PowerBook G3 touchpad, reverse engineering?

[DiTBho]

hi
has the touchpad of the PowerBook G3 { Wallstreet, Lombard, Pismo } ever been reverse engineered?
is it the connector pinout and the protocol known?
if not, is anyone interested?

 

[joevt]

Is it not a ADB or USB device?
Does it appear in the I/O Registry of Mac OS X? Or the Name Registry in OS 9?
Is it a device that is added to the device tree in Open Firmware? If so then looking at the Open Firmware driver may be useful.

https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...rmware-with-the-great-gazelle-pci-hack.45493/
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...lashing-easier-way-using-flashrom.7013/page-3

 

[obsolete]

It's almost certainly ADB, since ADB trackpads continued to be used all the way through the G4 models.

 

[DiTBho]

It's almost certainly ADB, since ADB trackpads continued to be used all the way through the G4 models.

is it the same for iBook G3s?

 

[DiTBho]

Is it not a ADB or USB device?
Does it appear in the I/O Registry of Mac OS X? Or the Name Registry in OS 9?
Is it a device that is added to the device tree in Open Firmware? If so then looking at the Open Firmware driver may be useful.

https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...rmware-with-the-great-gazelle-pci-hack.45493/
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...lashing-easier-way-using-flashrom.7013/page-3

Thanks, I will!

 

[croissantking]

is it the same for iBook G3s?

Yes

 

[aladds]

I remember SideTrack was an alternative driver for _at least_ Pismos which allowed scrolling and additional tap options, so there was at least some knowledge of what the hardware was and what it could do beyond basic functions. It wasn’t open, though.

I think the trackpads were made by Synaptics

 

[DiTBho]

I think the trackpads were made by Synaptics

Yup. Unfortunately there is no documentation.

 

[okto]

I remember SideTrack was an alternative driver for _at least_ Pismos which allowed scrolling and additional tap options

Is SideTrack still available? I can no longer live without trackpad scrolling.

 

[aladds]

They stopped supporting it years ago (and the company seems defunct now) but the dmg is still on the archived site and I would be surprised if there isn’t some way to crack it / a leaked serial after all these years