> The PS/2 keyboard mouse splitters aren't really anything special. It's
> really the same pins for each, but one has a diode inside (don't remember
> which one).
i thought they used the two spare pins, ofc there may have been two
different designs (which would explain some splitters not working with some
laptops)

>
> The PS/2 ports aren't meant to be hot-pluggable, so I'm not suprised that
> you had problems doing that. In my experience, the KEYBOARD can
> usually be
> unplugged, and re-plugged without problems, but not the mouse, and never
> both on a splitter.
i'm sure i've seen latop manuals say otherwise

>
> A friend has an older IBM thinkpad, and he tried a couple of USB-PS/2
> (mouse and keyboard) converters. One was a cheap no-name, the other was a
> COMPAQ brand. Neither worked properly UNTIL he tried a different mouse.
> He was using a microsoft explorer mouse (with more than 3 buttons). Go
> figure.

and i found the same issue with a ps/2 cherry keyboard (though i only tried
one adaptor) whereas with a crappy keyboard i had it worked fine.

my guess is theese splitters are doing something like powering the device
off 3.3V or powering it off 5V but using 3.3V signal levels. Either that or
there is something nasty about how they implement the protocol. Since this
is the piclist maybe i should try doing a 2550 based converter and see if i
can get it working well :).

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