The Problem with Mice

[Mac128]

I've been comparing my old DE-9 mice and have come up with a question. In particular I am comparing the following mice (all of which are made in the USA unless otherwise specified):

M0100/Macintosh (beige/taupe) – square taupe connector/590-0146

M0100/Apple IIc (all cream) – square cream connector/590-0206

M0100/Macintosh (beige/taupe) – rounded taupe connector/590-0320

A2M4035/Apple IIc (all cream) – rounded cream connector/590-0203

M0100/Macintosh – Platinum (Japan)/590-0355-A

M0100/Macintosh – Platinum (Malaysia)/590-0055-A

I know there are also the following mice I don't have:

A2M2050?/AppleMouse II, for IIe, IIPlus & II (beige/taupe Mac style) – square cream connector/?

Model?/AppleMouse II, for IIe, IIPlus & II (all cream Apple IIc style) – rounded cream connector/?

A2M2070/Apple IIe (beige/taupe Mac style) – rounded taupe connector/590-0320

A2M2070/Apple IIe – Platinum/590-0369

A2M4035/Apple IIc (Mac/IIe style) – Platinum/590-0369

And for completeness:

A9M0050/Lisa – squeeze taupe connector/?

PN?/Lisa – thumbscrews ?/?

(This website gives some excellent details

http://www.decodesystems.com/apple-mice.html)

Does anyone have anything else, any other countries, or can fill in the missing details? Particularly the internals of the Apple II/e mouse variants.

Now for my question: In looking at the internal mechanisms, I discovered that all of the Mice are essentially identical with respect to parts and circuit board components: in particular they all contain an IC chip, except the very first Apple IIc & Macintosh square connector mice, which are conspicuous by the absence of the chip.

That leads me to ask several things:

1) What is that IC chip there to do? (The Mac Family Hardware Guide doesn't elaborate)

2) The Apple IIc can't use the Macintosh mouse because it uses pin 1 to identify the device connected to its combo game/mouse port and the Mac's pin 1 is wired to ground. How then does the IIc mouse identify itself?

3) If all the other mice have IC chips, why do the mice without a chip also work work just fine on a Macintosh?

That's it for now ...

 

[Metalchic]

its possible that the IC chip has to do with the way the macintosh Polls the hardware. perhaps the computyer that one wihtout it assumes theres one keyborad and one mouse and doesnt poll the devices.

 

[luddite]

Regarding the IIc... some Mac mice will work, some won't. There was a discussion on comp.sys.apple2 about this and it was determined that the problem was dependent on the manufacturer rather than the model number. In other words, different manufacturers used different internals for the same model.

Just thought I'd throw in an extra variable ;-)

 

[Mac128]

luddite, I checked on comp.sys.apple2 and couldn't find the thread you mean, but actually it's pretty clear:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=7522

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=6383

http://www.apple2.org.za/mirrors/ground.icaen.uiowa.edu/MiscInfo/Hardware/mouse.iic

It's definitely manufacturer related, but it seems to be those made outside the US, which as far as I can tell are only the Platinum mice. The same design to be used with the Mac Plus, IIe Platinum & IIc Plus. As far as I know, none of the original beige mice, NOT designed for the IIc, will work with it. So, only the cream colored IIc mouse and US built Platinum mouse will work on a IIc.

I would speculate that Apple tried to create one mouse across their product line to reduce costs in the old technology, which the US Platinum mouse did, but failed to communicate the update to their foreign manufacturers, or didn't care as the US supply is the only one that stocked IIc orders.

In any event, that's what I'm trying to determine – that what I've learned is accurate and complete.