shape matches the XL and XE computers wedge shapes. So the TRS-80 mouse will look good with the 800 and like it was made for it, once I paint it tan to match the 800 line's color scheme...and sand off the TRS-80 raised lettering and replace it with an Atari badge. I think I may paint the red mouse button yellow like the 800's start key too. And of course, the TRS-80 mouse will be naturally compatible with the legacy Atari software that uses paddles and touch tablets! I not only can use a mouse with these great programs, but the TRS-80 joystick just might work really well with paddle games like Breakout and Arkanoid and others, including using an analog joystick as another type of "brush" for my artwork too! This thread is just to talk about my inspiration and the possibilities though, and is not going to be a play-by-play of me converting the mouse to the Atari. I'll do that in a hardware hack blog in my profile like I've done before and will again.
A touch of inspired genius there, Matt - go, go, go! Whoever would have though a "bag o bones" would lead to this genesis project - brilliant and good luck, mate.
It's a quick and easy project compared to most I have on the to-do list, so it's something I can fit into a few hours one evening. But the first priority is to get my 800 put back together. It's been a few months since I took it apart again to install the dual-PIA board, and I was installing a replacement Sophia 2 at the same time, but then had misfortune of bricking my Pokeymax somehow in the process. And though I happen to just get a Pokeymax V3 around that time, I decided to install it in the 800, since the 1200XL it was meant for isn't operational atm either. But the Pokeymax V3 isn't just a plug-in replacement for the V2, it has additional wires that have to be connected to the motherboard and CPU board. But that was about the time when work started getting hectic and busy and I had my business equipment to work on and repair too. But maybe I can get the 800 back together this week though as I have a bit of unforeseen time off due to the lack of rain for about a month. Which we just got a down-poor over the weekend and more scheduled later in the week, but my customer's lawns still need time to recover and grow again now that they got rain. So I doubt I'm going to bother with the mouse anyway, until I get the 800 running again. really, it would be stupid to do it now since I can't test it right away before I put the mouse back together, or I may be taking it apart and redoing the hack if I hook things up wrong. One main thing is making sure the mouse's pot lines match up with the Atari Touch tablet as to which pots are controlling X and Y coordinates or things could end up backwards. You'd think this would be a no-brainer, but there was no standard between computer brands as to which pots (assuming a POT0 and POT1 or 1 and 2 depending on how they chose to number them) controlled X or Y movement. In fact, even on the Atari the Atari touch tablet is the opposite of the Koala Pad and the Super Sketch drawing board. So you can't use one tablet with the other's software unless you splice and cross the pot lines at minimum, which I think is all that is different between the Atari touch tablet and the Super Sketch pad. But the Koala vs Atari is different. There could also be an issue with the software too, in whether the programmers decided the 0 "starting" position should be for each pot and if moving to the right is counting up from 0 or down from, IIRC on the Atari, 255, and the same with the other direction.which is actually the problem with the Atari tablet vs Koala, as the X direction and Y use the same pots, but the program's Y movement position count is opposite on the Koala and Koala Paint than it is for the Atari Touch tablet and Atari Artist. So I need to test the mouse with the 800 for which pots go to which pot line as well as if Atari Artist's cursor will move up the screen when I push the mouse forward, or if it will move the cursor down and the same thing with the other direction. I might be able to fix this problem on the pots in the mouse, if they exist, by swapping wires on the pot itself so that the pot reads opposite input possibly, but that may not work. But the chance is good that if the mouse isn't compatible with programs that use the Atari Touch tablet, that it is compatible with ones that use the Koala pad. And some, like Rambrandt, let you choose either tablet. Then I'll just use the programs made for either-or and the ones that work for both.
