Keyboard compatibility

[Yazoo55]

Apologies if this has already been answered. I tried searching first. Will a keyboard and mouse from a Mac SE work with an LC III?

 

[Themk]

Yes they will work.

They all use the ADB protocol, which makes them compatible.

You can even use peripherals from a IIgs, which also uses ADB.

Also, you should have probably put this in the peripherals category, keyboards and mice aren't really considered 68k LC or Performa machines

 

[Johnnya101]

(Unrelated) I tried my IIgs keyboard with my SE/30 and got a bus error. Don't know if that was just a coincidence or if that's the keyboard.

 

[Themk]

Probably was a coincidence, my IIgs keyboard works flawlessly with my SE/30. If you are getting a bus error, its time to go do some troubleshooting, but it could also be a software issue.

 

[unity]

ADB is ADB as mentioned, they will all work across all systems. It was sorta like USB of the day. The only territory where things can get mucky is with external floppy drives.

 

[Themk]

LC III doesn't have external floppy port for this thing, so probably not a big concern to the OP. You are right though, you do have to be careful with external floppy drives. The "Apple 3.5 drive" is a fairly safe choice, it works with most everything with a floppy port, but it only has an 800K drive mechanism in it.

 

[Johnnya101]

Again, unrelated, but does that mean I can use the 3.5 drive from my IIgs with a Mac?

 

[Themk]

Yes it 100% does. It was designed to be a 'universal' drive, working with both Mac's and Apple II's that had an appropriate disk controller card.

Also, fun mod for the IIgs 3.5 drive, if you install a SuperDrive/FDHD/1.44MiB mechanism into the case of one, you can use it as an external 'FDHD' drive (but only with macs that have a SWIM controller; the IIgs does not have that so it will only work as an 800K drive on that machine as well as macs without a SWIM controller)

 

[Johnnya101]

Awesome! I'll have to look into that too.

 

[Themk]

Yeah, it's a pretty cool mod.