Conference 7.286::atarist

    Hi Nigel,
    
    Sorry cant help your mouse, seeing your name reminded me, did you get
    the copy of the article I sent you?? 
    
    Pat K.
    

    Try powering up your system with the mouse unplugged. If the cursor
    still drifts then most likely you have a bad or loose chip in the
    ST. In which case try re-seating the socketed chips in the ST.
    
    	Ray

    One other thing you might want to try is to check to make sure the
    motherboard isn't shorting out with the ground shield underneath.
    Loose chips are more of an infancy bug. Cutting through the shield
    insulation, however, takes a fair amount of time. I didn't see it
    for a year and a half.
    							John.

    I've had to reseat my chips about once every year or so. And this
    is a system with hold down clips on the "leadless" chips. The symptom
    is a flacky floppy drive. Reseating has always cured it.
    
    	Ray

    Given that the mouse moves normally in the horizontal axis, and
    that it was made it Taiwan, I have assumed that the vertical motion
    sensor is at fault. I remember seeing something to the effect that
    the sensor was voltage sensitive and operating very close to the
    tolerance of the components. The recommendation was to measure the
    voltage across the device and replace a resistor with a new one
    calculated to reset the voltage to the appropriate level.
    
    I was hoping that someone else had seen this and could remind me
    as to which resistor and what the ideal voltage is.
    
    If I ignore the mouse, I can move the cursor with the arrows but
    that is not the way to work!

    Does the cursor move to the bottom and top of the screen on it's
    own (thats what it I assumed you meant untill your last posting)? Or do
    you mean as you're moving the mouse verticaly it doesn't do the
    right thing? If the later is the case then what you need is a good
    mouse cleaning...remove the rubber ball in the bottom of the mouse
    and clean the gunk from the steel rollers inside the mouse. A few
    techinques for doing this are described in other notes, but it is'nt
    difficult.
    
    If you're problem is realy a dead mouse as you think then I can't
    help you there, sorry.
    
    	Ray

    Sounds like the dead mouse problem that I had.  You will have to:
    
    1) Send it back to Atari with $25.00 to cover P&H for replacement.
    
    2) Bring it to a dealer for repair/replacement.
    
    The problem with some of the mice (in particular the Taiwan mice
    by my experience) is that one of LED's burns out in either the
    horizontal or verticle direction.  Even if you could find a replacement
    part, it is no picnic to replace and you will probably damage the
    replacement LED in the process.  My understanding of the problem
    is that they didn't use the correct value of current limiting resistor
    in some of the mice (I think the Taiwan mice tend to suffer this
    fate).
    
    After sending back 2 dead Taiwan mice to Atari, I received two living
    Hong Kong mice.  Time will tell if they have fixed the problem.
    
    							-Dave

I don't know if this has been seen before, but I got it off of USENET on
March 2, just before the USENET feed died a widely mourned death. It is
the best explanation of mouse failure that I've seen yet, although I
haven't seen any comments one way or the other verifying its accuracy.
The author's name wasn't included.

Mouse Failures
--------------
There have been lots of reports of mice failing on the newer STs. The
following reader is the first to offer any insight as to the reason:

  Our company has had a rash of mouse failures. The situation was
  puzzling because not one home user had a similar failure and there
  are more mice (mouses) off site than on site.
 
  We believe we know the problem. There are load resistors used in
  conjunction with the phototransistors. They typically have values
  of 600-800 ohms. With extended hours of operation (7-8 hours per
  day computers are on at work, typically <1 hour at home) there
  appears to be some deterioration in the load capacity that is
  followed by transistor drift.
 
  If all resistors are changed to 1K ohm, voila the problems go
  away (except that labour costs make it more expensive to replace
  the resistors than to buy new mice).
 
  Is Atari aware of this problem and has it been addressed properly?
  Or are there bound-to-fail mice out there in production lines?

    Re .8
    This is what I was looking for, but in a little more detail.
    
    Symptom - in more detail.
    	I turn the system on. For a short, and decreasing, time all
    is normal. Then the mouse slows in a vertical movement. Then the
    mouse goes down as I pull up. Then the mouse moves up as I move
    the mouse vertically. At this point I ignore the mouse for vertical
    motion and the cursor control keys work fine, as long as the
    application recognizes them.
    
    Given that this mouse is probably a lost cause, does anyone have
    a copy of the notes on turning a trackball into a mouse equivalent?
    I bought a trackball from Kay-Bee when they were $10, and haven't
    used it for anything yet.
    

PRNSYS::DUA1:[LOMICKAJ.HOBBY.ST]RAT.TXT contains my instructions for
converting a CX22 into a "dead rat" for the Atari, as a substitue for
the mouse.

As described, you only get one of the two mouse buttons, but it's easy
to extend the instructios to cover both buttons.

    Thanks. I also found some instructions in one of the issues of STZMAG.

    
    Hi,
    
    another two penny worth:-
    
    I heard recently that there is a naughty little virus about that
    reverses mouse movement. ie move mouse left, cursor moves right etc.
    Apparently this virus doesnt do anything more drastic, (yet).
    Anyone confirm or deny this rumour??
    
    Cheers
    
    Pat K.

    
    Yes there is a mouse virus about. All it did was to reverse the
    vertical movement of the mouse, i.e. as the mouse is moved up, the
    cursor moves down the screen. 
    
    Chris

    Replaced the before mentioned 700-800 ohm resistors with 1k ohm
    resistors successfully, my TAIWAN mouse now works like a charm.
    
    thanks.
    
    PS Its now my "spare" mouse, because I got impatient :-)
    
     Martin

    Which resistors are they? I made a 'dead rat' but the buttons don't
    work too well. My multimeter got trodden on so I can't simply measure
    the values of all of the resistors on the board (I'll buy a new
    one but there are so many other things to spend my pennies on that
    it will take a while).

    Supplement to 451.14
    
    I was refering to the problems mentioned in 251.8, fixing movement
    problems. (not problems with pressing the ears of the mouse.)
    
    The resistors sit between ground and one leg of the "light receiver"
    You have two for each direction, that means 4 * 1k ohm resistors
    to be changed, if you have problems in both vertical and horizontal
    direction.
    
    You will have to identify them by the color code, to make sure to
    take the right ones.
    
    		0   Black
    		1   Brown
    		2   red                 example  680 ohm
    		3   orange
    		4   Yellow                 Blue  grey  brown  gold
    		5   green                   /      |     \        \
    		6   blue                   /       |      \        \
    		7   Violet                /        |       \        \
    		8   grey                 /         |        \        Quality
    		9   white	
                                      digit      digit    number of zeroes 
                                                                            
    					brown     black   red  = 1000 ohm
    
    
    So out with the magnifying glass and the screwdriver (not the one
    with ice in it :-) )
    

	����Martin
                                                             
                                                                     
    
                        
    

Though this doesn't probably affect any of the current mouse problems, my
mouse fell about 6" off my shelf onto my D50 synth and would only go up
and down, no horizontal movement.  It turned out that one of the little metal 
rollers had gotten jogged out of place.  Snapping it back in fixed it.

Chad blessed_with_a_japanese_mouse

Thanks for the help, especially .16.  I had a vertically handicapped rodent
and 1000 ohm resistors effected a remarkable recovery.  My resistor values
were 570 ohm and 380 ohm for the vertical sensors.

Also did the MB1-MB2 button swap.  Worked like a charm!

Now, it's back to Super Breakout!

Thanks again!

Rich Murray

    My left mouse button has gone flaky after the poor thing kissed a cement
    floor.  I would like to open it up and see if it is something I can
    fix, but for the life of me can't figure out how to do this!
    
    If anyone can clue me in , I'd appreciate it.
    
    If I need a new mouse, is it better to go with third party ones rather
    than buying another from Atari?
    
    					Brian

    
    As far as I remember, there's just the two phillips head screws
    that have to be removed, and the 2 halfs can be seperated by
    a light pry at the bottom...
    
    Actually, sometimes just tightening the screws is a solution!
    
    Otherwise open it up, try pushing the actual button.  The two
    large rectangles on the outside (what's normally pressed with
    the fingers) just push the inner buttons...
    
    _John_
    

John's right, just a couple of screws hold the puppy together but I think you
have to pry off those little plastic pads to get to them first.

After you open her up, first try cleaning it out real good, especially around
the plastic posts that push down on the buttons and of course, the rollers on
the mouseball.  Check to make sure that a solder connection on the left mouse
button switch hasn't broken.  If it still does not work you can either replace
the defective mouse button (parts usually availble through Best or B&C) or just
swap the left and right buttons.  The right button is so seldom used you would
probably never miss it.

As far as replacement mice go, I think you can do better than the standard
Atari mouse.  I tried the Best replacement mouse and liked it fine except for 
its narrow mouse buttons which my fingers sometimes missed.  Feel and response 
was OK, though.

My favorite is the cordless mouse from the now defunct Practical Solutions.  It
is an amazing little unit with excellent feel and response with a real added
benefit of no cord to mess with.  It does run through those little AAA batteries
quickly, however.  Best to get two sets of Ni-Cads for it so you can use one 
pair while the other charges.

hutch