i know i asked about this before and i'm insane to ask about it with all the usb pc cards out there. now that my wallstreet has a new processor on the way, i really would enjoy using the black optical mouse with it since it looks like it was made to be with the g3 line. i've looked at adapters for the scsi or the adb, and i see deviced to use scsi or adb devices on adb but not vice versa. would it be possible to reverse the connectors on an adb adapter? i was planning on just soldering the adb cables to the connector on the motherboard, placing the interface board in place of the modem, and having he usb poke out somewhere. insane.
another option to keep it clean would be to just put the adb components in the optical mouse. is there any way of doing either? i just want the computer to remain clean looking with no cards or anything.
http://www.lennard.net.nz/electronics/usb.html
The question "I've seen USB adapters to do X, Y, or Z, can I use one of them in reverse?" has been asked a million times, and the answer is always "no". USB doesn't work that way.
I'd suggest a PS/2 to ADB adapter:
http://www.geethree.com/p_ADB.html
and using a PS/2 optical mouse.They're still widely available, even in black.
--Peace
i did see the ps/2 to adb adapter. i considered that since i have a usb to ps/2 adapter on hand. that seems simplest to me, but the adapters i saw were expensive. there's probably others i haven't seen. it would be easy to solder the adb end of the adapter to the motherboard, assuming it doesn't render the adb port useless on the outside.
IMHO it would be far safer to build it into the mouse, or the mouse cable.
thought i was in another page about the wallstreet when i posted this at first. i could mak the adapters into the cable too. another idea is to put adb components in the pro mouse, but i've only seen that mod once and it appeared that the guy had to paint the mouse to hide the components. that's a lot easier, actually. if the mouse had to be painted inside to hide the adb parts, it might very well still look good with black.
"USB doesn't work that way."
Is that because USB has so much software in the protocols? (i.e. you'd have to make a dedicated converter for each device, or a converter that would amount to a full computer specializing in converting USB messages?) I really don't know much of anything about it.
It's because it's a host issue. The USB side is to the host and the PS/2 or whatever side is to the device. A device can't act like a host if it's not designed to. It would need to be able to work as a USB host controller all on it's own, which would add significant cost to the device.
that makes sense too. the only adb devices i know of are all input devices, so of course it's only one way. there are also apple serial to usb adapters. i suppose those could go both ways considering the nature of apple serial, but i'm not familiar enough with them.
Nope, you've got the same problem.
The USB to serial adapter {/pedantry} is a USB Device, not a USB Host. A computer with a USB port on it is a Host. To work the other way around, the adapter would have to be a USB Host, so it could "host" the USB Device (the keyboard/mouse/doodad), and then convert that to serial to send to the Powerbook.
There is a possible workaround: I know there's some software (OS 9 and below) floating around that lets you connect a PC keyboard and/or mouse (I'm not sure which) to a Mac serial port. There are also USB keyboards for PC (and possibly mice) that come with a USB-serial adapter. I think they only work because the keyboard (/mouse) has the electronics/code for serial built into it and the adapter is just a plug adapter. But it might be worth a shot.
Or just get a black serial mouse.
Or a can of black vinyl dye
black adb mice are rare. love to have one.
software to use pc keyboards would be great, but it's still limited by the absense of a ps/2 port. otherwise, i'm just unaware of another possible adapter. i wonder what kind of money someone would make if they made an apple serial to usb adapter since i've seen plenty of stuff online of people wanting those. that's another issue entirely.
A quick Google search reveals many such adapters. I've seen the welovemacs.com one posted about somewhere recently.