Is this possible? USB (female) to ADB (male) converter?

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Level 1

14 points

Is this possible? USB (female) to ADB (male) converter?

It's 2015, and increasingly, ADB keyboards and mice are becoming rarer to find, more expensive and, sadly, in increasingly poor condition. With the abundance of USB keyboards on the market, it would be nice to have the opportunity to use a relatively inexpensive, easily accessible USB keyboard on my old Macs. Has there ever been any attempt to create a USB (female) to ADB (male) converter? Or perhaps a PS/2 to ADB converter? Is this an engineering impossibility, or might there be some hope with a bit of effort? Thanks!

Macintosh LC III-OTHER, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, System 7.6, 32MB RAM, 25MHz

Posted on Feb 15, 2015 3:24 AM

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Answer 1

stevena1

Level 1

24 points

Feb 17, 2015 11:36 AM in response to lazarusnine

I've seen an 1987 Apple Keyboard (the first gen ADB) on eBay where someone soldered a USB port and replaced the ALPS chip and it could work on any generic USB driver. It's pretty cool, but I'll try to find a link to that.

The only way without replacing chips/soldering is to get Alphasmart ADB/USB adaptor as this is describing what you want it to do. (The Alphasmart device was very popular in schools back in the day, and ex Apple engineers started up that company hence the strong Apple connectivity.)

In fact it's probably cheaper than the iMate, probably $10 to 15 less than an iMate. I think people charge a real high premium on those. It beats the iMate, and all you do is plug the ADB to the keyboard (like the Alphasmart) and the USB to the USB port on the PC/Mac. No need for a separate ADB cable like in the case of the iMate.

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Answer 2

stevena1

Level 1

24 points

Feb 17, 2015 1:33 PM in response to lazarusnine

Opps I stand corrected! (misread your post)

It is not technically possible to use a USB keyboard on a 68K mac. USB support is very limited on any OS prior to 8, and like I mentioned about the hacked ADB keyboard, maybe its possible to do the opposite. How, I'm not sure.

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