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I picked up an Ortek ADB keyboard a few months back - clearly an imitation of the AEK-II (but interestingly it seems to have a PBT spacebar - the AEK-II has ABS

I picked up an Ortek ADB keyboard a few months back - clearly an imitation of the AEK-II (but interestingly it seems to have a PBT spacebar - the AEK-II has ABS spacebar but PBT for all the other keys, so by now an AEK-II's spacebar will typically be yellower than its neighbours) I wired up a similar adapter using a 5v ProMicro, and used the older TMK firmware, which works a treat.

dcminter 3y ago
As far as I can see the QMK and TMK firmware for the ADB/USB are identical - seems the two projects have an amicable relationship. If I understood it right the QMK fork is mostly around including alternate mappings as part of the repo. I did find the python tool in QMK very helpful for getting the binary burned into the Atmega though; I'm not sure it would have been as smooth sailing with TMK.
- robinsonb5 3y ago
  I don't remember how I uploaded the binary into the chip now - I might have used avrdude but I couldn't swear to it. But either way I don't remember it being much of an ordeal. (In the past I've tended to shy away from python-based tooling - I don't know enough about the language or its infrastructure to interpret the error messages when a jenga tower of code and dependencies falls over with messages about wheels or somesuch. I'm too old to have much patience with that kind of side-quest! I'm sure it's all a lot more mature and dependable these days, though.)
  - dcminter 3y ago
    I had a play with this stuff a while ago and I killed an Atmega in the process - I suspect by burning a binary for a different chip into it. I think that was with avrdude - a combination of winging it cluelessly and the Atmega board I was using not exposing the necessary pins to force burn a new binary. The one I use in this project was chosen specifically because it had the programming pins available. Normally I shy away from python/node/perl/intercal tooling much as you describe, but it was very painless. I was mostly expecting to document "giving up and figuring out how I should actually be using avrdude in preference to understanding someone else's language's error and/or config messages" but tripped over a stair that wasn't there when it just worked from the outset. Discounting the bit where I tried to use a borked USB cable that is...

dcminter 3y ago

As far as I can see the QMK and TMK firmware for the ADB/USB are identical - seems the two projects have an amicable relationship. If I understood it right the QMK fork is mostly around including alternate mappings as part of the repo. I did find the python tool in QMK very helpful for getting the binary burned into the Atmega though; I'm not sure it would have been as smooth sailing with TMK.

robinsonb5 3y ago
I don't remember how I uploaded the binary into the chip now - I might have used avrdude but I couldn't swear to it. But either way I don't remember it being much of an ordeal. (In the past I've tended to shy away from python-based tooling - I don't know enough about the language or its infrastructure to interpret the error messages when a jenga tower of code and dependencies falls over with messages about wheels or somesuch. I'm too old to have much patience with that kind of side-quest! I'm sure it's all a lot more mature and dependable these days, though.)
- dcminter 3y ago
  I had a play with this stuff a while ago and I killed an Atmega in the process - I suspect by burning a binary for a different chip into it. I think that was with avrdude - a combination of winging it cluelessly and the Atmega board I was using not exposing the necessary pins to force burn a new binary. The one I use in this project was chosen specifically because it had the programming pins available. Normally I shy away from python/node/perl/intercal tooling much as you describe, but it was very painless. I was mostly expecting to document "giving up and figuring out how I should actually be using avrdude in preference to understanding someone else's language's error and/or config messages" but tripped over a stair that wasn't there when it just worked from the outset. Discounting the bit where I tried to use a borked USB cable that is...