DIYbanter - View Single Post - (OT) Need keyboard & mouse for old Apple G3 computer

Don Y[_3_]

On 6/7/2016 12:17 PM, wrote:
While going to rummage sales, I ran across a Macintosh G3 tower. The
seller said it works, and told me to just take it for free. I have
always wanted to play around with an Apple computer, so I took it. I
plugged in the monitor from my PC, turned it on, and it boots up to the
GUI desktop.

The problem is that there is no mouse or keyboard. I quickly found that
the small round connector, which is called DIN on a PC, is similar on
the Apple, but is called a ADB connector. The weird part, is that
there's only one of them, so I'm not sure how you can connect both a
keyboard and mouse to it. These have less pins than a PC connector, so I
cant just use any keyboard or mouse.

I don't recall if the G3 used ADB (I'll have to take your word on it).
But, ADB is a beast unto itself. It is a bidirectional ONE WIRE
interface (the four pins are power, ground, "data" and poweron -- you
turn the computer on by pressing a button in the upper corner of the keyboard)

I.e., you can't use anything in place of an ADB keyboard other than
an ADB keyboard!

The keyboard has two connectors on it. You plug a cable into one
to connect it to the computer. Then, you plug the (ADB!) mouse
into the other connector.

I googled some of this, and found that they often used a USB keyboard
and mouse. The tower only has 2 USB ports, so a keyboard & mouse would
use up both (that sucks).

I dont have any USB keyboards or mice, so I will have to buy something.
But I'm not going to spend a lot, since this computer is old (1999). But
I'd still like to play around with it.

USB keyboards can usually be found for $1 (craig's list, auctions, surplus,
etc.). The local university periodically sells a laundry cart full of
these things for ~$7 -- and usually has a tough time finding someone to
take them!

It seems that the original ABD keyboards sell for big money, so I wont
even consider buying one of them. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing
that I could use ANY mouse with a USB plug (is that true?)
But can I use a USB keyboard which is made for a PC? (Knowing that the
specific "windows" keys will be worthless).

The problem you will find is bringing up the computer. A USB keyboard might
work -- but probably only after the OS is running. I.e., if you ever have to
install from scratch, you might discover that it REQUIRES a genuine keyboard
to interact with the machine.

Hopefully someone on here uses Apple computers and can tell me what I
can use, and buy for little money.

By the way, it has OS9 for the operating system, so it was apparently
upgraded since they sold with OS8.x (according to what I read on the
web).

I assume you mean MacOS v9. (OS/9 is a different beast, entirely)