----- Original Message ----- From: "Bruce Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "G-List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 9:21 PM
Subject: Re: The Cube is dead!
On Sunday, January 16, 2005, at 02:02 AM, James Fraser wrote:
Just out of curiosity, did the manufacturer of these converters clearly
state that they would work with mice only? Or is it the machines themselves
that are somehow at fault?
don't know, our experience is entirely empirical in nature...I tried to use it to hook up a PS /2 keyboard to a mac and a PC and it didn't work on either. These adapters are mentioned as for the mice...I don't know who made 'em, they were in the Gateway box with the mouse and stuff.
That said there are adapters that say they work with keyboards, so I'd expect that they do work.
I know that PS/2 keyboards and mice aren't necessarily interchangeable...I don't know the pinouts offhand so I'm not sure.
First, PS/2 keyboard and mice ports are wired slightly differently, as you guessed.
Second, there are two types of adapters out there. The first is the expensive kind, they have actual logic internal to them, providing PS/2 keyboard or mouse ports, and using that along with USB keyboard emulation to adapt the PS/2 parts to USB. With these, any PS/2 keyboard/mouse will work. Part of the USB spec is the HID (Human Interface Device) spec which covers keyboards, mice, joysticks, and other generic input devices. As these adapters report back as generic HID compliant devices, any OS should be able to work with them.
The second type is usually bundled with the keyboard or mouse it's matched to. It's just a pass through, no logic, that ties a specific pin to ground to signal the keyboard/mouse to switch to USB mode. The USB logic has to be in the keyboard/mouse that is using this adapter.
Hope that clears things up.
Joshua Coombs
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