leesmiths workshop | Connecting old retro keyboards to USB with a cheap Raspberry PI PICO for MiSTerFPGA cores. @leesmithsworkshop | Uploaded October 2022 | Updated October 2024, 7 minutes ago.
This video was made possible with the support of PCBWAY.....pcbway.com

For a while I wanted to use an actual old keyboard with my MiSTer and design an addon for my wedge case so I decided to look at KMK firmware that a lot of people use for custom mechanical keyboard. KMK and Circuit python was very easy to use and just had to change the examples to work with the small selection of keyboards I had to try. While I was working on this I also found the BBC and Amiga 600 projects , but I was not able to borrow an A600 keyboard for the video.

My scripts used.
github.com/midicdj1000/RETRO-PICO-KMK-Keyboards

BBC PICO keyboard project
alexparsons.co.uk/connecting-a-bbc-micro-keyboard-to-a-raspberry-pico
github.com/ajparsons/bbc-micro-keyboard

Amiga 600 PICO Keyboard
github.com/thinghacker/Amiga600KeyboardUSBAdapter
links to pcbway shared files

circuitpython.org
github.com/KMKfw/kmk_firmware

Noels Amstrad CPC diagnostics
github.com/llopis/amstrad-diagnostics

The connector I used for the Flat flex is a
TE Connectivity, Trio-Mate, 6-520315 2.54mm Pitch 16 Way Straight Female FPC Connector

Music is from the Youtube Library
The Thought of You - TrackTribe

00:00 intro
01:08 WHY ?
02:13 The keyboards I have for this video
05:10 Prototypes made on my CNC
06:50 Board design
08:07 uploading Gerber to PCBWAY
08:49 Looking at the new PCB and some PCBWAY goodies
10:32 Soldering Montage
11:43 connecting the new PCB to the Keyboards
14:00 Programming the PICO with Circuit Python and KMK firmware
16:19 How it works
21:15 Testing the Keyboards in MiSTer FPGA cores
24:15 Final words