Thinkpads Forum

few months ago did a touckpad mod for an x61s.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=113605

This time decided to do a hidden touchpad. The idea is to make the palmrest touch sensitive itself.
After some search found the needed sensitive film with controller board by Circus . Unfortunately, it turned that this line of product is out of production. I started calling all the retailer of Circus and found one guy who had a single one provided as a sample. He agreed to sell it to me. So finally got it for about 50 euros.

So here is the mod.

the touch film and board
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 153226.jpg

the inner left of the palmrest
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 154257.jpg

same after sanding
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 155358.jpg

film attached
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 161435.jpg

bye - bye pcmci cage
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 162522.jpg

using tip of pcmci eject stick as an on/off switch for the touchpad
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 172153.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 172752.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 174639.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 174705.jpg

glued the pcmci door from inside
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 172344.jpg

wiring
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 230250.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 002048.jpg

everything on its place
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 145017.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 150529.jpg

attached a piece of leather to mark the dimentions of touch area
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 173743.jpg

the main challenge was the fitting of all into x61 body, especially considering that the film is sensitive from both sides and if something is contacting it from behind it is becoming glitchy. So finally had to make a small bridge over the film to place the controller board in the same area without having them contacting.

the result is cool. Touch is quite advanced with scrolling, zooming, and tons of other configurations that I never use

the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lXHGTww2VY


Mod edit: too many pictures and they are too large!
Please read the Forum Rules, they are there for a reason!

Very NICE!!

Interesting mod, I personally don't like your leather choice but that can be swappable I guess

Tasurinchi wrote:Very NICE!!

Interesting mod, I personally don't like your leather choice but that can be swappable I guess

thanks,

Yeah, I don like it very much either
Yes, it is just a sticker. Can replace it with any other thing. Just experimenting with various options.

vavet wrote: This time decided to do a hidden touchpad. The idea is to make the palmrest touch sensitive itself.

Good idea and nice mod!

One thing that can be annoying - to work with this touchpad you must move left hand from palmrest and back. May be it is more prefered for left-handers. They can switch it on / off and use touchpad leaving right hand on keyboard (may be for using arrows / function keys). But for us (right-handers) this is not practical. As for me v1.0 is more practical;)

IMHO - touchpad area marking sticker will collect dust and dirt and will unstuck after hard keyboard work - BUT TIME WILL TELL.

Hi Valet,

may you please be so gentle to give further specifications, which model of touchpad you have chosen, where you have done the connections on the board itself, which software you have used...to get the pad working...

so what i like to get, a part list of parts that would be needed,
what modififations would have been done on the palm, which palm you have used,....


Thank you very much,

PT

PandorasThinkpad wrote:Hi Valet,

may you please be so gentle to give further specifications, which model of touchpad you have chosen, where you have done the connections on the board itself, which software you have used...to get the pad working...

so what i like to get, a part list of parts that would be needed,
what modififations would have been done on the palm, which palm you have used,....

It's called Cirque GligeSensor HTS900-1032
Got it from here http://www.maxi-electronic.de/texte/navinh.htm
The driver is this http://www.cirque.com/desktoptouchpad/drivers.aspx

I have used a simple mpcie to usb 2.0 adapter from ebay (you need to have Midleton BIOS).
the adapter is this one
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... w60_12.jpg

the tip
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 230250.jpg

overall looks like this
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 002048.jpg

The connector on the wires is not really necessary, did it for convenience.

or you can solder the usb contacts to the pins of one of your external usb ports.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301 ... 125123.jpg
In this case you will need to block the usb port from outside because it won't be usable.

As i mentioned the sensor can not be contacted from behind. I bent a metal sheet to make a kind of a bridge over the sensor to attach the board in the same area (See the detailed pics in the initial post). When the PCMCI cage is removed you will have 7.8 mm height to place the board. If the bridge has 1-2 height then everything will fit. Personally, I would love to see it in the middle of palmrest (or at least at the right), but the glide sensor is too wide to be placed there and as the right hand side is also busy with mpcie ports the only alternative I could think of was the right hand side.
Of course you can find a better fitting option.

The on/off switch is on the 5v power wire. BTW, the switch is really needed.
I chose to go hard way and put it where the PCMCI eject button was, but you can put it elsewhere. For example in place of telephone line port.

The position of the sensor That I used is actually 180 degree flipped from the default, but the driver allows you to adjust the functionality accordingly.
r
I have used the original palmrest with fingerprint sensor. You just need to send it from iside to make sure the surface is even.

hope this will help.

Amazing thing!

Unfortunately there will no way to get such an touchpad here in germany, so i would have to take some solution of another model of a thinkpad and get it working in the X61s. But to use a usb touchpad would easy most of trouble that may occur.

So i will have to wait until i will get some modded palmrest, if anyone did it by himself (here in germany).

But it will be a help in any way for any interested people in us, so tumb up!

Regards,

PT

Finally managed to move the touch to center.

pics
http://i.imgur.com/4yfIUqL.jpg
modified speaker and its connector, also had to remove one of modems holders.

http://i.imgur.com/GsVY9iK.jpg
messy internals before fixation

http://i.imgur.com/0EVkWcd.jpg
bridge over the sensitive film to keep it intact from other side.

http://i.imgur.com/tUyKVJY.jpg
had to bend the film to fit, no horisontal scroll

http://i.imgur.com/Uv6ciE8.jpg?1
overall view

video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOetpNJ ... e=youtu.be

Wow... that looks so cool!! Congrats

replaced the leather with thinner vinyl sticker.

http://i.imgur.com/0skUFLy.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EyvepH1.jpg

I think this one looks better

Awesome work! Makes me want to boot up my old x61 again