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Step 6CONNECT USB / PS/2 ADAPTERS
Step 1:
Most USB keyboards come with a basic USB to PS/2 adapter, if not you can get them here for $3.99. Plug this adapter onto the end of your USB keyboard (effectively giving you a PS/2 keyboard).
Step 2:
Now plug the USB to PS/2 adapter into the PS/2 to USB adapter. I know this sounds silly, but Instructables member Grendel tells us that the larger PS/2 to USB cables interpret the PS/2 signal, reformat the data into USB HID packets, and send them on to the PC. Normally you can't have 2 USB Hosts on the same bus but this hack gets around that.
Step 3:
Plug in one of the USB connections into a PC. When you have the keyboard functionality properly then plug the other USB connection into another PC. If everything goes as planned then you should now have the power of two PC's at the tip of your fingers.... use this power wisely.
Most USB keyboards come with a basic USB to PS/2 adapter, if not you can get them here for $3.99. Plug this adapter onto the end of your USB keyboard (effectively giving you a PS/2 keyboard).
Step 2:
Now plug the USB to PS/2 adapter into the PS/2 to USB adapter. I know this sounds silly, but Instructables member Grendel tells us that the larger PS/2 to USB cables interpret the PS/2 signal, reformat the data into USB HID packets, and send them on to the PC. Normally you can't have 2 USB Hosts on the same bus but this hack gets around that.
Step 3:
Plug in one of the USB connections into a PC. When you have the keyboard functionality properly then plug the other USB connection into another PC. If everything goes as planned then you should now have the power of two PC's at the tip of your fingers.... use this power wisely.
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Apr 20, 2012. 2:17 AMHelenmelwin
says:
Connections of the ps2 to usb adapter is important like that your way of article is also. Thanks mate, let me try it.
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1
Jun 1, 2009. 4:04 PMgrundisimo
says:
Since it is a USB keyboard and you are trying to plug it into a USB slot couldn't you just plug straight into your computer without the converter thing.
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Jun 22, 2009. 1:35 PMsparkchaser
says:
You could do that, but the keyboard would only work on one machine at a time. With this hack, you can plug one keyboard into two different computers at the same time such that both machines receive the exact same keyboard input at the same time. This can be useful when testing two different machines and you want to ensure that each is receiving the exact same input. USB won't allow a device to be connected to multiple hosts, but a PS/2 device will work in this sort of configuration. By using the USB-->PS/2 adapter, you are hacking around the USB "single-host" limitation. This is a hack and there are undoubtedly many downsides to this method, but for the writer's purposes (see the last step) it seems to work rather well. I would suspect that you wouldn't need the PS/2-->USB cable if the machine had a PS/2 port that you could plug the keyboard into.
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1
Jul 6, 2009. 6:16 AMgrundisimo
says:
????????????? i am confusled
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Jul 6, 2009. 1:34 PMsparkchaser
says:
For this Instructable, the converters are necessary. The goal of this 'ible was to use one keyboard to control two machines simultaneously, and this is only possible when using the USB-->PS/2 and PS/2-->USB adapters. The keyboard would work without the adapters, but you would only be able to plug it into one computer at a time (which defeats the point of this project).
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1
Jul 7, 2009. 7:35 AMgrundisimo
says:
I am still a little bit confused but okay if you say so!
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Sep 9, 2009. 3:10 AMLance Mt.
says:
I'll put it this way. It is essentially a ps2 keyboard right? Computer dont mind sending multiply signals for a ps2 keyboard. However, it is infact a usb keyboard to start. This is only because we know which wires are which, but a usb will not send multiply signals and would end in a clusterduck.
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