interesting !
I agree that there is no need to re-invent the wheel! I stand corrected in regard to my perception of the original Mac keyboard Rick ----- Original Message ---- From: Mac128DOTcom <[email protected]> To: Vintage Macs <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, 11 March, 2009 5:31:44 PM Subject: Re: Using original macintosh keyboard/mouse with OS X? Unfortunately the Cassie had NOTHING to do with ADB, it was it's own proprietary mess that was eventually replaced by ADB. And yes, it was adapted to run on an old-style Mac which is all they had at the time. So reverse engineering would be of no use as you'd have to create an adapter from Cassie to ADB, or USB. However, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. THE WORK HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE FOR YOU. This is not the first time this has come up. http://www.kbdbabel.org/ http://dclausen.net/projects/tfam/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveclausen/sets/72157603702105276 Once more for the record, there is NOTHING simple about this. The Keyboard and mouse are NOT SERIAL devices per RS-232, 422 standards and use proprietary standards. And just for the record, while Microsoft did contribute some of the underlying code to Applesoft Basic, that was years before the IBM PC and even more before the advent of PS/2, which was entirely hardware driven by IBM. None of which influenced Apple's proprietary implementation of keyboards and Mice which were heavily evolved from the simple Apple II hardware, not to mention the mouse which Bill Gates never conceived of until he got his hands on a Lisa years later. On Mar 11, 1:53 am, Gregg Eshelman <[email protected]> wrote: > --- On Tue, 3/10/09, Mac128DOTcom <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Trust others have thoroughly vetted this issue. All of the > > links on > > this page point to that. The Mouse and Keyboard were most > > certainly > > NOT standard RS-422 serial protocols. They were proprietary > > designs > > that relied on bi-directional communication between the > > device and the > > computer. PS/2 and ADB on the other hand are dumb devices > > that simply > > send data upon request to the computer, which does all the > > work. There > > is no simple way to convert them to USB. A proprietary > > adapter must be > > built and programmed. Writing a driver that emulates what > > the 128K Mac- > > side of the interface did and then convert that into a > > standard USB interface would be monumental. > > This keyboard adapter is interesting. Converts the "Cassie" prototype > keyboards for use with a 128/512K Mac. > > http://www.applefritter.com/node/294 > > It converts the prototype 3.5mm stereo jack ADB to the original Mac interface. > > If there's a way to reverse that design... then you just need an ADB to USB > converter, which were made by more than one company. > > But first you'd have to find someone with one of those cassie converters > willing to let you pry into its secrets. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
