[IC] Custom ADB-USB adaptor for the AEKII

[skullydazed]

I've been working an ADB-USB adaptor for my Apple Extended Keyboard II. You can replace either the right or left hand ADB port with this adaptor for a very clean and self-contained installation. It uses hasu's tmk firmware which should be very familiar to many people already. Here are pictures of my prototype installed:

Taking lessons I've learned from the prototype I have revised the design to better fit in the available space. It now consists of 2 boards connected by standard headers, so that the board can be a tiny bit smaller and the USB connector will sit more in the center. This new design can be seen here:

All the design files, schematics, and firmware for this project have been released under an open source license:

https://github.com/skullydazed/tmk_keyboard/tree/master/converter/adb_usb

(Please let me know if you find any mistakes/bugs. While the schematic is basically unchanged from my prototype the layout is almost completely new.)

What you will get if this group buy is successful

• Controller PCB Board with all SMT parts populated
• USB Connector PCB Board with SMT resistors populated
• 5 pin header
• mini-usb connector

How do I install this thing?

Installation is fairly straightforward and requires only basic soldering skill. If you have never soldered before you should practice on a kit before attempting installation, but it is nothing that you can't handle after 10 or 20 minutes of soldering practice.

Assembly

Install the mini-usb connector by inserting the ground pins through the hole. You should install only 1 connector on the side you plan to install your adaptor in. Carefully solder the SMT data pins one by one using your soldering iron and a little bit of solder. (You can use wick to sop up excess solder.) Blow on the pins to cool them once you are done, then flip the board over and solder the through hole ground pins.

Solder the header so the plastic insulator is on the component side of the controller PCB. Slide the USB board onto the header, making sure the board is oriented so that the two PCBs occupy the same footprint, and the square pads are on the same side. Solder the headers on the USB board.

Installation
Remove the top case and locate the ADB ports on either side of the keyboard. Carefully lift your chosen side straight up to remove it, and rotate it so the solder pads are facing up. Desolder all 9 pins (wick works extremely well on these joints) and remove the ADB connector. Straighten out the leads coming from the keyboard PCB.

Orient the board so that the components are facing the keyboard PCB and the header connecting the two boards is closest to the bottom of the case. Insert the 9 header pins coming from the keyboard into the 1mm headers on the adaptor. Solder them in place.

Solder two wires to the reset pad and run those out of the case somewhere. Touching these together will allow you to update the firmware.

How Much?

Price will be based on the number of orders:

• 10: $65
• 20: $50
• 30: $45
• 40: $40
• 50: $35

How Do I Sign Up?

Register your interest here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1x1BYzbsKiQIUECmnUlmCq-hdYQHu0cETu1eE1xHI3GI/viewform

This form will be used to judge demand and further refine pricing. You are not committing to buy anything, but respondents will have first right of refusal from the production run.

[skullydazed]

reserved

[Muffinbottoms]

Is this only for the AEK II, or would it be possible to throw this on an AEK or Apple Standard Keyboard as well?

[t8c]

Is this only for the AEK II, or would it be possible to throw this on an AEK or Apple Standard Keyboard as well?

My guess would be that it will suit apple ADB keyboards - period, as the TMK ADB to USB converter firmware is highly customizable for a number for different apple boards!

[Muffinbottoms]

Is this only for the AEK II, or would it be possible to throw this on an AEK or Apple Standard Keyboard as well?

My guess would be that it will suit apple ADB keyboards - period, as the TMK ADB to USB converter firmware is highly customizable for a number for different apple boards!

Nice! I'd definitely be down for something like this then.

[skullydazed]

Is this only for the AEK II, or would it be possible to throw this on an AEK or Apple Standard Keyboard as well?

My guess would be that it will suit apple ADB keyboards - period, as the TMK ADB to USB converter firmware is highly customizable for a number for different apple boards!

You're both right and wrong here. As long as you can connect the wires up it can be used with any adb board. However, the AEK and ASK have different ABD ports from the AEKII and this won't fit into the same space on those, some custom wiring will be needed.

I'll open up my AEK and ASK boards today to see exactly what will be needed.

[t8c]

Is this only for the AEK II, or would it be possible to throw this on an AEK or Apple Standard Keyboard as well?

My guess would be that it will suit apple ADB keyboards - period, as the TMK ADB to USB converter firmware is highly customizable for a number for different apple boards!

You're both right and wrong here. As long as you can connect the wires up it can be used with any adb board. However, the AEK and ASK have different ABD ports from the AEKII and this won't fit into the same space on those, some custom wiring will be needed.

Thanks for clarifying this, I had a hunch that the case dimension would the primary concern.
I'll open up my AEK and ASK boards today to see exactly what will be needed.

[skullydazed]

Is this only for the AEK II, or would it be possible to throw this on an AEK or Apple Standard Keyboard as well?

My guess would be that it will suit apple ADB keyboards - period, as the TMK ADB to USB converter firmware is highly customizable for a number for different apple boards!

You're both right and wrong here. As long as you can connect the wires up it can be used with any adb board. However, the AEK and ASK have different ABD ports from the AEKII and this won't fit into the same space on those, some custom wiring will be needed.

Thanks for clarifying this, I had a hunch that the case dimension would the primary concern.

Good news! I opened up the AEK and I'm 95% confident it will work without much trouble. I'll try popping one of my prototypes in later today after my daughter is awake and I can make noise.



As you can see in that picture the ADB board on the AEK is much wider than it is on the AEKII, this is to account for the EMI filter. I'm pretty confident that with the very short distance between the keyboard and my adaptor that removing that EMI filter will not cause any problems. It won't be as easy an install as it would be in the AEKII, but it will work and with some patience can be just as clean.

[skullydazed]

I popped open the AEK this afternoon and was able to put together a pretty clean install:



I chose to desolder the EMF IC and then I used tin snips to cut the board. This gave me nice clean points to solder to. If you don't want to destroy the filter board you can desolder the ribbon to the right instead, but then you have to solder two wires together which isn't always the easiest thing. I also had to take a nibble out of the plastic feature that holds the ADB port as I couldn't get the USB port into the hole otherwise. The production model will have different dimensions and probably won't suffer from this problem.

So to answer the question "can this be used on the AEK/ASK?" Yes. However to be honest I think a teensy will work just as well and will be cheaper than my board. I made mine because you can't fit a teensy into the available space in an AEKII.

[njbair]

I like the idea here, but if I'm going to spend extra versus a Teensy, it would require a couple of things.

1. The USB port needs to drop into the existing spot and stay put without case modification (a dabble of hot glue or similar is fine). I haven't cracked open any of my AEKII's so I'm honestly not sure how the existing port mounts in there. If there are clips that hold the PCB in place, then your daughter board with the ports on it should be the same size so that the clips will work with it. In this case you may not be able to directly mount the two boards together, but a short ribbon cable between them would also do the trick.

2. You need something to fill in the empty space in the mini-DIN cutout to help keep out dust and to make the mod look nice. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to pay money to have my board look hacked together. Some black plastic or similar material with a USB port-shaped cutout would probably work.

3. It's TMK, so you need an easy way to reset the chip into bootloader mode without having to crack open the board. The first thought that pops in my head, does TMK firmware provide a command to trigger a reset, something you can map to a key or macro? If so, problem solved. Otherwise, I would probably want to hard-wire the AEKII power button to trigger a reset. You could add some SIP header pins for resetting the board. Then people could just cut the power button's PCB traces and resolder some wires back to the pins on your board. Make sense?

[skullydazed]

Thanks for your feedback.

I like the idea here, but if I'm going to spend extra versus a Teensy, it would require a couple of things.

1. The USB port needs to drop into the existing spot and stay put without case modification (a dabble of hot glue or similar is fine). I haven't cracked open any of my AEKII's so I'm honestly not sure how the existing port mounts in there. If there are clips that hold the PCB in place, then your daughter board with the ports on it should be the same size so that the clips will work with it. In this case you may not be able to directly mount the two boards together, but a short ribbon cable between them would also do the trick.

This is a pretty tall order. My ideal is something that will stay in place with friction alone. The problem with a dab of hot glue is that it makes it very difficult to remove the PCB from the case in the future. What I currently have is the best compromise I've been able to come up with so far, but I will keep working on that to see if we can't satisfy more of your request here.

2. You need something to fill in the empty space in the mini-DIN cutout to help keep out dust and to make the mod look nice. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to pay money to have my board look hacked together. Some black plastic or similar material with a USB port-shaped cutout would probably work.

This is a good idea. I have access to a laser cutter at my local makerspace, I'll see if I can put something together like that pretty cheap.

3. It's TMK, so you need an easy way to reset the chip into bootloader mode without having to crack open the board. The first thought that pops in my head, does TMK firmware provide a command to trigger a reset, something you can map to a key or macro? If so, problem solved. Otherwise, I would probably want to hard-wire the AEKII power button to trigger a reset. You could add some SIP header pins for resetting the board. Then people could just cut the power button's PCB traces and resolder some wires back to the pins on your board. Make sense?

There are already 2 header pins that you will be able to use for that purpose.

On the software side of things it seems it is possible to create a RESET key. Jack Humbert has that in his fork for the planck/atomic. I can look at porting that back into my tmk fork, maybe even ask Jack if he'll contribute it back upstream.

[njbair]

Thanks for your feedback.

I like the idea here, but if I'm going to spend extra versus a Teensy, it would require a couple of things.

1. The USB port needs to drop into the existing spot and stay put without case modification (a dabble of hot glue or similar is fine). I haven't cracked open any of my AEKII's so I'm honestly not sure how the existing port mounts in there. If there are clips that hold the PCB in place, then your daughter board with the ports on it should be the same size so that the clips will work with it. In this case you may not be able to directly mount the two boards together, but a short ribbon cable between them would also do the trick.

This is a pretty tall order. My ideal is something that will stay in place with friction alone. The problem with a dab of hot glue is that it makes it very difficult to remove the PCB from the case in the future. What I currently have is the best compromise I've been able to come up with so far, but I will keep working on that to see if we can't satisfy more of your request here.

2. You need something to fill in the empty space in the mini-DIN cutout to help keep out dust and to make the mod look nice. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to pay money to have my board look hacked together. Some black plastic or similar material with a USB port-shaped cutout would probably work.

This is a good idea. I have access to a laser cutter at my local makerspace, I'll see if I can put something together like that pretty cheap.

3. It's TMK, so you need an easy way to reset the chip into bootloader mode without having to crack open the board. The first thought that pops in my head, does TMK firmware provide a command to trigger a reset, something you can map to a key or macro? If so, problem solved. Otherwise, I would probably want to hard-wire the AEKII power button to trigger a reset. You could add some SIP header pins for resetting the board. Then people could just cut the power button's PCB traces and resolder some wires back to the pins on your board. Make sense?

There are already 2 header pins that you will be able to use for that purpose.

On the software side of things it seems it is possible to create a RESET key. Jack Humbert has that in his fork for the planck/atomic. I can look at porting that back into my tmk fork, maybe even ask Jack if he'll contribute it back upstream.

Regarding the fit & holding issue, friction alone sounds unlikely because mini-USB can be pretty tight sometimes. How does the existing piece fit in there? Are there screw holes you can use or anything like that?

Also, I didn't even notice the RESET label on the PCB before I wrote this. That's a fine solution, but if you can pull in Jack's code for a software reset that would be ideal. I took a look at hasu's converter thread and it looks like the AEKII power button does send a scancode that the converter can read, so it should be possible to map that button to the software reset function.

[Muffinbottoms]

Is this only for the AEK II, or would it be possible to throw this on an AEK or Apple Standard Keyboard as well?

My guess would be that it will suit apple ADB keyboards - period, as the TMK ADB to USB converter firmware is highly customizable for a number for different apple boards!

You're both right and wrong here. As long as you can connect the wires up it can be used with any adb board. However, the AEK and ASK have different ABD ports from the AEKII and this won't fit into the same space on those, some custom wiring will be needed.

Thanks for clarifying this, I had a hunch that the case dimension would the primary concern.

Good news! I opened up the AEK and I'm 95% confident it will work without much trouble. I'll try popping one of my prototypes in later today after my daughter is awake and I can make noise.

Show Image

As you can see in that picture the ADB board on the AEK is much wider than it is on the AEKII, this is to account for the EMI filter. I'm pretty confident that with the very short distance between the keyboard and my adaptor that removing that EMI filter will not cause any problems. It won't be as easy an install as it would be in the AEKII, but it will work and with some patience can be just as clean.

Hmmm could I also create an external housing and slap it on the outside of the board just in case it doesn't fit?

[skullydazed]

Regarding the fit & holding issue, friction alone sounds unlikely because mini-USB can be pretty tight sometimes. How does the existing piece fit in there? Are there screw holes you can use or anything like that?

Here are a couple pictures that show the original ADB connector.




As you can see there are no screw holes or anything, just that U sharped plastic standoff that holds the ADB connector in place. The ADB connector is 13mm wide and the U shaped piece is 6.5mm wide, giving us a total of 19.5mm width to work with. I can't fit the controller into a space smaller than about 20mm wide, so it's all very tight spacing. I worry that trimming that U shaped piece may be unavoidable.

[skullydazed]

Hmmm could I also create an external housing and slap it on the outside of the board just in case it doesn't fit?

Sure, that's always doable, but to be honest if you're going that route the teensy will do just as well and be cheaper.

[skullydazed]

Also, I didn't even notice the RESET label on the PCB before I wrote this. That's a fine solution, but if you can pull in Jack's code for a software reset that would be ideal. I took a look at hasu's converter thread and it looks like the AEKII power button does send a scancode that the converter can read, so it should be possible to map that button to the software reset function.

I dug into this a bit today. First it looks like you can already trigger RESET by pressing MAGIC+Pause, and the MAGIC button is the power key by default. It's possible to change that combination but a little messy. What Jack has done is piggyback on that functionality, but his solution is a little verbose in the keymap file for my taste.

So a little bit of hacking later and I created a KC_RESET button that you can assign to any key you want (probably on a function layer.) I've contributed my changes back to hasu in this pull request: https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/pull/247

[njbair]

Also, I didn't even notice the RESET label on the PCB before I wrote this. That's a fine solution, but if you can pull in Jack's code for a software reset that would be ideal. I took a look at hasu's converter thread and it looks like the AEKII power button does send a scancode that the converter can read, so it should be possible to map that button to the software reset function.

I dug into this a bit today. First it looks like you can already trigger RESET by pressing MAGIC+Pause, and the MAGIC button is the power key by default. It's possible to change that combination but a little messy. What Jack has done is piggyback on that functionality, but his solution is a little verbose in the keymap file for my taste.

So a little bit of hacking later and I created a KC_RESET button that you can assign to any key you want (probably on a function layer.) I've contributed my changes back to hasu in this pull request: https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/pull/247

This is awesome news. I'm sure hasu will pull in your changes as long as the code is clean.

[tjweir]

I'm modding two AEKIIs right now and had I not already bought the teensys/teensies I'd be all over this.

Good luck!

[njbair]

I'm modding two AEKIIs right now and had I not already bought the teensys/teensies I'd be all over this.

Good luck!

You will find another use for the Teensys once these arrive. Get in on this!

[tjweir]

Ok, registered interest for 3 adaptors.

[skullydazed]

An update on what I've been working on.

I've been working on a design that fits into the available space better without modifying the board or using hot glue. It will require separate boards for left and right hand side but I think that compromise is worth it. Here's what it looks like right now:



Those two boards would be joined by a standard header connector and should fit within the available space. I'm going to get some card stock today and print out 1:1 scale models I can cut out to test my theory. I also need to do a bit more validation- like making sure the usb data signals are equivalent lengths.

[njbair]

An update on what I've been working on.

I've been working on a design that fits into the available space better without modifying the board or using hot glue. It will require separate boards for left and right hand side but I think that compromise is worth it. Here's what it looks like right now:

Show Image

Those two boards would be joined by a standard header connector and should fit within the available space. I'm going to get some card stock today and print out 1:1 scale models I can cut out to test my theory. I also need to do a bit more validation- like making sure the usb data signals are equivalent lengths.

Good progress. I had kind of forgotten about this project, but I think your redesign idea is the right choice.

BTW, I don't think equivalent trace lengths really matter. Current moves at light speed.

[skullydazed]

Good progress. I had kind of forgotten about this project, but I think your redesign idea is the right choice.

BTW, I don't think equivalent trace lengths really matter. Current moves at light speed.

Thanks. I'm still working to fit it into the available space, not removing the U shaped feature that holds the ADB connector into place turns out to be difficult. Not impossible I don't think, but I haven't managed to squeeze everything down far enough yet.

For this application I don't think trace lengths matter much either, but I'd still like it to be as good as possible.