Thinkpads Forum

Can the physical pointing stick buttons be retrofitted on any of the newer ThinkPad models with the single-button set-up?


(Background:

I am looking high and low for a laptop with:
- a 2560*1440- or 2560*1600-pixel display
- a pointing stick with proper 3-button cluster

...and since I can't find one anywhere, now I'm desperate enough to consider making one.

I am hoping a 2014 X1 Carbon with pointing stick buttons from a 2013 X1 Carbon (or other older ThinkPad), or a W540 with pointing stick buttons from a W530 (or other older ThinkPad) would work.)

Not by any stretch of imagination.

Keyboards used on *40 series and the latest Carbon are entirely different - including the motherboard connector - from anything seen on previous ThinkPads, and the same applies to the touchpad.

How much effort and money are you talking about?

If you're willing to:
Make your own keyboard controller, find space inside the chassis for it, and wire it to (e.g.) USB pins somewhere OR
reverse engineer the embedded controller, modify its keyboard scanning procedures, and solder the keyboard ribbon cable to the motherboard OR
rip out the touchpad, make your own mouse buttons and put them there, somehow wire it to the motherboard as another mouse, and use software wizardry to make the buttons work with the existing trackpoint
AND
Spend months debugging the entire thing

Then sure, it's possible.

That's a shame, but thanks to both of you for your replies.

I'm not quite willing to dive in that far (yet?), so I'm down to:

1. hoping Lenovo comes to its senses and brings back the physical pointing stick buttons. (Does anyone know if that will happen?)

2. identifying the highest-resolution (highest-PPI) ThinkPad with physical pointing stick buttons. (Can anyone tell me, offhand, what that would be?)

3. sticking with the Dell Precision M4800 I am trying out right now. (It's very good, and the only real drawback is that 3200*1800 pixels on a 15.4-inch display is a little too high-resolution.

RedNubAddict wrote:
1. hoping Lenovo comes to its senses and brings back the physical pointing stick buttons. (Does anyone know if that will happen?)

Good luck with that one.

There are rumours that they will with the *50 generation, but I'll believe it when I see it...

2. identifying the highest-resolution (highest-PPI) ThinkPad with physical pointing stick buttons. (Can anyone tell me, offhand, what that would be?)

A FrankenPad with a QXGA (2048x1536) LCD such as one I have listed here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=114951

Apart from that, it's WUXGA (1920x1200) on 15.4" T61p, Z61p, T/W 500.

3. sticking with the Dell Precision M4800 I am trying out right now. (It's very good, and the only real drawback is that 3200*1800 pixels on a 15.4-inch display is a little too high-resolution.

These are fine machines...with that said, Dell's implementation of TrackPoint just outright sucks IMO...

You might take a look at the HP 840G1 which is available with a FHD IPS screen.
It only has 2 mouse buttons, but there are ways to map keys to mouse buttons,
at least on linux.

I've heard that HP Elitebooks have good pointing sticks, but no direct experience.

bit_twiddler wrote: I've heard that HP Elitebooks have good pointing sticks, but no direct experience.

They do, especially when one puts the real TrackPoint cap on.

The problem with HPs is that the keyboards - at least when compared to conventional ThinkPad ones - leave a lot to be desired.