Apple Mouse Prototype
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I recently purchased an Apple mouse prototype (dated 12/NOV/1980) which was sold by earlyapple (the Huston brothers) on eBay. I really wanted to bid on it and win the auction as such an item is rare and is part of the microcomputer history. I invite you to discover that prototype with me.

Dimensions

  • Length: 80 mm
  • Width: 58 mm
  • Height: 35 mm

The weight of the beast is unknown but it is heavy. It has three buttons. At the end of the cable, the 16-pins connector plugs into o Apple II's internal 16-pin DIP game connector.

Click a picture to enlarge it

External pictures


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Front view

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Right view

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Back view

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Left view

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Upper view

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Bottom view

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Complete view

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Close view

Internal pictures


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Front view

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Back view

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Close view

Cable pictures


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Connector view

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Connector view

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Wire view

The mouse and the game I/O signals

Pin number
J21  SIGNAL  WIRE    DESCRIPTION
 1   +5V     white   +5 volts
 2   SW0     n/c     Switch input 0
 3   SW1     n/c     Switch input 1
 4   SW2     n/c     Switch input 2
 5   +5V     red     +5-volt pull-up
 6   PDL0    orange  Analog input 0
 7   PDL2    green   Analog input 2
 8   GND     brown   Power and signal ground
 9   SW3     grey    Switch input 3
10   PDL1    yellow  Analog input 1
11   PDL3    blue    Analog input 3
12   AN3     n/c     Digital output 3
13   AN2     n/c     Digital output 2
14   AN1     n/c     Digital output 1
15   AN0     n/c     Digital output 0
16   N.C.    black   No connection

Let's now study (thanks to the above pictures) which wire does what?
ITEM         WIRE    SIGNAL
wheel U/D    green   PDL2
wheel L/R    orange  PDL0
button 1     grey    SW3
button 2     yellow  PDL1
button 3     blue    PDL3

Eh! It cannot work! There are two wires that are wrongly connected: the state of buttons 2 and 3 cannot be read through PDL1 (10) and PDL3 (11) but, on the contrary, should have been connected to SW0 (2) and SW1 (3). The correct (normal) table should be seen as:
Pin number
J21  SIGNAL  WIRE    DESCRIPTION
 1   +5V     white   +5 volts
 2   SW0     yellow  Switch input 0
 3   SW1     blue    Switch input 1
 4   SW2     n/c     Switch input 2
 5   +5V     red     +5-volt pull-up
 6   PDL0    orange  Analog input 0
 7   PDL2    green   Analog input 2
 8   GND     brown   Power and signal ground
 9   SW3     grey    Switch input 3
10   PDL1    n/c     Analog input 1
11   PDL3    n/c     Analog input 3
12   AN3     n/c     Digital output 3
13   AN2     n/c     Digital output 2
14   AN1     n/c     Digital output 1
15   AN0     n/c     Digital output 0
16   N.C.    black   No connection

And, by feature:
ITEM         WIRE    SIGNAL
wheel U/D    green   PDL2
wheel L/R    orange  PDL0
button 1     grey    SW3
button 2     yellow  SW0
button 3     blue    SW1
I need some advice, how can I move the two pins from pins 10 and 11 to pins 2 and 3 w/o breaking them????????

Testing the mouse
The following Applesoft program can be used to get the different states from the mouse. What I have not been able to figure out is how to calculate the mouse movements. PDL(0) and PDL(2) return a value above 127 if the mouse moves but it does not say in which direction! Annoying, isn't it?

10 HOME
20 HTAB 1 : VTAB 1
30 PRINT PDL(0), PDL(2)
40 HTAB 1 : VTAB 3
50 PRINT PEEK(49248), PEEK(49249), PEEK(49250)
60 GOTO 20

You know what, I like my mouse!
Antoine, 7/2010