Using VIAL on an Apple Extended Keyboard II

[apastuszak]

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



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.

[Muirium]

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]

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.

[maxmalkav]

Cool contribution!

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]

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.

[lozenges]

Thank you so much for this hex file!