Using VIAL on an Apple Extended Keyboard II

apastuszak

30 Oct 2022, 22:06

I managed to get VIAL to compile and install on a Pro Micro-based ADB to USB adapter that I bought off of eBay.

Image

VIAL has so many more features than VIA does. And it stores and reads the json from the keyboards eeprom, so no need to manually load a JSON file every time you want to program a keyboard.

Very nice to be able to program a keyboard from the early 90s.

If anyone is interested, I can post a link to the adapter I bought and my bin file, so you can flash it yourself.

Only limitation is that you can only do 2 layers. When I tried to get it to do 3 layers, QMK refused to compile saying the file being generated is larger than available EEPROM of the device.

It would be nice to find a controller with a lot more storage, so I could enable all 109 macros, all layers, and max out all the other options.

User avatar
Muirium
µ

30 Oct 2022, 22:37

Noticing any performance issues with your clearly maximal approach? Laggy macros or layers? The 32u4 is only so fast, and this is giving it a lot of work.

apastuszak

30 Oct 2022, 23:03

Right now, I have it set for 2 layers and 30 macros, but I've only programmed 4 so far. Doesn't feel laggy to me, but I am not the world's fastest typist. The macros are typing out the text I put in them pretty quickly.

It would be nice to have a faster microcontroller with more storage, but someone would need to port QMK to it. I'm not qualified to so that.

I'm waiting for someone to use a Raspberry Pi Pico as a MCU in a keyboard.

User avatar
maxmalkav
dye hard

09 Nov 2022, 14:50

Cool contribution!
apastuszak wrote:
30 Oct 2022, 22:06

If anyone is interested, I can post a link to the adapter I bought and my bin file, so you can flash it yourself.
Definitely interested. Are your modifications something you can submit to Vial as PR? I have only contributed with a couple of keymaps for keyboards already supported by QMK, but the project has been very welcoming to contributions.

apastuszak

09 Nov 2022, 15:39

I can't submit it. I borrowed files from other places that may not be open source.

This is the ADB to USB adapter that I bought:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204140578025

I asked the seller to please add a button to put it in DFU mode, so I would not have to short it with a wire.

It comes with TMK installed on it.

My hex file is here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... REv1eA9dQC

It only has 2 layers.

That eBay seller has my hex file. He may be able to pre-load it for you.

User avatar
lozenges

23 Mar 2023, 19:13

Thank you so much for this hex file!

Post Reply

Return to “Workshop”