[NTLK] Ooops! Keyspan High Speed USB Adapter

[Jim Lee]

On Apr 20, 2010, at 9:05 AM, Forrest Buffenmyer wrote:

> Through that wonderful thing known as miscommunication the wrong  
> information has been presented here...what I *should* have said was,  
> a "High Speed USB to Mac *mini-DIN 8* serial adapter. I  
> wholeheartedly apologize for this mistake.
>
> In the 80s Apple had a 9-pin mini-DIN connector called a GeoPort  
> which appeared on the PowerMacintosh 6100 series and up, and was  
> primarily designed for a modem, IIRC. The mini-DIN 8 replaced  
> that...I suppose I was subconsciously thinking of this one...who  
> knows?
>
   Actually, the mini-DIN 8 came before the GeoPort.  The GeoPort was  
used all the way up until the iMac, when Apple dropped it and ADB in  
favor of USB.  You can plug a mini-DIN 8 cable into a (9-pin) GeoPort  
just fine - it was designed to be backward compatible in RS-422 mode.   
The "DB9" that you originally referenced is (was) the PC standard  
serial connector which replaced the earlier DB25.  There are easily  
found adapter cables to convert DB9 to mini-DIN 8 and vice versa, so  
one does not really have to care what sort of connector is on the USB  
dongle, as long as you get the appropriate adapter cable to connect it  
to the Newton.

-Jim