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godzillabrennus | on: HIDman Adapting USB devices to work on old computers
You know this will end up in some power plant or military facility to get another 30 years out of something that works and no one wants to deal with. Very cool project.
ranger_danger | parent
USB to PS2/serial adapters and converters have existed for decades though.
AnotherGoodName | root | parent | next
Those typically aren’t what they seem. They are dumb socket wiring adapters and the peripheral itself needs to support both usb and ps2 for it work. Those peripherals are really rare now (they were around for the usb changeover).
teruakohatu | root | parent | next
While there are passive adapters for late model PS2 keyboards, there are also cheap active adapters utilising the CEC CSC0101A.

https://www.micros.com.pl/mediaserver/info-uicsc0101a-s16.pd...

But they are not as compatible as the open source one being developed.

Edit: I got it the wrong way around, see wolrah below.

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userbinator | root | parent | next
There are active adapters around: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Active_USB_to_PS2_Ad...

But they aren't cheap. I hope open-source projects like this one will result in them being cheaply available on AliExpress and the like.

SkyPuncher | root | parent
No, there are active adapters as well.

I use to be into RC flight. Back then, the controllers could plug into a PC via a serial port. I had to buy an active adapter to use it since I didn't have a PC with a serial port, anymore.

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cruffle_duffle | root | parent
Man to go off topic I remember the days when USB was new and all those USB keyboards never seemed to work right “at boot”. Sure they worked okay once you got into windows but the BIOS didn’t seem to accept them.

For a few years the most reliable way to use a USB keyboard was through a PS/2 adapter that plugged into the motherboard. I remember there was quite some time where USB keyboards came with PS/2 adapters and sometimes even a pigtail to go to whatever that bigger round jack was called (a DIN connector?)