Things To Do With A Broken Laptop: Touchpad Hacking (part 1)

I don't know if it's just me, but whenever I see a broken computer sitting around, I can't help but think of all of the cool parts and pieces that can be hacked from it! This will probably end up being a series about what to do with broken laptops, so to kick it off, we're going to salvage and hack the touchpad from a broken laptop. This means we're going to strip it out and rewire it to control other things! Let's see if this actually works. Also, GO BUY MY BOOK :-)
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Aluminum Foil Capacative Touch Sensor - www.drsusansim....
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[@hapaxlegomenon420]

Hey, I know you read your comments so I thought I'd share a little story with you. Back when I was like 10-13 not sure exactly (20 now so a while ago) I found your channel and was so excited because it was right up my alley with the tech/diy content. I watched a whole bunch of your videos (remember one on backtrack, and I remembered your green intro and the nut), but tragically forgot the name of your channel. I remember looking for it trying to track it down, I thought it was called wingnut, but all that got me was LOTR studio... I couldn't find your channel for the life of me. I tried every few years or so when it popped into my head, and finally a year or so ago I found it again on final crusade. So thanks for the videos, I couldn't believe you were still making them when I found you, and just wanted to share this. You were my youtube great white whale.

[@Fixided]

That's really sweet aww

[@Tinkernut]

Lukas, you are my new hero ;-) Thanks for sharing. People like you are why I continue to make videos!

[@hapaxlegomenon420]

@@Tinkernut Thanks uwu you put a lot of work into your videos and it shows! Thanks for the years of service and good luck with your newest family member!

[@helengorelik5412]

@random stuff why not?

[@AndreasA.S.]

im going to use a touchpad as a hidden number pad for a door entry circuit.

[@santhoshsamuel1055]

That's cool

[@teddieschweiger9034]

That would be awesome.

[@ofsanjay]

good ideas. tinkernut subscribers are smart

[@jjbailey01]

I totally need to do this for a security system for my old Nissan motorhome.

[@DaPurpleJ]

not so hidden anymore huh ;)

[@FLABrowncoat]

YES. IMO, "Stuff to salvage/repurpose from broken/defunct PCs and laptop" is a fantastic idea for a video series, because here in the US, it's ridiculously easy to come across computers being thrown out than any other tech. I've googled ideas for what to do with the laptop I'm about to junk, but can never find anything but "mine crypto" -- if it was capable of doing that well, I wouldn't be throwing it away!

[@Tinkernut]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@jopo6445]

I salvaged a screen from my old laptop for a smart mirror. The laptop is still stored away and just waiting to be gutted for future projects

[@borissman]

Make a fancy light switch

[@Luuk3333]

Turn the touchpad into a color picker for an RGB LED strip or lamp! And most touchpads I tried still work fine with a piece of paper on top of it.

[@ryanchase2092]

Dimmer switch on the y axis and LED color on the x axis.

[@RDJ134]

You Should use the Laptop case for a Raspberry Pi/singleboardcomputer project :)

[@ofsanjay]

that's a great idea for a compact computer project

[@trobolina2]

Use it for a swipe based lock, Like on you phone where you unlock it with a pattern.

[@santhoshsamuel1055]

Awesome

[@addydiesel6627]

Some of the best and smoothest scrolling trackpads can be found in the oldest laptops. Thanks Tinkernut

[@imppaco]

You should show how you connect it to a Raspberry Pi. Cool stuff!

[@haugstadianer]

Philips hue brightness and color control

[@ColinXYZ]

@Probably merlin We’re not sure yet After searching around I found that it is possible to use a Meshbee device with Phillips hue which could be used to achieve this.

[@Taras195]

You could use this to create a thereminvox - type sound synthesizer, where x corresponds to pitch, and y to resonance

[@AndreasA.S.]

now for a series on reusing old screens

[@laurispeterisvejs4007]

I have an old ThinkPad that i want to turn into a wireless keyboard and touchpad. Lets now hack the keyboard!

[@luisgrajeda4147]

You can buy a kit for arduino nano and make y Your laptop keyboard to usb

[@firefly2472]

Would control my life with it..... Oh wait, dont have that.

[@SebastiaanBosschaart]

use the touchpad as a LED light controller, every x/y coordinates is linked to a color, black is down, white is up, and everyhting in between is a color

[@Djrulez203]

Control my smart bulb’s brightness. Or use it for pattern lock instead of numbers for my door.

[@mark879]

I am very happy to run across this video. It looks like a great start to a really fun project!

[@mihaelpanjkrc7870]

I would use it as gesture controle for my DIY Bluetooth speaker

[@roccorid]

Make control pitch and volume of an oscillator. Or the cutoff and resonance of a low pass filter.

[@turtleb01]

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED

[@antospin4004]

You could use that for drawing,just use a capacitive pen and draw there as you would do in a paper and then connect the trackpad to an application that translate X and Y coordinates into a line,i know that it exists but it's much less expensive than the commercial one. You could even set an alternative options to make a rubber so that in that specific X and Y coordinate it just erase or paint white...

[@R4monLP]

add the Touchpad to a controller like the steam controller or ps4. Maybe for better aiming or something like that.

[@victorpkstrength]

Super cool! It could be used as a numpad replacement? You could draw your pin on the surface instead of typing it.

[@johnbobbitt6470]

12v application for a cars center console. Fiberglassed in the palmrest AROUND the so as to have a factory mounting for it. Also backed it with sheet metal for strength. Connected to raspberry pi as a control accessory, with hopes of eventually having dual controls. The other being the cursor joystick from an Audi. The touchscreen is a dashdash mounted 10” tablet display Also connected is a USB hub containing a DSLR dongle for AM/FM radio reception, USB wiFi adapter, and jump drives for storage

[@Xfacehack]

Your explanation on how the trackpad was A freaking plus! Loved this video!

[@SizemoreSystem]

I'm thinking of using it as a USB mouse or Bluetooth trackpad, but that's really simple.

[@user-md4nm6tb8d]

This channel should have more viewers

[@itsandyme9192]

If the track pad was smaller, it would be a neat interface for a TV remote control, or a gamepad.

[@edugames150]

I would control a midi device with it, x being one parameter and y being another(using control change). Arduino Uno usually uses a MIDI connector on the serial Port for command send but you could use USB on It, to replace the midi connector

[@a-way401]

@Edward Elric I would love to do make a DIY touchpad midi controller. Did you by any chance attempt this ?

[@TheRolfFR]

You could use it with a drawing machine to move a pen on a sheet of paper

[@MrLogut]

Great explanation of how trackpads work but what about multi touch ones ?

[@xkcdstickfigure]

A drone with a giant printout of a cusor on it, and then you use the touchpad to move it up/down/left/right

[@brianpiper3188]

A touchpad-controlled CNC router would be cool! Start with an etch a sketch for proof of concept.

[@BaselSyed]

A gesture control system for a wheel chair would be nice

[@maxximumb]

@tinkernut You could use the touchpad as a virtual dial combination lock. Say our combination was L3, R6, L10. To activate you would put your finger on the touchpad near the top (12 o'clock on a clock face) and drag your finger around an imaginary clock face, to the left in an anti-clockwise direction to 3 o'clock. Then around the clock to the right, clockwise to 6 o'clock. Finally left, anti-clockwise to 10 o'clock. To read the numbers from the touch pad, the Arduino would store the start position and then read in the numbers from the touchpad data. As the finger moves around the imaginary clock face the X and Y values will change. So for our first number we're travelling anticlockwise to 3 o'clock. The X and Y will decrease, as we round the 9, the X will start to increase and the Y will continue to decrease. As we round the 6, both the X and Y will increase. We know when we are at the three when the finger stops after reading in a number of data samples where X and Y were increasing but Y was increasing exponentially faster than the X. We hold the finger still for a half second and an LED lights so we know it's recorded the first number in our combination. Repeat this for each number. It will take a little trial and error to figure out the relation of the numbers leading to the numbers between the quarters, but I'm sure it's possible. I don't have a touchpad to experiment with. once the right number of digits for the combination have been entered, the Arduino can compare it to the stored combination and then trigger a solenoid or servo to open a lock if the combination is correct.

[@bladesman123]

You could use it as a pressure pad to set off a detonator for an IED

[@dazbrugernavn]

Could be cool to use it as some philips hue gesture control button, since its so flat it could sit nice on a wall :)

[@TheKetsa]

How hard would it be to make a touchpad to USB adapter ? to use it as an external touchpad.

[@kedarprabhudessai]

Hi nice video again 👌👌😀. I will be happy to make a rgb pallet controller out of it. Just stick a rgb pallet photo on mouse pad and somehow figure out how to map those values to.rgb pallet and thus controlling rgb lighting. I know it can be done using smartphone more easily but it can be fun with this touchpad 😺

[@yousefgharaibeh6173]

For example, you can control an Arduino servo motor, Or make it an extension for another laptop or phone, or to a Raspberry Pi. That will be a good project I think.

[@sampatsiaw]

i love my old lenovo keyboard and trackpad. Can I repurpose the other half of the laptop as a Bluetooth keyboard for my new devices?

[@TechBuild]

What about controlling a remote controlled car? The finger strokes could be used to control its speed and direction.

[@electricruchir]

Been following tinkernut since the start, still going strong and amazing. Keep up the amazing work! Waiting for part 2

[@caco498]

i just bought a lot of synaptics touchpads modules and I'm thinking in how to make a bigger touchpad device! Maybe putting 4 ou 6 side by side to make a mega touchpad your video is awesome

[@psynchro]

I don't know, I just hit subscribe when the wormhole into capacitive touch opened. I think the fact that I just used that metaphor explains why.

[@dont.ripfuller6587]

not really a metaphor but yea we get it

[@moth.monster]

Couldn't you just wire a PS/2 (well, mini-DIN) connector onto the ribbon cable?

[@Tinkernut]

Yes, you could!

[@Baxtexx]

Lots of use cases for track pads. Unfortunatly almost all old track pads have pretty bad tracking.

[@jack8407]

GOOD TO SEE YOU BACK!

[@RetroAdventure]

A book!? That is awesome!

[@crazyfroginsky]

TBH I would use it for another way to control a Car Media Center... like how people use the Raspi as a Car Mediacenter... just have it somewhere that is very convenient for the driver (such as a swipe right to change song, swipe left to go back to previous song, up and down for volume and so on)

[@1983Chriso]

nice man good luck with the books sales :)

[@nephron9924]

Congrats on the book btw! Will it be available as a ebook?

[@landynj]

Use ULTRA fine point sharpie to write numbers and program it to when you press the numbers in a certain order (Also known as a PIN code) it unlocks a door

[@EndriuGolara247]

Maybe it could be an input device like digital pen, for writing or signing smth on computer. Also you could make personal gestures, for example swiping right could be next song or swipe up could be volume up. Also it could be a keyboard, actually a numpad or pad with shortcuts. When I started watching this video I haven't thought that it can be any usefull, but now I maybe use my own old laptop trackpad.

[@marianpelmus]

nice, I like this, I was looking for a video like this some time ago, thanks :D

[@mathix420]

Very nice ! You maybe can try to make a lock pattern for computer (like in Android)

[@nephron9924]

How about control colors on a led strip?

[@Aliens797]

Very informative video, thank you very much!

[@46spikey]

I like the Lorem Ipsum book :)

[@harshvardhanrathi5499]

Like swipe to open a door?

[@jordanmunoz1813]

i'd use it as a touch-pad to zoom in and out of construction blueprints/markups

[@tamarathompson9418]

Mood lighting? Pretty awesome straight forward effort anyways.

[@tamarathompson9418]

I saw a guy make some laptop cameras into a security system . That was pretty sweet .

[@vibhanshubiswas8729]

Definitely going to make one effects midi controller.

[@JessicaRyan7of9]

A switch for obs. Would be cool to see.

[@rockax]

Hook it to a motor then on top of it put a camera so you can pan around

[@Erllz]

I would like you to use gestures. These gestures then can be send to json post URL or something like that. In my case it would be practical with domoticz and a wemos. It could turn your heater on or other smart devices.

[@mkalidib8672]

I'm thinking to connect it with a mobile phone.. do you think this will work ?

[@Urays]

A video on how to make a bluetooth speakers from a speaker taken out from broken or old laptop....

[@burgersnchips]

Surely if it's based on PS/2 you could just add the cable and use it as a mouse replacement for a desktop

[@williamburns1]

I would use it to control the color of the lights

[@legacycz]

I like this new graphics :). Also, interesting video.

[@williamjordan811]

Ordered. Glad you provided a kindle format due to living in a RV Class A Motor Home, no room for physical books. Plus Bits do not weigh much...9.10938356(11)×10−31 kg hehe

[@lityum2779]

Your version of streamdeck ?? sounds possible

[@napalmstrike2007]

Make a bug walk on it. Then make a laser that points at the X and Y coordinates of that bug. Basically a fancy bug zapper.

[@MrBledi]

The internet is full of shity diy projects, but hacking a trackpad, that's awesome and we'll detailed I was able to track all those tined pads....

[@Costel1986]

Put it on an a gamepad replacing the direction potentiometer with a touchpad.

[@imashish86]

Bell for home; Light switch; or rather powering up something and powering down unless the finger is released.

[@dragosbogdan3450]

Hi. Isn't more cheap ps/2 to usb adapter ?

[@AlejandroArcade]

Doing this with a laptop keyboard would be super cool, as many laptops have very good keyboards.

[@Aleinux]

Use to remote control. What about your ssh tunneling? It’s finish?

[@ArunShankartheRealOne]

Standupmaths released a book and now Tinkernut,I sense a story here .

[@retrojimmyx]

Thanks for vid. I have a Synaptics TM1202SPD-167-5 and I can't find any information on this anywhere on the Web (for pinouts) - any ideas of what I can do before this trackpad goes in the bin? Cheers.

[@areamusicale]

A Chaospad. Y'know, like a synthesizer chaos pad ;-)

[@visualimpakt3583]

I'm curious how you solved the ps2 problem, meaning what connection options do you have if you cant use usb right?...

[@dfgaJK]

But how does multi point touch work??

[@uponthefaceoftheabyss4254]

both increase capacitance, using average change for one you can calculate when and where there are two

[@muslim891ify]

First thanks for your continuous great tutorials and ideas Secondly i hope that from you , make tutorials more slowly to help people like me (beginners) to understand clearly.. And i want you for this touchpad to make controlling by gestures...sorry for my pad English

[@BloodAsp]

Nooooo! This is a good video, why did it end too soon!?!?

[@user-md4nm6tb8d]

Gotta wait for that part two😉

[@JaydenLitolff]

Could you have used a ps/2 to USB adaptor and then an otg adaptor for the tablet?

[@wopperkasper22]

I just preordered your book (paperback version) It’s like Christmas for late March :) I was just wondering. There is a kindle version of the book. So I was wondering if the book would contain a lot of pictures? Or will it be mostly text? I only ask because kindles can’t display color. (At least mine cannot) And if the book used pictures as instructions, I could be hard to read on the kindle. I opted for the paperback version. But I may buy the kindle version as a gift for my brother witch is why I wrote this comment :) I’m exited for the book and for what you will do next. Cheers from Denmark

[@EdaRaine]

if i sell a broken laptop and they find a way to fix it does this mean they can hack into the laptop and have access to all my info? is it safe to sell my broken laptop

[@asankahendahewa1345]

I would like to attach it to RPi. Then I can use it with any project i might do

[@edugames150]

You could use a Arduino Leonardo to transform this into a USB touch mouse too

[@waynenocton]

Excellent video!

[@DiyintheGhetto]

Sense you are using a arduino which I'm also into arduino's then Make a game out of it. Maybe some led game of some kind or LCD game?

[@kolyra]

I have made a touchpad controlled arduino bicycle speedometer with the nokia 5110 lcd and a menu system and all that goodies. I'm still working on it tho, I want it to have an on-board li-ion battery, powering lights and systems, and charged by the dynamo

[@slime_tiger9568]

What kind of arduino would be good for this kind of project?

[@AndreasA.S.]

adafruit has some low cost arduino boards with serial out, try there. proto on an uno, then move to smaller board if desired

[@vipulpriyadarshi8993]

Could use the touchpad as a phone controller for scrolling things..

[@thereisnogravity]

how about the re-using the old laptop keyboard as a usb keyboard.

[@DIY-DaddyO]

I'd like to use it as a wireless mouse for a tower PC. Or add it to a full size keyboard that's using a USB to connect with a tower. Using a mouse makes my hand hurt.

[@meeraaravind06]

Very nice video

[@RealRuler2112]

Build a wooden case for a Pi & integrate the touchpad into the top. Other side, hack the keyboard out of one of those silly cell phones that has a slide-out keyboard. =)