geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: spatterlight on Fri, 02 December 2016, 00:20:45
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I just picked up a Silicon Graphics Indy workstation and a bunch of accessories off Kijiji because I liked the look of the SGI 950090 Granite keyboard -- the rest I threw up on eBay to make back the cost of the purchase. I love that speckled granite finish on the keyboard, and the keys are beautifully smooth and responsive, but I'm having a hard time finding a USB converter that works. All the active converters I've tried do nothing at all, or at best work for about 15 seconds before the keyboard locks up and acts like a ghost's holding down the space bar. I found a six-year-old post on this forum where someone recommends Belkin brand adapters and someone else says they can't get certain Belkins to work at all, and other than that no leads.
I'm getting really worn out with walking into computer stores, explaining to the clerk that I have an extremely picky vintage mechanical keyboard in my backpack, weathering their statements that every USB-PS/2 converter is exactly the same, convincing them to let me try the converter there in the store, and watching it screw up. Anyone who's got a 950090 SGI keyboard -- can you point me at an off-the-shelf adapter, complete with part number, that you've used to get the thing working perfectly? Thanks so much, and your forum is super cool. It's awakened a deep-seated contempt for rubber domes in me, although I still have a very soft spot for the ones in my Lenovo X220.
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Bumpity bump. Can anyone help me out?
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How about making a soarer's converter?
It's pretty easy for even a noob like me.
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There are passive adapters and active adapters - the latter sometimes called "converters".
The passive adapters are for keyboards that talk both USB and PS/2 but has only a PS/2 connector. The active adapters are those that really have electronics inside that translate between PS/2 and USB.
If it has two PS/2 connectors and one USB, or has a fat lump on a piece of cable then it should be a proper converter. And yes, some are better than others. Some vintage keyboards need more power that not all converters can provide.
Here is an old list (https://deskthority.net/wiki/Converter) of converters.
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I recommend speaking with Hasu - https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=72052.msg1751398#msg1751398