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[d97]

This dongle came attached to a Beige G3 that I picked up the other day.  I suspect that it is some sort of copy protection for a piece of graphics software because the HD had a ton of that sort of software on it.  I did a little google work but came up empty.

Does anybody recognize it?

D.

[vectrex]

if might be for embroidery software for os9.
maybe not.
Any indications in the extensions if the HD is still intact?

[d97]

Good point - I wasn't able to boot of the hd (there is an issue with the G3 itself that I am still diagnosing) and only know what's on the hd because I pulled it and put it in a firewire case.  The extensions folder might give me a clue or two.

[refinery]

i think its just a general purpose software dongle key, not specific to any piece of software. like vectrex said best bet is seeing whats actually installed on the drive

[bobesch]

Can you show pictures how the plugs/pins etc look like?

[d97]

Unless anybody can identify it visually, I think it will remain a mystery.  I popped the HD back into the firewire enclosure and instead of showing me the contents, it tells me that it needs to be formatted.  I tried it in a bunch of machines with the same result.  I'll experiment a little more but I suspect that I'm at the end of the line that way. 

I can't believe that I didn't mention that the dongle was attached to the adb keyboard.  So - it's an adb.  I don't have a lot of experience with graphics but, given what was on the machine when I could access the HD, I'm pretty sure it is software protection for a piece of graphics software.  Did Quark ever have an adb dongle?

D.

[Protools5LEGuy]

Waves plugs had a ADB dongle

Logic too

[IIO]

on the graphics side, quark had an adb dongle, and one more app... i think electric image or so.

oh, my adobe after effects 3 production bundle also had a dongle, but it was the same one logic used, not the weird thing on the picture.

[ssp3]

Try one of these ADB tools. Maybe they will show what kind of device it is

[d97]

Those are interesting tools - thanks for posting them!

Unfortunately, the two tools that try to identify the dongle came up empty.  They both "saw" it but couldn't identify it.

D.

[ssp3]

Take a look here, maybe you'll find some useful info:

http://web.archive.org/web/19991127133139/http://www.wco.com/~micuan/dongles.htm

[xerograph]

I have the exact same dongle. If I remember correctly it was necessary for early versions of PowerRIP - a PostScript RIP for Epson and Canon inkjet printers.
I used this software on a LC475 with an ethernet-card. That machine provided the RIP service for the whole network and fed the print data to two Epson Stylus XL A3+ printers. This was a very reliable an inexpensive setup for PostScript color prints and I used it every day - 25 years ago...
Later versions of PowerRIP used a internet connection to unlock the software. the dongle was no longer needed.

[d97]

Great!  Thanks for identifying it - I knew it had to have something to do with graphics production.

D.