a USB for the Apple II smoke test

["pilgrimer" <pilgrimer@sheppys.service>]

Well, unlike some of  our more sophisticated, and knowledgeable brethren I
am but a tinkerer.  I was looking through yet another box of junk
electronics parks, boards, general trash with an eye towards making a
dumpster trip the other day when a small board caught my attention.

 This was some leftover widget from a junker AST PC I must have parted out
some years back..  It had a bolt down plate for the back plane with 3 USB
ports on it,  and  a plug block for 8 pins  (7 really, 1 pin is missing as a
probable aid to positioning the ribbon wire).  This thing at one time must
have plugged into the USB port off the motherboard.  There were no chips
whatsoever on the board, just traces.

Anywho, there I was looking at that plug and thinking...Ya know....the Super
Serial Card has a plug just like that on it.    -Oh Boy look out!

So I dug deeper till I found a SSC, a ribbon wire, flipped a coin as to wich
is pin 1 on the little board .....then decided on which II I wanted to
sacrifice to a smoke test

Ok I have a spare  ROM 1 GS so...  with slot #2 set to MY CARD  then power
off, stuff in a SSC with the ribbon to this little board and  a Logitec
ball-less laser mouse in the 1st USB slot. -POWER ON-  Well, the laser
lights up and no smoke so...Boot the GS  (On a CMS SCSI card, CMS 40mb
drive, GS/OS 6.0.1, no special drivers, mods or weirdness...  And she
boots....

I don't touch the optical  mouse till I get a full boot.  Then I do and..
IT MOVES THE CURSOR.  about 1/2 inch then crashes the box. This works in the
nearest of the 3 USB slots on the litttle card.  No effect at all if plugged
into either of the other 2 slots.
 I cold boot and try again, and, the same thing.  Well now..  I wonder,
could it be the baud rate on the SSC?  could it be something else?  could it
be God never  intended this sort of thing?  Do I really wanna  take this one
any further?  Not really, but it was interesting.

With the recent discussion on  II asnd USB, I thought I would toss this into
the pot.
Blind ignorance sometimes pays off!

-Bart
Keeper of the Network from Heck