This is a project that may appeal to DOS enthusiasts who can handle a soldering iron.

The board was developed to allow a PC104 embedded x86 computer to use a modern optical mouse in DOS, by converting the PS2 mouse protocol to that used by the serial port. It is a 2 sided board, 82mm x 65 mm, with silk-screen and solder-resist. One missing pull-up resistor needs adding to the underside. It requires 5V dc from the PC’s PSU. It has four mounting holes.

It is not related to the Arduino-based solution currently available or any other. I don’t know how this product compares performance-wise, but it does work, and has the advantage of not using any surface mount components, so easy to build. The PCBs are left over from a development project, and I would like to know how people find them before I commit to producing any more.

You will need the following:

6 resistors: 680R, 10K x 3, 47K x 2

5 capacitors: 22pF cer x 2, 47u/25V elec , 100nF, 1uF polyester

1 LED

2 BC547 transistors

1 MAX233 RS232 level shifter IC

1 PIC18F1320-I/P microcontroller

1 right angle PCB mount DB9 female connector

1 right angle PS2 PCB mouse socket

1 straight 6p6c RJ11 PCB mount programming connector (or use a 5 way header on flying leads)

1 10MHz crystal

1 20 way IC DIP socket

1 18 way IC DIP socket

A PIC Programmer such as PICkit3, PICkit4, PICkit5, ICD3, ICD4 etc

The Intel Hex file for the programming image will be supplied.

The board has been tested under DOS 6.22 with the CuteMouse, Microsoft and Logitech mouse drivers as well as in a desktop running Windows 10. It has been tested with HP, Microsoft and Genius PS2 mice. Certain types of USB mice MAY work with an adapter, but only if they are PS2 compatible. None have been tried. Better to stick to those with a PS2 connector.

Only left and right mouse buttons are handled; no middle buttons, mouse wheels, intelli-mice etc.

No configuration parameters are handled; only the basic reset and set stream mode commands are handled.

The circuit has been designed for normal desktop application use. It has been tested using Norton Utilities 8 and appears smooth in operation. Mouse movements are truncated if necessary to normal serial mouse extents.