| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 2967.1 | Reboot the mouse? | skylab.zko.dec.com::FISHER | Gravity: Not just a good idea. It's the law! | Fri Mar 28 1997 12:28 | 18 |
| Here is an idea:
At least the mice I am familiar with (not PC ones) have different modes that
the s/w can set them to. The problem with the latter comes when you switch
from one PC to another the first PC has changed modes on the mouse and the
second one doees not know it.
Another possible problem is that the power to the mouse is interrupted briefly
during the switch, but not enough for it to go through a power-up sequence.
The fix is the same for both problems: Somehow make the switch more slowly so
that power to the mouse is interrupted when you switch and in effect it
"reboots" and sends a power-up message to its new host so the new host knows to
reset its mode. I don't know exactly how to do this, but if you had a
5-position switch you could put your machines on 1-3-5 and leave 2 and 4 blank
so that switching between them you would have a power-off position.
Burns
|
| 2967.2 | Mouse Power in Switchbox? | BOOKS::RAPHAELSON | | Fri Mar 28 1997 12:41 | 3 |
| Maybe you could try having the power for the mouse be applied at the
switchbox rather than the PC. Then it could stay constant across all
switch positions, as you'd only be switching data.........Jon.........
|
| 2967.3 | tried some of it | OGBON::60709::gordon | Des Gordon@sno | Mon Mar 31 1997 19:47 | 11 |
| g'day
Thanks for the comments so far
re .1: some testing i have done involved disconnecting the mouse
completely and then reconnecting, the mouse did not work doing this
re .2: I believe that some consoles do this type of thing amd have
electonics to back it up, these cost heaps unfortunately, it does
make me wonder if i could tie some pins together across all ports
and connect them to the mouse
|
| 2967.4 | | WRKSYS::INGRAHAM | Andy | Wed Apr 02 1997 08:33 | 7 |
| Switching them might also be interpreted by BOTH ends as a bunch of
random bits, which could throw either the mouse or the driver or both
into never-never land.
Aren't there commercial products for sharing a mouse, keyboard, and/or
monitor between several PCs? (I think I've seen them advertised in
the back pages of PC Magazine.) I wonder how they do it?
|
| 2967.5 | | PCBUOA::BAYJ | Jim, Portables | Wed Apr 02 1997 13:54 | 18 |
| There should be. Several laptops (including some older Digital ones)
incorporate the ability to support the internal pointing device and an
external mouse at the same time (I'm tempted to say you can hot plug
the mouse, but I'm not quite as sure about that).
I think its a pity that manufacturers of keyboards with embedded
trackballs and touchpads didn't have the sense to add a port for a
regular external mouse, so that you could get the best of both worlds
from the same device (e.g., I love the touchpad, my wife hates it).
But I know its possible. Since the mouse gets its power from the host,
part of the problem is keeping power to it. The other part, is that
the mouse holds a dialog with the system when it wakes up (at least as
part of the boot). Not sure how to maintain state from that
conversation, but it can be done.
jeb
|
| 2967.6 | ABout $39 | JULIET::HARRIS_MA | Networks Sales Exec | Wed Apr 02 1997 15:02 | 4 |
| Pickup Computer Shopper and look in the back. Several places sell the
dual Mouse input to single output devices for $39 or so....
Mark
|
| 2967.7 | maybe not in oz | OGBON::60709::gordon | Des Gordon@sno | Wed Apr 02 1997 21:47 | 12 |
| g'day,
Unfortunately I'm not in the U.S., the prices we have to pay for
things here are often many magnitudes larger, that is if we can
get them in the first place and many of the bit's 'n pieces we never
get.
Thanks
Des
|