Apple touchpad

I have seen some Macbook's in the past which had huge touchpads

I am not an Apple guy, so I do not know exactly what model.
I know it was on a 17"

If anyone has a 17" Macbook, can you tell me the dimensions of the touchpad

I am considering making an interfacing board to connect it to a USB/PS2 port for my homemade laptop.

K-TRON

 

it is the same on all models...

 

mine is ~12.2cm in diagonal.

 

it is 5*5, and I think that the touchpad size is all the same for all the models (corrects me if I am wrong)

 

105 mm x 75mm exactly

or approx

4.13" x 2.95"

Nice to see you K-TRON, most interested in your next mod project. Are you posting this build up?

 

Thanks for the measurements
Its a big touchpad for a laptop.
I dont know how it will map to a screen which is 20.5" x 13"

I literally have room for a 18" x 12" touchpad, but I have not seen any made.
I wanted to do a wacom touchpad, but you cant really use it like a touchpad. I would have to use a stylus, which is kinda weird.

So I will keep the apple touchpad in mind, I am going to search for something a bit bigger. If I could find a 4 x 6" one that would be more ideal

Well no build thread yet.
It is 42.4lbs as of about 2 weeks ago.
I am trying to aim for 35lbs finished. I dont know if its achievable yet.

K-TRON

 

but not all touchpads are equal... Apples are more than size, they are glass (with a coating) and using the same tech they use in the iPhone and iPod Touch.... don't find something bigger thats very inferior and hard to use.

I would so love to have an external Apple trackpad like on the laptops that could connect USB to use... that would be so fantastic cuz these things are soooo nice.

 

To me, the unibody trackpad is the greatest thing for laptops since duo-core machines. Once upon a time, I HAD to have a mouse to be productively quick on any laptop. Apple has now changed the way that I use notebooks.

 

Wow, a glass coated touchpad?
I have only seen it in person. I have never used one.
I guess its time for me to hunt a macbook user down and see if I can try that touchpad out

By the way, I have only found one larger touchpad, and from what I hear it is not accurate at all. So I guess its the macbook one

K-TRON

 

Yep, it's glass so it's a very smooth surface, yet it feels very tactile and at the same time very accurate.

From all the notebooks I've used so far, the Apple Touchpad has been the best I've ever with the gestures, swiping, and 2 finger scrolling there's absolutely no comparison.

 

You heard from misinformed sources.

 

I think he meant that he found one larger than Apples, and that it isn't very accurate, so he's choosing the Macbook one... not that the Macbook is large and not accurate...

 

I agree. It's a fantastic trackpad.

 

Yes, that is what I meant.
The larger touchpad I found was made by a Taiwanese ODM, and from what people say it is not very accurate and skips when in use. Its designed for cash registers. Its not something I want.

So as a look on ebay, I find this: (Is this the same size touchpad as I have seen on the 17"?)

http://cgi.ebay.com/WHITE-MACBOOK-A1181-13-3-PALMREST-TOUCHPAD-MOUSE-ASSY_W0QQitemZ360185257341QQcmdZViewItemQQptZApple_Laptops?hash=item53dcb6dd7d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Oh, and one more thing,
does anyone know what kind of interface the touchpad is?
Does anyone know how wires are in the ribbon cable which attaches it to the motherboard?

K-TRON

 

that is the older model smaller ones. The newer ones that are really good (and glass) are larger, and have no separate button, the whole pad is a click button... and just a single button. You'd have to try to get drivers working for it right to recognize all the multi finger touches, or at least the two fingers for scrolling and right clicking.... maybe pull the Windows drivers from the bootcamp install that supports all that.

they interface through the USB bus on the computers, so you should be able to figure out the pin out and wire it into a USB plug.

 

The one you are looking for will be form a Unibody MB/MBP, it's probably not going to be cheap and will probably be hard to find.

Here is one on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.ca/Aluminum-unibody...tops?hash=item4148c6efe5&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

The problem is, is that the keyboard and track and palmrest are all one thing. So you will probably not find just a track pad.

*edit* wooo NVM this is what you need. http://cgi.ebay.ca/Aluminum-Unibody...in_0?hash=item4148ae6e2b&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14 (from the same selling looks like he just buys Mac's and sells the parts.)

 

Thanks, I am bookmarking that.
I accidentally inherited a Wacom Bamboo 4"x6" today. I just need to find a stylus for it. It seems pretty nice, I may end up using it if its any good. If not, I will definitely try emailing apple and see if they can help me interface to their touchpad. I dont know if it is a straight usb ribbon, or if I need some kind of special controller to read it.
It would be pretty cool to have one of those unibody macbook touchpads and a wacom. I have the space

K-TRON

 

Just adding something in here...

Nearly all touchpads use the same tech in the iPhone and iPod touch (capacitive sensors), and do support multi touch. However, it's the implementation that's the issue. Synaptics touchpads do have support in their drivers, but most laptop manufacturers do not have the gestures enabled. In addition, I believe Apple has exclusive rights to some of the gestures. It's where Apple's position as both a hardware and software manufacturer excels.

In fact, as an example, my 3 year old nx9420 had a Synpatics pad. No support for multi touch gestures in Windows, but once I got Fedora on, I could do many of the Apple style gestures. 2 finger scroll both vertically and horizontally, and 2 finger tap for right click, among others.