Let the hacking commence!

My goal, tonight, is to implement an Apple Desktop Bus host using an Arduino. The Arduino runs at 16MHz, which is much faster than the ~2MHz microcomputer in each ADB peripheral. Once I create a host for my ADB peripherals, I’ll be confident that I know the protocol well enough to simulate a peripheral.

Why would I want to do this? Well, if you look on eBay, ADB peripherals range from $16 for a simple mouse, to $60 for a keyboard. Outrageous!

I’ve got a new Macintosh LC coming in a few days, and I have only one Extended II keyboard and ADB mouse. Both of those are currently working nicely with my beige PowerMac G3, and I don’t really want to stress the fragile miniDIN ports every time I want to switch computers. If I’m successful in simulating these devices, I could build a low-cost translation unit to convert PS/2 keyboard and mouse signals to ADB signals. Plus, I’ll probably get Reddit karma and geek ‘cred out of this, which I love.