apridapter

Firmware repo for a USB to Apricot IR & wired keyboard and mouse adaptor.

Overview

This firmware allows use of a USB keyboard and mouse with the proprietry interface used on the Apricot range of computers made by ACT/Apricot of the early/mid 80s, using the micro USB port of a Raspberry Pi Pico.

The Pico must be externally powered, either via a passthrough on micro USB adaptor or via the Pico's pins.

There are is wireless IR interface (used on the F series and Portable) and wired interface.

Wireless

Wireless allows connecting either a keyboard or mouse (both at the same time not currently supported) to the the micro USB of the Raspberry Pi Pico.

An IR LED is connected to pin 28 of the Pico.

Wired

The wired interface only supports the mouse, this requires a MAX232 conveter on pins 2 & 3.

Setup

Download & flash the firmware

Plug in your RP Pico while holding down the BOOTSEL button (the only button on the board), it will show up as a removable storage device on your PC.

Download either the ir or the wired .uf2 firmware file, & copy it to the RP Pico.

The Pico will reset and will be ready to go.

Circuit

Wireless

Connect an IR LED to Pin 28 of the Raspberry Pi Pico and ground via a resistor.

Make sure you have an external power source for your Pico, this can be via a passthrough on a micro USB converter.

Wired

This requires a MAX232 converter and 4 electrolytic capacitors at around 1uF.

The 2x5 connector is the mouse connector on the keyboard PCB.

Building the firmware

Ensure you have the Rust and picotool installed.

At the root of the repository, run:

cargo build --release 
picotool uf2 convert target/thumbv6m-none-eabi/release/apridapter -t elf ./apridaptor.uf2

This builds the firmware to convet a USB mouse or keyboard to the Apricot IR protocol, used on the F Series and Portable, and assumed a 105 key UK layout.

You can optionally pass a --features flag to the above cargo build command to change which keyboard you wish to use.

--features azerty
--features colemak
--features dvp104key
--features de105key
--features dvorak104key
--features fise105key
--features jis109key
--features no105key
--features us104key

Passing --features wired will build the firmware to convert between a USB mouse to Apricot wired mouse as used on the Apricot PC series. Keyboards are not supported with this.