Those typically aren’t what they seem. They are dumb socket wiring adapters and the peripheral itself needs to support both usb and ps2 for it work. Those peripherals are really rare now (they were around for the usb changeover).
> there are also cheap active adapters utilising the CEC CSC0101A
"The CEC CSC0101A is an integral micro-controller for converting PS/2 interface signal to USB applications"
That's the other way around, for which adapters have been widely available since the dawn of USB.
Adapters like the subject of this thread allowing modern USB HIDs to be connected to older computers are much harder to find. I remember at one point seeing one advertised in a CDW catalog, but just that statement alone should date it.
I use to be into RC flight. Back then, the controllers could plug into a PC via a serial port. I had to buy an active adapter to use it since I didn't have a PC with a serial port, anymore.
Note the above is going from usb peripheral to serial port on the pc with no drivers.
USB to serial adapter are a dime a dozen but they do the opposite of this. The usb side is on the pc which has drivers to handle a lot of the complexity.
Man to go off topic I remember the days when USB was new and all those USB keyboards never seemed to work right “at boot”. Sure they worked okay once you got into windows but the BIOS didn’t seem to accept them.
For a few years the most reliable way to use a USB keyboard was through a PS/2 adapter that plugged into the motherboard. I remember there was quite some time where USB keyboards came with PS/2 adapters and sometimes even a pigtail to go to whatever that bigger round jack was called (a DIN connector?)
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