Best low-cost active PS2 to USB adapter?

[saturnotaku]

Need to purchase one of these. Items available from Amazon and cost of $15 or less preferred. Thanking you in advance.

[SpaceGhost]

Need to purchase one of these. Items available from Amazon preferred. Thanking you in advance.

Don't know if this one's available on Amazon, but it does accommodate Soarer's converter firmware:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-PS-2-to-USB-Soarers-Converter-Adapter-Remapping-Macros-NKRO-Support-/301365445104?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item462ac7c1f0

[Special K]

This is probably the most popular one on GH:

http://www.amazon.com/Ziotek-PS2-Keyboard-USB-Adapter/dp/B000BSJFJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427502344&sr=8-1&keywords=ps2+to+usb+active

It works fine with my model M.

[saturnotaku]

That adapter is double what it cost for the keyboard I want to use it on. Who do you think I am, a democrat senator? :-p

[SpaceGhost]

That adapter is double what it cost for the keyboard I want to use it on. Who do you think I am, a democrat senator? :-p

If you're referring to the orihalcon converter, apart from requiring you to be a Democrat senator in order to afford one (just kidding, orihalcon, if you see this) it allows remapping of keys, and offers a bunch of other board-hacker-enabling features via Soarer's converter firmware.

[saturnotaku]

Again, such functionality is not important. I just need to be able to connect a $20 white Alps keyboard to my laptop.

[nightdriver]

another K258 buyer, eh?

[SpaceGhost]

Again, such functionality is not important. I just need to be able to connect a $20 white Alps keyboard to my laptop.

Gotcha. But you did request recommendations for the "best" PS/2 to USB converter. Of course, "best" depends on what the definition of "best" is. I think you meant to say "most cost-effective" or "best low-cost" or "lowest-cost but least troublesome" or something like that.

[alienman82]

removed.

[chyros]

Need to purchase one of these. Items available from Amazon preferred. Thanking you in advance.

Don't know if this one's available on Amazon, but it does accommodate Soarer's converter firmware:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-PS-2-to-USB-Soarers-Converter-Adapter-Remapping-Macros-NKRO-Support-/301365445104?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item462ac7c1f0

Wait, is THAT a Soarer's? Oo

[thehijjt]

Yeah that is a Soarer's converter made by orihalcon. He makes them in ps2, AT, and usb female to usb, available on ebay, or if you PM him. He used to have them in the classifieds. I have one of the female usb ones, and it works flawlessly on keyboards that support ps2. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a ps2 one even if the keyboard I am using it on is cheap. The value added by making a keyboard fully programmable and preserving key rollover is priceless. If you don't want all that functionality though the Ziotek will work just fine for you, I would buy a small usb extension to not lose the other port on your laptop though. That adapter is a bit large.

[IvanIvanovich]

After trying out a few that sucked that didn't work properly or had resets so often it made them pretty much unusable... I ended up with one of these which has worked flawlessly on everything so far. I think it cost about $10.

[Huxley2500]

This is probably the most popular one on GH:

http://www.amazon.com/Ziotek-PS2-Keyboard-USB-Adapter/dp/B000BSJFJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427502344&sr=8-1&keywords=ps2+to+usb+active

It works fine with my model M.

+1

[SpaceGhost]

After trying out a few that sucked that didn't work properly or had resets so often it made them pretty much unusable... I ended up with one of these which has worked flawlessly on everything so far. I think it cost about $10.

Have you tried that converter with a Model M and its original IBM coiled SDL-PS/2 cable? I bought some that looked very much like this one, but they cannot light the Lock LED's when the coiled SDL-PS/2 cable is used with a Model M. I asked orihalcon about this, and he said he's heard of this issue and believes it's due to the total resistance of the cable being too high and causing a slight drop in the drive voltage for the LED's.

Apparently, this makes the drive voltage fall below the threshold required to turn on the LED's. It appears to be caused by the coiled portion of the cable adding too much resistance. Any thoughts on this? When used with an uncoiled cable, the same converter was able to light the LED's. IIRC, the failure or ability to light the LED's was observable during the initial self-test when the keyboard was first plugged into the computer.

[aref]

This is probably the most popular one on GH:

http://www.amazon.com/Ziotek-PS2-Keyboard-USB-Adapter/dp/B000BSJFJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427502344&sr=8-1&keywords=ps2+to+usb+active

It works fine with my model M.

What ^ said. Ziotek makes an excellent, long-lasting adapter. I've used them on many Model M KBs.

[SpaceGhost]

This is probably the most popular one on GH:

http://www.amazon.com/Ziotek-PS2-Keyboard-USB-Adapter/dp/B000BSJFJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427502344&sr=8-1&keywords=ps2+to+usb+active

It works fine with my model M.

What ^ said. Ziotek makes an excellent, long-lasting adapter. I've used them on many Model M KBs.

I agree, Ziotek makes an excellent converter, having had excellent experience with this one: http://www.amazon.com/Ps-Keyboard-Mouse-Usb-Adapter/dp/B000G7WYZG


It's just that their "cube" version is a bit bulky and awkward for some users, possibly blocking adjacent USB ports, etc. The actual circuitry required is *much* smaller than that cube.