[rescue] Spaceballs.

[Dan Sikorski]

I've got a spaceball, and it has a connector precisely like a sun
keyboard (sorry, i don't know the name of the connector) I've never done
anything with it, it's just been sitting around for a few years.  Anyone
know if this thing works in solaris?

	-Dan

On Fri, 2001-12-07 at 15:37, Corda Albert J DLVA wrote:
> I don't know about the newer spaceballs, but I've played
> a little bit with the (oldest?) SGI spaceball... The large
> one with the tan contoured base that curves around the ball...
> 
> It has a serial interface, and while I was tinkering with it,
> I set up 2 cu sessions to( and from) the serial port it was connected
> to, so I could watch/capture the output... I was quite suprised
> when, on a lark, I sent the ball an ascii "h", and it
> immediately responded with a "readable" ascii help menu,
> displaying all the commands it accepts... the menu was short
> and cryptic, but it was readable! I don't know if the
> newer balls will do this, but it might be worth trying, and
> would considerably ease the task of trying to reverse-engineer
> the spaceball protocol... I imagine the protocol must not
> have changed that much across models, in order to insure
> driver compatibility...
> 
> 
> -al-
> -acorda at 1bigred.com
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Joshua D Boyd [mailto:jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu]
> > Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 4:29 PM
> > To: rescue at sunhelp.org
> > Subject: [rescue] Spaceballs.
> > 
> > 
> > Does anyone know anything about getting the spaceballs (some 
> > are branded 
> > Labtec, others spacetek, other HP, other IBM, other SGI, all 
> > appear to have
> > the same model numbers, 2003, 3003, 4000FLX, and be the same) 
> > working with 
> > linux?  (Or an OS other than HP-UX, AIX, Irix, or windows)
> > 
> > The 4000FLX models appear to have an XInput driver for XFree, 
> > and there
> > also appears to be a driver in the linux joystick system for 
> > the 4000FLX.  But
> > that is all I've been able find.  The 4000flx drivers appear 
> > to specifically
> > not work with the earlier models
> > 
> > I'm mainly intersted in the 2003s and the 3003s since they 
> > are cheaper, and 
> > I think they look cooler also.  They are serial devices.  
> > I've never tried 
> > writing serial drivers before, but I would think that the 
> > devices shouldn't be
> > too hard, unless someone went and intentionally obfuscated 
> > the protocol (can't
> > put that past companies, especially small/cheap ones like labtec).
> > 
> > Also, on a related note, what are the chances of being able 
> > to use serial 
> > devices like palmpilots, wacom tablets, digital cameras, and 
> > spaceballs off of
> > a gadget like a xyplex?  So far the reports haven't been good 
> > for USB to serial
> > converters, or I'd try those.  I still trying to figure what 
> > to do about 
> > wanting a digital camera, a wacom tablet, a spaceball, a palm 
> > pilot, and a null
> > modem cable on one 2 serial port machine.  At the moment I'm 
> > reaching around
> > and swapping cables fairly frequently.
> > 
> > -- 
> > Joshua D. Boyd
> > _______________________________________________
> > rescue maillist  -  rescue at sunhelp.org
> > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
> > 
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