I have a 13W3->VGA adapter so I can plug in my NeXT Color Turbo slab into a normal PC monitor - now I want to do the same for the keyboard and mouse to a PS2 keyboard.
I had a thought about how to do this: I could get an updated ROM, ADB soundbox, and then use one of the Belkin ADB->PS2 conversion devices. This is non ideal since I'd have to find the ROM and ADB soundbox.
Does anyone have an idea of how to do this with a non-ADB soundbox? Is the keyboard connector compatible with, say, a Sun keyboard/mouse? If so, I could keep my ROM and Soundbox and just get a Belkin Sun->PS2 converter.
Has anyone else done this? Any suggestions or ideas? I'd love to have my black hardware use the same KVM as the rest of my boxes.
Thanks,
-Robert
I don't think it's that simple. It seems the NeXT kbd/mouse bus signals are quite different from any others, so you'd need a certain amount of electronics (and reverse engineering skills) to make it work. Search this forum for more info.
More specifically:
Quote from: "rjbrown99"
I had a thought about how to do this: I could get an updated ROM, ADB soundbox, and then use one of the Belkin ADB->PS2 conversion devices. This is non ideal since I'd have to find the ROM and ADB soundbox.
First: you'll need a PS2->ADB, not the other way around. I've not searched for these, but I do know that you can get a ADB->USB (to use ADB devices in USB systems).
Second, assuming there is such a device, then you can use PS2 hardware (I assume keyboard and mouse, not just mouse), with an ADB soundbox only if you also have the updated ROM (v74, although I read in the forums that maybe some others might also work), and once again only if you have an ADB capable machine (Turbo chipset, which means either Turbo Color, or 25Mhz but with the Turbo chipset, which is identified by having 4 x 72-pin RAM slots, versus the non-Turbo chipset which has 8 x 30pin RAM slots)
I'm sure some would be curious to know if you have found an PS2->ADB converter, so keep us posted.
Quote from: "rjbrown99"
Does anyone have an idea of how to do this with a non-ADB soundbox? Is the keyboard connector compatible with, say, a Sun keyboard/mouse? If so, I could keep my ROM and Soundbox and just get a Belkin Sun->PS2 converter.
This part is the part which needs the reverse engineering skills. The non-ADB bus is a propriatery system, so the keyboard isn't compatible with Sun, etc. The mouse on the other hand is a bus-type mouse, which means you can use a non-NeXT mouse. Search the forum. Ashman has a thread about this.
Good luck