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USB or Bluetooth trackpad with 2 finger scrolling support?

D

dmmcintyre3

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 4, 2007
2,131
3
Could I make one out of MacBook parts? The trackpad and keyboard is usb on MacBooks

MacBook's seem like it would be the easiest as the keyboard/ trackpad uses one cable that looks like it only has 4 wires in it and usb is 4 wires!

If you just want to recommend not trying to build this just go away! I do not want any more people saying it would be easier to use a iPod touch or iPhone as I do not have one.
I would love it if someone would post the MacBook trackpad / keyboard cable pinout.

I need someone to give me the pinout of the MacBook keyboard / trackpad cable. If I had this I would know weather this would work or not and it would be very useful. It would also help if anybody has a MacBook (plastic) with a broken screen that they don't want that would be very helpful if you could try to connect it to usb cables once the pinout is posted. I already know it is USB so it is possible but I need the pinout before I can continue and I go and purchase a CD MB top case for some experimenting.

If you want it wireless you can put a wireless usb hub inside it and a battery to make it wireless. If I build this out of PB parts I would finally have some motivation to get a new battery if I could make the PB battery work.
 
kastenbrust said:
I can't actually understand what your asking? Run that by me again in English please...
Click to expand...
He wants an external trackpad Wacom-like device that supports multi-touch. A quick, old fashioned Google brings up another MR post, but nothing concrete. I would say this is a DIY.
 
Can anybody with a MacBook confirm the keyboard / trackpad connector on the logic board is just a USB port because if it is it would just be a matter of connecting usb wires to the KB/TP cable and plugging it into a USB port.
 
dmmcintyre3 said:
Can anybody with a MacBook confirm the keyboard / trackpad connector on the logic board is just a USB port because if it is it would just be a matter of connecting usb wires to the KB/TP cable and plugging it into a USB port.
Click to expand...

I thought it was a standard notebook motherboard serial connector?
 
kastenbrust said:
I thought it was a standard notebook motherboard serial connector?
Click to expand...

It is a combined KB and TP cable and it appears to have 4 wires in it. I could not find any pictures of the connector on iFixit but it looks like it is 4 pins jugging by the cable. USB is 4 pin and it is a usb device on MacBook's.
 
See it is a USB device on my PB
 

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It is USB I can make it wireless USB!

http://www.iogear.com/product/GUWH104KIT/

It appears if the top case uses usb to connect to the computer I would need to make a usb cable that attaches to the usb cable on the top case and if I wanted it wireless I would need the device above. I could also make the USB ports work If I used a MacBook bottom case as a case for it. I would like it to be backlit but then I would have to use PB parts which appears that it has a cable with more than 4 pins for the keyboard.
 
If I used MacBook unibody parts I could get the backlit KB but I cannot find any pictures of the bottom of the top case to look at the cable.
 
if you have an iphone you can just use that? sorry if that seems a silly thing to say, but there are quite a few touchpad applications in the app store!
 
petemwah said:
if you have an iphone you can just use that? sorry if that seems a silly thing to say, but there are quite a few touchpad applications in the app store!
Click to expand...

Sorry I am kind of wanting a backlit keyboard with it now and I do not have an iPhone or iPod Touch.
 
I have confermed the internal TP/KB is usb on the MacBook
080163011122_01.jpg

But no pinout of the cable:(

For the PB aluminum

050761031705_01.gif


but still no pinout of the cable

and nothing for the unibody MacBook with backlit KB. I think I could even make the IR port work on the MacBook case and then get a remote and have front row with remote on my PowerBook!
 
Older developer notes used to include pinouts of the cables but the high resolution PB and MB do not. Girrr. It would help the development of this if I had a broken MacBook to play around with.
 
I'm still trying to figure out what you would need/want this for :confused:
But as the guy above said, the easiest (only?) way for a multitouch trackpad is an iPod Touch/iPhone.
 
Patriks7 said:
I'm still trying to figure out what you would need/want this for :confused:
But as the guy above said, the easiest (only?) way for a multitouch trackpad is an iPod Touch/iPhone.
Click to expand...
I just want an external trackpad with 2 finger scrolling support and a built in keyboard like this but with 2 finger scrolling support which nothing else has. iPhone as a trackpad does not have a (decent) built in keyboard and I do not have one or a cell phone at all. I am thinking it is just a matter of connecting the correct cable to the correct pin on a MB top case.

IF THERE IS ANY MORE OF THIS IT WILL BE REPORTED TO THE MODERATORS AND I WILL ASK THEM TO REMOVE THIS FROM MY THREAD! IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HELP ME JUST GO AWAY. I DO NOT HAVE A IPHONE OR IPOD TOUCH SO DO NOT SUGGEST THIS. A IPHONE DOES NOT HAVE A BUILT IN KEYBOARD SO IT WILL NOT DO WHAT I WANT. PEOPLE EVEN SAID THAT IT DOES NOT WORK WITH MAC SO IT IS USELESS!
 
Looks like someone is getting a little angry over a simple suggestion.

And how exactly do you plan on creating such a thing from an Aluminum Macbook. It's not as if the keyboard and trackpad come apart from the machine.
 
11800506 said:
Looks like someone is getting a little angry over a simple suggestion.

And how exactly do you plan on creating such a thing from an Aluminum Macbook. It's not as if the keyboard and trackpad come apart from the machine.
Click to expand...

I was thinking just using the whole MacBook case as a case for it. I mean where else would I put the wireless usb hub and it was the fact that it was mentioned twice that bothered me. especially the useless post that I quoted before you posted. He contributed nothing to the thread and I wanted to make it where it was seen so it would not happen again. the suggestion would not even work when I looked people said it did not work with Mac. He did not look at the app he was suggesting using to find out it would not work with Mac as the reviewers said. And i was looking at the plastic MacBooks too mainly and I know nothing about an aluminum MacBook as far as making it work. I cannot even find disassembly instructions for the aluminum MacBooks to look at the keyboard / trackpad cable.
 
mbp keyboard

dmmcintyre3 said:
I was thinking just using the whole MacBook case as a case for it. I mean where else would I put the wireless usb hub and it was the fact that it was mentioned twice that bothered me. especially the useless post that I quoted before you posted. He contributed nothing to the thread and I wanted to make it where it was seen so it would not happen again. the suggestion would not even work when I looked people said it did not work with Mac. He did not look at the app he was suggesting using to find out it would not work with Mac as the reviewers said. And i was looking at the plastic MacBooks too mainly and I know nothing about an aluminum MacBook as far as making it work. I cannot even find disassembly instructions for the aluminum MacBooks to look at the keyboard / trackpad cable.
Click to expand...

Hello,

I think your trying to do what I'm currently working on. Making the bottom aluminum slab of a MBP into a desktop keyboard (complete with touchpad and blacklight!). What I'm trying to find out, is if the backlight uses the same 5v supply from the USB. Have you made any progress on yours?
 
Logicwax and dogeen: Any luck with your projects? The video dogeen posted is precisely the set up I'd like to build. Any help you can offer would be much appreciated.
 
this is exactly the mod I have been looking to do myself. I want to do it with an aluminum unibody or black macbook... if you are able to succeed with it please post pics. good luck.
 
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