Description

Introduction

I had a old busted dell laptop with a touch pad in it, I had heard these things were ps/2 compatible, but I had to find out for myself, this may work itself into a neat mod one day. First I had to figure out the pinouts of the connector on the back of the touchpad. Turns out the company who makes them had some really nice documentation, a 91 page pdf on every touchpad they pretty much made. Including the pinouts, and any other technical info I may want.

First I had to test to see if it would work. I just soldered to the ribbon cable for now, but im going to desolder the connector on the touchpads pcb and make my own interface, just making sure the ps/2 is true.

Project

All of the PDF info can be found Here. Starting on page 27 it lists all the info to get it hooked up to ps/2.

I decided to remove that nasty ribbon cable. But doing so was easier said than done. I had some trouble removing the plug on the touchpad pcb that the ribbon wire hooked into, I ended up ripping up several traces ‘DOH!, So I had to solder some wires to replace the torn traces. Turns out it is fine though. Good save on soldering skills. I also took the buttons off the ribbon cable, not sure where they will end up or where the whole thing will end up, but its a preliminary mod.

First I had to solder wires to the back of the touchpad, If you look closely you can see where I had to repair the traces in 3 spots.

Finally got those pesky buttons off the ribbon and prepped for soldering.

Buttons now soldered, and the useless ribbon I now have.