exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I bought a Eiffel 3 to use on my system and discovered it wasn't set up to work on my old 520ST. I wondered if I could wire the connector in some way to get it to work. Well, one way to find out is to hook the Eiffel up and see what happens. This is the Eiffel 3 I am using. It has 8 position connector with pin 2 not connected.

From looking at the STE schematic these are the pinouts.

1 - GND
2- NC
3 - Floppy Light
4 - +5V
5 - Rx Data
6 - Tx Data
7 - Reset
8 - GND


My 520ST has a 18 position connector since the mouse and joystick ports are on the mainboard. Here is the difference in the connectors.


I found the pinouts for the 18 position connector in the 520ST schematic.


Since my 520ST has an 18 position connector I need to make a new one. I found some pieces to use.


After gluing them together I had a connector to work with.


Gently removing the wires from the Eiffel's original connector was no problem. With the wires moved over to their corresponding positions on the 18 position connector, I have something that I hope will work with my mainboard. I didn't move over pin 3 (floppy light) and pin 8 (additional GND) since I didn't see anywhere to connect them to.


So hooking up the whole thing to my mainboard I was ready to test it.


After the desktop booted up, I tried to use the mouse, but unfortunately it didn't move the cursor. It appears something is not working right.

So this initial attempt wasn't successful. Any ideas why this didn't work?

TheNameOfTheGame wrote: 29 Apr 2021 00:22 I bought a Eiffel 3 to use on my system and discovered it wasn't set up to work on my old 520ST. I wondered if I could wire the connector in some way to get it to work. Well, one way to find out is to hook the Eiffel up and see what happens. This is the Eiffel 3 I am using. It has 8 position connector with pin 2 not connected.

From looking at the STE schematic these are the pinouts.

1 - GND
2- NC
3 - Floppy Light
4 - +5V
5 - Rx Data
6 - Tx Data
7 - Reset
8 - GND

Heres schematic of the Eiffel. You use P10 pins on the Eiffel board to go to the connector on the ST
Not exactly the same Eiffel but it should give you an idea. Mine works fine on the h4/h5 which has the same keyboard pinout as a ST.

Oops didn't look close enough.. you have the old keyboard plugging connector. I fixed the one I had by using it as a doner machine. The ps2 mouse is p4 on the schematic.

Yes, P10 on your schematic matches how I thought it was. Wonder why it isn't working then.

*edit* The ALT-Arrow method of moving the cursor with the keyboard works! So the keyboard is functional. But the 9pin mouse is still not working.

TheNameOfTheGame wrote: 29 Apr 2021 15:01 Yes, P10 on your schematic matches how I thought it was. Wonder why it isn't working then.

*edit* The ALT-Arrow method of moving the cursor with the keyboard works! So the keyboard is functional. But the 9pin mouse is still not working.

I use a ps2 mouse with mine, the 9 pin connectors are for the joysticks I believe. I don’t know if the eiffel3 has a ps2 connector but if it does give it a try.

Ah, thanks, man, that worked. I hooked up a ps2 mouse (can't believe I found one) and it works! So I guess 9pin mice aren't supported with this Eiffel which is fine. :D

TheNameOfTheGame wrote: 29 Apr 2021 15:57 Ah, thanks, man, that worked. I hooked up a ps2 mouse (can't believe I found one) and it works! So I guess 9pin mice aren't supported with this Eiffel which is fine. :D

If you cant find a PS2 mouse or keyboard you can convert a USB mouse / keyboard with those USB to PS/2 adaptors. I did that originally then actually modified the Eiffel 3 - https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =18&t=1729

Ya, I think he separated the joystick ports and the mouse. He sells the Eiffel as ps2 mouse and keyboard. I don't have a joystick but I be it works on the 9 pin ports.