C64 Original Keyboard on MiSTer

[EgliFalco]

Hi, anyone have tried to use an original C64 keyboard with the Mister?

I have a C64 breadbox not working and i like to use its keyboard with Mister FPGA. Or, to use TheC64 keyboard with Mister.

Do you know how to do these two mods?

[mparson]

You should be able to use the Keyrah keyboard interface to use a C-64 (or a number of other old keyboards) as a USB keyboard.

https://www.vesalia.de/e_keyrahv2.htm

[kathleen]

@EgliFalco, you can maybe use this card to connect a real C64 keyboard to the Mister or to any device with USB
https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/pro ... ah-v2.html
I own one and tried it on PC and RPI and it was working fine, I guess it will be the same on mister (I did not test it yet by lack of time however).

[EgliFalco]

Thanks for fast replies.
But the question is: when i use Mister with keyrah, is that a "plug&play" system or i need to create a specific keyboard map file for it?
And if i use Mister with TheC64-maxi keyboard?

[Newsdee]

I read somewhere TheC64-maxi is just a USB keyboard; but I haven't been able to get one to check it.

[rhester72]

That's correct - it's a standard USB keyboard.

[tomxp411]

I read somewhere TheC64-maxi is just a USB keyboard; but I haven't been able to get one to check it.

The keyboard is a USB keyboard, but you still need to attach a USB connector. The actual connection is a tiny plastic connector that goes straight to the TheC64 motherboard.

I really wish they had used standard USB headers.

[zomgugoff]

Thanks for fast replies.
But the question is: when i use Mister with keyrah, is that a "plug&play" system or i need to create a specific keyboard map file for it?
And if i use Mister with TheC64-maxi keyboard?

There is a line in the mister.ini file to enable Keyrah. No custom mapping is needed, but the line specifies something for Keyrah access that may define the keyboard region, which would affect the layout. Also, the C64 core would need the appropriate regional roms to display properly.

[Darthcustom]

Do the 9-pin joystick ports work with Mister as well running C64 Core?

Thanks

[limi]

I recommend a DaemonBite for joystick support:

https://www.daemonbite.com/product/cd32 ... b-adapter/

(There’s also a two-joystick version)

[Darthcustom]

Thanks for the suggestion, but Keyrah is an all in one solution for Keyboard and Joysticks. I'm interested in learning if it works for both with MiSTer.

Best

[limi]

Oh, I see. Didn’t know that it handled joysticks as well

[rhester72]

Keyrah unfortunately won't allow diagonals for both sticks at the same time :/

[Newsdee]

Does anybody know if Cherry MX keycaps can be found for C64 keyboards?
There are stickers, but those end up looking super ghetto (I tried).

[tomxp411]

Does anybody know if Cherry MX keycaps can be found for C64 keyboards?
There are stickers, but those end up looking super ghetto (I tried).

You can have MaxKeyboard or WASD keyboard print custom keycaps.

You'll need to get a copy of the keycap design from

https://github.com/tomxp411/MechBoard64-keycaps

and tweak them for your preferred layout. (I do not believe we have a MiSTer layout yet.)

[jalbarracin]

Does anybody have the original positions (for example the first "00" in the .map file corresponds to which key in the keyboard)? Thank you in advance

[Andre]

Original C64 keyboard to USB
https://github.com/dabonetn/C64USBKey/b ... oMicro.ino

Mine works !! . With Mister ,all keys , Only no F12

[venice]

Original C64 keyboard to USB
https://github.com/dabonetn/C64USBKey/b ... oMicro.ino

Mine works !! . With Mister ,all keys , Only no F12

I have tried it and it works quite nice with a C64c Keyboard but the graphic icons on the keys are not working at all for me.

I found https://github.com/omiq/c64-keyboard-USB and tried the "ultimate64-bmc64-keyboard.ino" Sketch and it works quite well.
The cable connections are nearly the same.
I forked the above and changed it for a better C64 Core compatibilty.
You can find the changed Version of the "ultimate64-bmc64-keyboard.ino" Sketch here: https://github.com/venice1200/c64-keyboard-USB

From my point of view nearly all keys/functions are working as they are marked on the original Keyboard Keys except the following:

• Shift + * (Star) (see Edit 2)

• Run/Stop + Restore (Restore Key is not working at all) (see Edit 2)

• Key Auto-Repeat

Workarounds/Helpers:

• C= + F7/F8 sends F12 (Menu) to the Mister

//Edit
Just found (untested) https://www.keymmodore.com/

//Edit 2, 1.1.2023

RUN/STOP-RESTORE should work now.
I modified the wiring a bit accordingly to https://github.com/dabonetn/C64USBKey/b ... oMicro.ino to get RESTORE working.
The wiring change adds the RESTORE Key to the Key Matrix.

And Shift - * (Star) should work now.

Happy New Year!

[homerghost]

https://github.com/venice1200/c64-keyboard-USB

Fantastic work, this is exactly what I'm looking for! I've been using Keymmodore on VICE and PC it works splendidly, but less out-the-box with MiSTer (as is often the case with MiSTer)

I'm going to give this a whirl over the next few days, it looks easy enough to remap should I need to. My keyboard seems to have some weird regional quirks with Keymmodore (right bracket/double quotes are swapped, hashtag does nothing, equals sign produces a "3") which I fixed by editing the vkm file loaded into VICE, so I suspect it may need some fine tuning with this too.

Just a heads up: your readme links to the original repository rather than yours "The third version is mostly likely the one you want"

[rhester72]

This was so interesting to me I'll be putting one together myself this weekend. Thanks to venice for pointing it out!

[homerghost]

The wiring change adds the RESTORE Key to the Key Matrix.

Hmm I just set this up last night as per your repo and sadly the Restore key doesn't seem to be working. Everything else works great, Control is only registered when used in tandem with another key (which is 100% fine of course!). Is there something I'm missing?

[venice]

Control ist just a modfier, not a dedicated keystroke.
Restore is only working with Run/Stop together.

[homerghost]

Control ist just a modfier, not a dedicated keystroke.
Restore is only working with Run/Stop together.

Ahh sorry my bad, I totally misread your edit there about Restore In which case I can confirm that everything is working flawless out the box Thank you so much for sharing!

[venice]

Just a note,
i do these quick changes to the existing keyboard code to get more or less all keys and some combinations working.
But I was informed that not all keys or key-combinations are working correctly.

Please see my program as a POC.
I don‘t know actually if I find the time to work on fixes.

The details I got:
A number of keys release when they shouldn't. Left-arrow, +, CLR/HOME, INST/DEL, @, *, up arrow, RUN/STOP, :, ;, =, RETURN, C=, the cursor keys, the function keys, and spacebar all behave this way (which causes problems with programs that expect them to be able to be held down, like Anykey)
Presumably as a result of the above, keys that should auto-repeat when held down (INST/DEL, the arrow keys, and spacebar) don't
CTRL and SHIFT don't do register at all except when in combination with another key (but probably should)

Cheers

[rhester72]

Having wanted something like this for a rather long time, I collaborated closely with another forum member and - having been inspired by venice's work - constructed a complete reimagining of this that I think turned out rather well.

For anyone interested, see here:

https://github.com/rhester72/c64_universal_usb_kb

[venice]

Works very well, much better than my version