Modern RISC OS systems tend to come equipped with a number of USB ports, one of which is normally used to connect the mouse to the computer.
However, this wasn’t always the case – USB was first introduced in the mid-1990s, and the Acorn Archimedes first appeared in 1987; Acorn didn’t have the option of USB, and instead designed the Archimedes, RiscPC, and all the variants, to use a quadrature mouse.
The BBC Micro, of course, is an older computer again and in its case, if you had a mouse, it was probably connected via the user port.
Putting on his 4D hat, Chris Evans has brought out a new mouse interface – the SmallyMouse2, designed by Simon Inns. This connects tot the mouse socket on Acorn RISC OS systems, or the user port on a BBC Micro, and presents a fully compatible USB interface to which a modern mouse can be connected – even cordless ones.
SmallyMouse2 comes in three flavours:
- The ‘Acorn’ version: cased, with a cable suitable for connecting to the 9 pin miniDIN mouse socket on Acorn’s RISC OS computers, such as the Archimedes and RiscPC, for £49.00.
- The ‘BBC’ version: cased, with a cable suitable for connecting to the user port on the BBC range of computers, also priced at £49.00.
- A bare board version, allowing you to add your own case and cable to connect to other systems with a similar need, but different socket. This version costs £38.00.
4D is not VAT registered, so there is no VAT to add to those prices (and therefore none to reclaim for VAT registered customers), but there will be postage on top of £2.50 for Europe and £3.50 for the rest of the world.
A limited stock of all three versions are available now, with more due next week, and they are available as a bundle with a mouse.
The SmallyMouse2 design and source code are open source, and both are available from Simon Inns, or 4D on the main page for the product given above.
