DIY PS2(USB) Standard mouse adaptor

[Peter]

Oh, I thought USB was more difficult to support that's why I was asking about PS2.

If the implementation is supposed to be on the native side, USB host support is indeed much more difficult. Even to the degree of being impossible for a non-accelerated machine. While PS/2 is doable, and was already implemented by me for three QL-style machines.

Some people are considering to outsource USB host support to a CPU external to the QL, in effect using a second machine that is magnitudes faster and more complex than the QL. I always found this a matter of philosphy. E.g. a Raspberry or the likes could provide USB host support for the QL - but it could as well emulate the whole machine, improving more than just mouse support. Where does "outsourcing" start and where does it stop?

My own design decisions always stayed fully on the native side, rather dealing with the challenges and shortcomings than "outsourcing" or "emulating". It is a matter of taste. For a purely pragmatic view, "outsourcing" and "emulating" is the easier way to go. But it tends to move the focus of our small QL development manpower away from the native side to other, non-68K platforms.

[bwinkel67]

Yup, I didn't think a straight out USB implementation that allowed for any device as I figured that would be complex. I guess it might go the route of say the RetroWifi (which I have and haven't played with much yet) which itself is a computer on a chip implementing all of the networking protocols the unexpanded (err BB) QL could never do on its own. I remember before I found that I was thinking you could likely do that sort of networking on a QL if you used a Raspberry Pi and connect via serial port so that isn't too far from that. I was initially thinking more PS/2 since I see that being done on other retro platforms (the Spectrum Next comes to mind).

So I was just curious if anyone had tried to create a PS/2 ROM-socket'ed device for the QL and how difficult it would be to do. I saw this for Spectrum clones but I think it connects into their keyboard socket directly, which I assume makes that a ton easier, as there is no modification to the ROM to map keyboard entries. Now could this be used as a starter, by initially re-mapping Speccy to QL keys to see if you could get it to somewhat work...dunno. Wish I had grabbed that odd QL motherboard that was inexpensive so I had it to play with as I don't want to tear apart the only one I have to try with.

Addendum: ...and I found some designs that works directly with a Spectrum:

http://trastero.speccy.org/cosas/droy/imar3/imar3_e.htm
http://www.jrok.com/project/speckey/spec_key.html