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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Keyrah V2 and Standalone Vampire

Daniel Sevo

Posts 299
04 Sep 2017 22:21


Will Keyrah V2 work with standalone Vampire V4 so that we can use A1200 keyboard with it?
I'm *guessing/hoping* the answer is "yes" ?




Nick Fellows

Posts 176
05 Sep 2017 08:46


Without having an a1200 keyboard ribbon connector on the standalone version the answer to this question it also waited with anticipation by myself.



Michal Warzecha

Posts 209
05 Sep 2017 08:48


Probably standalone version is not designed to rebuild old amiga desktop computers, but for use in some small cases with USB HID devices, mouse, keyboard etc.


Rob M

Posts 60
05 Sep 2017 22:06


nick fellows wrote:

Without having an a1200 keyboard ribbon connector on the standalone version the answer to this question it also waited with anticipation by myself.
 

Keyrah converts various Commodore keyboards, including the A1200 keyboard, to USB.  You also 2 joysick port which are mapped to the number keys Sinclair style.  Great for games like Sneech that support more than 2 players.


Vojin Vidanovic

Posts 770
07 Sep 2017 13:26


Daniel Sevo wrote:

Will Keyrah V2 work with standalone Vampire V4 so that we can use A1200 keyboard with it?
  I'm *guessing/hoping* the answer is "yes" ?

If it really converts Amiga keyboard to USB it should work with standalone Vamps. But we will not know until its out.



Ian Parsons

Posts 230
08 Sep 2017 06:38


It will be interesting to see how the keyboard is implemented on the standalone. The original Minimig did PS2 to Amiga raw keys in hardware IIRC. MiST used an ARM microcontroller to do USB to Amiga conversion in ARM firmware. Does the V4 standalone implement PS2 over the USB connector, does it have an extra softcore doing HID USB keyboard to Amiga conversion, does it have some other way of handling it or does it only support USB keyboards through a USB stack and driver running under the Amiga OS?


Martin Soerensen

Posts 232
08 Sep 2017 10:51


Since USB is the only way to connect a keyboard, it must have some low level implementation that does not require a USB stack to be running in the OS, otherwise kb/mouse could not be used in native software. Hopefully it will be fully HID compatible though and not just PS/2. In theory it could have native HID support as well as full USB stack support in the OS, like a PC BIOS which has a 'legacy USB kb/mouse' feature which allows the usage of kb/mouse in BIOS, DOS etc. without any drivers.


Ian Parsons

Posts 230
14 Sep 2017 09:33


BigGun confirmed on IRC a couple of days ago that USB Keyboard and mouse are handled in hardware using a polling technique. The relevant "Amiga" hardware registers (as implemented on the standalone V4) will be updated with appropriate values so that all existing software works as if a normal Amiga keyboard or mouse is providing the input.

This still leaves some implementation questions unanswered. Firstly the key code conversion, are there any established standards for mapping the USB (i.e. PC) keyboard codes to Amiga key codes? There are a lot of similarities between PC and Amiga keyboards but some critical differences too. The main differences are no F11 or F12 keys, no right CRTL modifier key, no separate Insert, Home, Page Up, End and Page Down keys above the cursor key cluster, no Print Scr, Scroll lock or Pause keys above that either. Better to have too many keys than not enough I suppose. The one key that is missing is the Help key. The Amiga has an extra key on the numeric keypad and no separate Num Lock key allowing Left and Right Parenthesis keys to be included.

There are a lot of other keys like media keys, application shortcuts etc. that may appear on USB keyboards

Can additional keys be mapped to spare Amiga key codes or would that potentially break the keyboard input system or applications?

There are existing USB to Amiga keyboard adaptors, Emulators on platforms using PC keyboards and other FPGA boards like MiST which all must tackle the problems. They may also include some reconfiguration options. What are the best solutions?

As for the mouse, that should be pretty straight forward. It may be nice to add support for a scroll wheel by adding a new hardware register for the counter. It would need somebody to add software support too.


Ian Parsons

Posts 230
14 Sep 2017 11:05


It seems quite a few people have connected A500 keyboards to Raspberry Pi's via various converter boards to USB so those may be another option as an alternative to A1200 keyboard and Keyrah.


Jostein Hjeldnes

Posts 6
29 Aug 2020 13:17


So Any uppdate ?
Anyone using keyra and A500/A1200 kayboard ?
Does it work ?


Manfred Bergmann

Posts 226
30 Aug 2020 20:47


Yes, it works:
CLICK HERE 
I've tried an A600 keyboard but I don't see why an A1200 keyboard shouldn't work.

Manfred


Jostein Hjeldnes

Posts 6
01 Sep 2020 22:19


It does not work on mine with A1200 keyboard connected..
  Do i need a special driver ?
 
  ?


Fabien GUIBERTEAU

Posts 3
23 Feb 2022 08:11


Hi !
I have just connected a Keyrah V2 in an Amiga 600 case  on my V4. The keyboard is not detected. I try on ApolloOS and AmigaOS, no luck.
Could someone confirm it is working for him and how he did ?
Thanks !



Chris H

Posts 65
23 Feb 2022 11:29


Hi, it is not working yet, I tested it also some time ago. But Gunnar could, if he knows the USB ID, descriptor and such, provide compatibility for it, like it was done with all the other HIDs...


Fabien GUIBERTEAU

Posts 3
23 Feb 2022 14:02


Thanks for your answer, on Mister there is an option in the settings to get it to work.
It is 0x18d80002 (the USB ID ?) . I will try to connect to a PC to read more informations.
Gunnar if you read me, what informations do you need to add it ?
Thanks !


posts 15