Old laptop touchpads; useful?

[smallfry]

At work I occasionally have access to several very old laptops. The laptops are too old (and sometimes broken) to be of use for anything, but I got to thinking: is it possible to salvage the touchpads and use them for some home-made controllers? Just a crazy thought, I know, but...

[tekki]

It is one of the best things to have for VSTs with X/Y control, or just use it for your track selection.

That and a few arcade buttons is all I am missing on my controller atm.

[Fatlimey]

At work I occasionally have access to several very old laptops. The laptops are too old (and sometimes broken) to be of use for anything, but I got to thinking: is it possible to salvage the touchpads and use them for some home-made controllers? Just a crazy thought, I know, but...

Certainly possible:

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/...num=1197235191

You just need to work out what the touchpad interface is. Go search for datasheets for the parts based on manufacturer and serial numbers. It's dry detective work, but that's the heart of hardware hackery.

[smallfry]

Awesome, thanks for the info and the link. I'll pull out some touchpads and see what I can do. Cheers!

[BentoSan]

Certainly possible:

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/...num=1197235191

You just need to work out what the touchpad interface is. Go search for datasheets for the parts based on manufacturer and serial numbers. It's dry detective work, but that's the heart of hardware hackery.

Nice thanks for the info, thats pretty cool.