Im looking for a piece of something that I dont know to get started on my project.
I read about the PS/2 and touchpad libraries and have both of them, but im trying to figure out a way to use a touchpad to fill up a bar on an LCD, (like the bottom Row)
the goal is to swipe from left to right (or whatever) and have it work like turning up the volume knob on a radio...you know?
has anyone done this? I looked at the MIdi project but im confused as to how the values are read from the mouse.
Id also like to use the mouse as a controller to select things, like, post a message to the LCD, then swipe from left to right, and then it will post something different. and if you "click" then it displays something different.
Im still learning this arduino thing.
BTW, some of the things you guys have made is truly amazing, i can watch arduino Youtube videos for hours!!! Well done!
Thanks for your help
The problem is the limited character display on the LCD. I did something similar by using the few user definable characters. The basic display was the solid block and I "user defined" several characters that looked like an arrow head emerging from the left hand side of the display. This was used to indicate the volume from a rotor display, it worked quite well.
You can use a DS touch screen to great effect, and it is easy to control, just with analogue inputs, you can then use it for anything, and it's transparent 
You can get them for about $9/$10 £6/£7, cheapio...
The issue with PS/2 touchpads is that you have to find the right pins on the touchpad to connect and unless you can find a datasheet, this can be rather difficult, as I have found (I have 2 touchpads but I can't use them cos I don't know what the pinouts are).
Mowcius
I have the touchpad and pinouts (its ps/2).
but these pads are not like, variable resistors for X and Y, from what I understand, the pad returns a numerical value.
I want to do something like, use the touchpad to turn up the radio by swiping up and down on the pad.
could you sample me some code?
I also mentioned that i would like to have it fill up a bar graph as well...I researched this for a few days, and I do remember someone that custom made characters, like, If a char has 5x7 pixels in the LCD, the pixels would all be off. Then the next character is the first column of pixels, then that character is replaced with a character that has the first 2 columns of pixels on...and 3, 4, 5, until it's a solid block. then the same for the next char.
This is exactly what i want to do. but im havin trouble with the reading part. and getting the values to fill the graph
Thanks for all your help so far!