311 Comments

1. Thank you. Next week I am ordering it official. I want it for my Apple //s. I have literally one keyboard and mouse on the table and I do not have space to fit more keyboard mouse. Ones I buy a KVM switcher…third party….and with this device I can then use only one keyboard and mouse for my PC, my Apple //gs, and even for my third device. Next week I am ordering it.

2. I will be buying this device https://youtu.be/VfA1SgG35Sg?t=64 so I have one keyboard and mouse to control my PC and my Apple //gs at the same time.

3. I know this was asked in the past with the answer being \”possible\” but there may be technical difficulties. Using the Wombat in ADB mode, I would like to be able to map the \”Power Key\” to something, such as an additional function key, but I don\’t see a way to do this with the mapping tool. Keycode dump simply states \”0x7F7F is not mapped\”.

   Any progress on if this is possible?

   • There haven’t been any changes to the Wombat firmware for a while, but I’m still thinking about the power key and a few other possible items.

4. Steve

   Thank you for the Wombat! It has worked for me flawlessly, for the last two years! I have tried many similar products, and yours works with no problem as soon as I plug it in!

5. Firmware 0.3.5 is now available. It adds support for remapping the Power Key for ADB-to-USB mode, adds an option to disable ‘mouse wheel arrow keys’ behavior for USB-to-ADB mode, enables separate keycodes for left/right side modifier keys for Apple Extended Keyboard II, and hopefully resolves a user-reported problem with the Appledesign keyboard (unverified).

6. This firmware update looks good for me. I was able to stop the wheel scrolling the mouse, which helps with inadvertent presses.

   One very picky, small detail. I did the Control-Shift-Capslock-V command, while having the IIGS teach app open, to ensure the firmware update took, and it gave me

   ADB+uSB ombat firmware 0.3.5

   I guess there was a slight miscode with the lowercase u, and the W missing in the response?

   I would love one other change, but it may not be possible. I would love to reconfigure the apple eject key as a power key, but it appears to not be recognized by the wombat at all (no response in output mode, on both a wired apple keyboard, and the magic keyboard.) Is the eject key on an apple keyboard so nonstandard that it can’t be read by the wombat?

7. One more thing to close out a previous post, since putting a logitech universal receiver in the left usb socket of my apple wired keyboard, I have not had any of the weird skipping issues that I had when the same dongle was in the right usb keyboard socket. Very odd, it may be my particular keyboard, or maybe something with this particular model. Hopefully it does not reoccur, but so far so good.

8. The missing Shift-U and ‘W’ keys you’re seeing in the firmware version string are likely due to slow keyboard polling speed of the IIGS when running GS/OS. It can’t keep up with the super-human typing speed of the phantom typist that writes out that text. Try it in built-in BASIC (not with GS/OS) and you’ll see the response is much faster.

   USB key translation is provided for USB HID group 7 (standard keyboard) as shown here: http://www.freebsddiary.org/APC/usb_hid_usages.php The Wombat isn’t designed for USB consumer media controls, game controllers, or other similar input, sorry.

9. You are correct, I went to the basic prompt (instead of Teach on my unaccelerated IIGS) and it displayed fine.

   I didn’t know that the eject key was non-standard for USB devices, I guess I am so use to apple products by now I just assumed it was a standard and not a media control.

   I previously configured the f12 key as the reset/power key, so it works well enough for the open apple-control-reset command.

10. Being the silly person I am; I got so excited to order the Wombat and Floppy Emu that I forgot to order an ADB cable. When I came back to order the ADB cable I notice a Wombat case that is out of stock. Will there be supplies in the near future? I prefer to order the cable and wombat case together if that will be an option. Thanks

11. I’ll hopefully have more soon, but I don’t know exactly when. The supplier that I use is prioritizing medical orders for Covid-19 equipment and hasn’t processed my order yet.

12. That is fine by me. That’s a legitimate priority. I will keep an eye on the site and place an order for both when available. Thank you for the response.

13. Putting my freshly-delivered Wombat to use, I plugged it between the KeyboardIO M01 and my Quadra 650. The M01’s LEDs came on, but – no input on the Mac.

    Reading through the keyboardio threads, I came across the distinction between USB’s Boot Protocol and Report Protocol. The story appears to be that a keyboard or mouse will start up talking (full-featured) Report Protocol, and will on demand switch back to the simpler Boot Protocol. The M01 lets you switch modes with “left fn + left shift + esc”, and once I did that, my Quadra read my typing just fine (modulo a few layout differences, which I will probably handle with a custom keyboard map on the Mac).

    My question: Does the Wombat firmware attempt to switch USB HID devices to Boot Protocol (which it appears to require)? Could it grow the ability?

14. Sorry to hear you’re having some trouble. It looks like the KeyboardIO M01 is a DIY keyboard with customizable firmware? There are several discussion threads on the web about problems with that keyboard not working with the BIOS on a variety of computers:

    https://community.keyboard.io/t/getting-the-model-01-to-work-correctly-on-a-mac-in-efi-boot-mode/2128
    https://github.com/keyboardio/Kaleidoscope/issues/220
    https://github.com/keyboardio/KeyboardioHID/issues/59

    I think the KeyboardIO handles this somewhat differently from most other keyboards. It appears this issue may have been fixed in a later KeyboardIO firmware version, or you can compile your own firmware that defaults the keyboard to boot protocol. Or use the key combination to manually switch modes, as you’re doing now.

    The Wombat’s low-level USB communications are part of the software library provided by Microchip for the PIC32 – I didn’t write them, so it’s difficult to determine exactly what they’re doing and more difficult to change them. It does support the report protocol (it reads report descriptors, rather than assuming a hard-coded report format). But it’s possible that its keyboard report descriptor parsing is buggy or limited in some way related to N-key rollover. That might explain the behavior you’re seeing. A nice overview can be found at https://deskthority.net/wiki/USB#Protocol_problem

    In theory this could be addressed with a Wombat firmware change, since it’s all at the software level. But without more knowledge of the Microchip USB code and access to a KeyboardIO M01 for testing, it would be very difficult.

15. I just received my Wombat case in the mail today. The case is actually smaller than my wombat and the screw holes do not line-up. Has anyone else had this issue? Did the Wombat itself recently get a new smaller design? I have only had mine for a few weeks.

    • Some wrongly-cut cases got out recently, sorry. Please send me an email to arrange a replacement or refund.

16. That’s too bad. Has to be pretty annoying to you. I just sent you an email. A replacement would be great. Appreciated.

17. Hello Steve: A customer had a question for me, I perused through the previous enquiries above and did not see this specifically. Apologies in advance if I missed it and perhaps there is a way to set this in firware…appreciate your time. Best regards Rob Blessin Question below…

    Is there a way to keep the caps lock state and keyboard light in sync with the caps lock key?

    Apple Extended Keyboard M0115 to Wombat 0.3.5 to iMac 10.15 via USB-B

    The light reflects the state but the key position is inverted. Unplugging etc can get it right but it gets out of sync.

18. Yeah, the Wombat can get confused if your keyboard has a locking caps lock key, and you boot the system with caps lock already on. I don’t have a great solution for that, but as an alternative to unplugging the keyboard you could use one of the help commands like Control-Shift-Capslock-V. This has the side-effect of changing the caps lock state.

19. Don\’t sweat it…

    I have in the meantime udated the M01 to the latest firmware, no difference.

    On the other hand, I found that my layout problems were based on a misunderstanding – the 3rd level characters printed on some keys are accessible with Fn, not opt/alt gr. So, after switching to US layout, the mapping works perfectly as-is.

    Which leaves manually switching the M01 into boot mode (left Fn – shift – esc) when I start using it with the Wombat, which I can manage. 😉

    Amazing little box that bridges thirty years of technological change!

20. This could be a new FAQ item:
    Q: What should I do if the PWR LED lights dimly and the Wombat does not respond when connected to my computer via ADB?
    A: Check that jumper block is set to USB. Check the ADB input voltage. Check PSU voltages. Check motherboard power capacitors.

    With the input jumper block set to USB, I connected my Wombat to a PowerBook 190 and powered up. The PWR LED lit dimly, A and B LEDs stayed off, and the Mac didn’t recognize the USB mouse I was using. I wish I had checked Vcc at the Wombat then, but I didn’t. I tried setting the jumper to USB+PWR and connecting a USB charger and it worked fine, for a while. Some days later, the PB190 failed to power on. It was then that I realized the SMD electrolytics were leaking barely visible electrolyte fluid onto the board. After a swap to a motherboard without that problem, the Wombat worked perfectly off ADB without the USB charger. I’ve ordered parts to recap both boards. I’m kind of amazed the old one was working at all. While not technically a Wombat problem, with Macs of this vintage, I’m sure I’m not the only one who will have this issue.

    The Wombat is amazing! I tried it the other way around with an Apple Extended Keyboard (ADB) on a USB KVM switch. Buggy nightmare on both Windows and Mac prior to the firmware update, but an absolute dream after.

    I freed up some space in the PB190 by swapping the hard drive for an SSD, so I plan to remove some connectors from the Wombat (to save space) and install it plus a USB RF transceiver for my wireless optical mouse permanently inside the PB190.

21. I just bought this and it seems to work well with my PowerBook 5300 on system 7.6.1 and 8.1, except if I try and cycle between programs too quickly (I.e. between Netscape Navigator>Stuffit Expander>Finder] the mouse often slows down to a crawl; only remedied by restarting the 5300. I did check firmware and I’m a few revs behind (0.3.2 or 0.3.3 I think). If I update to 0.3.5 will it fix this issue? I’m also using a USB 3.0 hub, though I’ve tried a 90s USB 1.1 hub and had the same problem. Logitech mouse is M705 v1 and keyboard is a backlit Drevo Calibur. I wonder could the backlight on the KB be problematic? I’ve not yet tried powering the Wombat from the wall, maybe that might help?
    Thanks.

22. Matt, this sounds like a possible hardware problem. Send me a direct mail (see Contact at the page’s upper-right) and I can help you troubleshoot.

23. I excitedly bought a Wombat in the hope that I could finally make full use of my Apple Adjustable Keyboard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Adjustable_Keyboard). I’ve used a Griffin iMate in the past, but was always bummed out that I couldn’t use the special volume keys, and thought it would be fun to be able to make the microphone key to Siri.

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the Wombat sees any of these special keys. Is there something special about them? Anyone else know anything about it? Could it, perhaps, be fixed with a Firmware update? (I’m not 100% sure what firmware I’m running, since the Caps lock key on the Apple Adjustable Keyboard doesn’t seem to be recognized either, but I just bought it my Wombat a week ago).

    Thanks!

24. A bit more information– I did get it to get into key dump mode, and the volume up / volume down / microphone / mute keys are absolutely not picked up at all.

    Was this some sort of weird alternate ADB mode that was only ever used for the Apple Adjustable Keyboard?

25. Hi Greg, you can see the list of Wombat-mappable keys in its Keymap tool here: https://www.bigmessowires.com/wombat-keymap.html Key translation is provided for USB HID group 7 (standard keyboard) as defined here: http://www.freebsddiary.org/APC/usb_hid_usages.php The media keys are a separate category of USB HID input, rather than simply being additional keys on a standard keyboard. The Wombat isn’t designed for USB consumer media controls, game controllers, or other similar input, sorry.

    Is it possible there’s a problem with your keyboard’s caps-lock? I’ve heard from other people with the Apple Adjustable Keyboard who did not mention any issue with caps-lock. If there’s a hardware problem, please use the Contact link at upper-right to send me the details, and we’ll sort it out.

26. Hello, I wanted to first thank you for your product. I’ve been using Wombat with my ADB keyboard (the original, the one that came with the Apple IIgs) with my Macbook for a year or two now and it has been fantastic.

    I do want to drop a tip off to everyone here – the Caps Lock is a toggle key but it only activates when you depress it to the on position (it does not send a keycode when it is untoggled. HOWEVER! if capslock is off, and you accidentally lightly brush it with your finger, sometimes it sends the capslock on, meanwhile you haven’t actually clicked it.

    So you can turn caps lock off by simply brushing your finger against it a second time. It’s hokey but it works, (until I decide to permanently desolder that pesky critter!) 😀

    Now is my question.. This keyboard is phenomenal for me but there is an obvious lack of function keys. I was able to use the Macbook’s function keys when necessary since they happened to be right there, but I am moving this setup to a Windows environment where they use function keys more often. I see in a comment above a request to use the power key as a “Fn” or additional modifier key. I was wondering if there was any movement on that or if it was possible at all.

    For example, Power-1 could be F1, Power-2 could be F2, .. up to F12 if you count the – and = keys on the top number row. Power-Numpad-+ and Power-Numpad– and Power-Numpad-* could be volume up/down/mute, and there’s other mappings like brightness, lock, search, printscreen, scrolllock, play/pause/forward/backward, etc etc, all those fun keys, that could be mapped to user specification.. So Option-Power-4 would for example be my Alt-F4 to close the window.

    Please let me know if this is possible. Thanks again!

27. Caps lock is deceptively complicated. Some keyboards have a locking mechanical key – they send a keydown event when pressed and locked, and send a keyup event when pressed a second time and released. Other keyboards have a caps lock that behaves like any other key, sending keydown and keyup events every time it’s pressed, and letting the OS handle the caps toggling behavior. The Wombat tries to gracefully handle both types.

    Support for mapping the ADB power key was added in firmware 0.3.5. If you want it to behave like a special modifier key, then you could use key mapping software on your computer to configure the desired behaviors for each key combo.

28. Hi Steve,

    Do you have any indication about the expected input delay in ADB to USB mode? For typing it won’t matter much, but every now and then I like to play rhythm games where input delay does matter.

    Could you let me know the expected delay in miliseconds and if this varies and if it is a (somewhat) predictable set amount of time? That way I could calibrate the settings to work with the input delay.

    Cheers

29. I haven’t attempted to measure that, and it’s a complicated question to answer. If I had to guess, I’d say a variable delay somewhere around 1-25 milliseconds. USB keyboards operate on a polling basis – typically the computer polls the keyboard every 8-10 milliseconds, so even without a Wombat converter there won’t be a fixed interval between a USB keypress and when the computer becomes aware of the keypress.

30. I guess it would depend on what polling rate the Wombat functions at then right?

    I think most high-end keyboards use the maximum USB polling rate of 1/1000s, cheaper ones may use 1/125s or maybe 1/250s.

    Maybe I’ll just have to witness it myself, I think ADB has some delay as well (I don’t remember if it used polling, I think it does right?) so your estimate of around 1-25ms is likely close to the truth. If I’m really bored I may grab the scope and figure it out haha.

    Thanks!

31. Hi!
    When it will be available?

32. Just posting to subscribe for the next batch notification. This looks like it’d be an awesome addition to my old PowerMac.

33. Hi, I love my Wombat and how it has been improving these years. I wish there was something similar supporting PS2. Is there anybody aware of a Wombat like adapter for the PS2? I mean an adapter that can accept (non PS2 supporting) USB keyboard entry (therefore the adapter behaving as usb host) and send the PS2 signals to a PC?

34. @Ruben yes, those devices exist. They’re fairly expensive since they’re designed as you described. One option is the Tripp lite Minicom. I’ve seen a couple of others but can’t vouch for how well any of them work. Another option is a KVM switch that supports both PS/2 and USB. That’s a bigger, more expensive solution, but sometimes they can be obtained cheaply as old data center equipment.

    To bring it back to topic, I use a type of USB KVM switcher with multiple Wombats, which allows me to not only control more than one Apple IIgs from the same keyboard, but send them commands via serial to USB HID device to remote control them from a modern PC. The only drawback is that the Wombat doesn’t seem to like the USB mouse output from the switcher, though I haven’t been able to determine why.

    • @adbj the USB HID report descriptor from your KVM might be in some unexpected format that confuses the Wombat. The report descriptor parser in the Wombat firmware isn’t as robust as what you’ll find in a full-fledged OS like Windows. If you dump the descriptor and send it to me, I can take a look at it. https://web.archive.org/web/20180703143648/https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/wiki/HID-Report-Descriptor

35. is there any way to upgrade the firmware to be able to recognize more devices by their hardware PIN. as-well as add support for joysticks & their unique product ID # there are alot of joystick specifically for a mac ADB i would like to use.

36. I’ve been playing with using a YubiKey with the Wombat. My use case is authenticating against a netatalk-classic server that is configured to use the YubiKey PAM module for network shares.

    I noticed that the Wombat will only use key events from the last-plugged-in USB keyboard (which the YubiKey emulates). This isn’t a huge problem — I plug in the YubuKey, press the button for auth, then unplug it after I’m done.

    Being forgetful and constantly misplacing the YubiKey on the desk, though, I wonder … is it possible for the Wombat to handle key events for all attached keyboards?

37. @Chris maybe try a USB hub with built-in on/off switches for each USB port. That should support what you’re doing without needing to constantly unplug and replug devices. I would have to look at the firmware to see about supporting multiple USB keyboards simultaneously by the Wombat hardware. I’m not sure how the presence of multiple keyboards would be handled by classic Apple operating systems like System 7 or the Apple IIGS.

    @Anonymous what do you mean by hardware PIN? Please see the “compatibility” section above. Security dongles, joysticks, and other less common devices are not supported, sorry.

    Because several people have asked about joysticks, I’ll expand on this. ADB defines standard communication protocols for keyboards and mice, and support for these two ADB devices is built into the ROM of classic Macs and the Apple IIGS (and presumably ADB-equipped NeXT computers too). There’s no standard protocol for joysticks. Back in the 80s and 90s you would have installed some control panel software (essentially a driver) on your Mac for your specific brand and model of ADB joystick. This software would support a custom ADB communication protocol, as well as configuration of the joystick options. I think the Gravis Gamepad control panel also had a menu of popular contemporary games, which you could choose from in order to make the Gamepad compatible with those games. I’m not sure what that did under the hood. As far as I know, the joystick communication protocols were vendor- and model-specific, and undocumented.

    In practice, most of the popular ADB joysticks were made by Gravis. They made the Gamepad, Mousestick II, and Blackhawk.

    In theory, one could get samples of each of these joysticks, connect them to an old Mac, install the appropriate control panel software (if you can find it), and sniff the ADB bus with a logic analyzer. With work, it might be possible to reverse-engineer the communication protocols used.

    But even if you did all that, what then? If you’re wanting to use the Wombat to connect an ADB joystick to a USB computer, where does the equivalent of the control panel software go? How would you configure the Gamepad settings? And can something like a Gamepad with its digital direction pad mimic the behavior of a USB joystick, which is normally an analog device?

    Similar challenges exist if you’re wanting to use the Wombat to connect a USB joystick to an ADB computer. The Wombat would need to choose a specific brand and model of ADB joystick to mimic, and you would need to install a control panel on your Mac. The Apple IIGS and NeXT would probably have to be excluded. And then what about the driver or configuration software for the USB joystick? Where would that go? There’s no simple answer.

    There may be solutions to all of this, but hopefully I’ve explained why it’s much more complex than basic keyboard and mouse conversion. At best, any joystick conversion would likely still be tied to specific vendor/model assumptions and would lack the normal configuration software. Without the configuration software, it might be awkward or impossible to set up the joystick as needed for any given game.

38. > \”I’m not sure how the presence of multiple keyboards would be handled by classic Apple operating systems like System 7\”

    On my Mac II and SE/30 I could use two keyboards at the same time on ADB, an Apple Keyboard II and an Extended II. Worked perfectly fine. If you think over it, it has to work, as early Powerbooks had ADB, and you could use both the internal and external keyboard simultaneously (same with mice). I’m quite sure that the internal keyboards of early PowerBooks were attached via ADB internally.

39. Ah, and there even was an official Apple keyboard that was 2 keyboards: the Ergonomic. It consists of a main keyboard, and attached via ADB, a number/cursor pad. So Mac OS should support 2 keyboards in general.

40. Steve,
    Does using the wombat in usb power mode effectively relieve the adb port of whatever power it would normally be providing to the device? I’m thinking of scenarios where i have split the adb port into two, with the wombat plugged into one port, and traditional adb device(s) plugged into the other.

    • That’s right, in that situation the Wombat will draw power from the external USB supply rather than from the computer.

41. And how much could the Wombat pass through? Because I have a chain like 68kMac Wombat RaspberryPi4 OTG port. And the Pi consumes up to 7W via its combined OTG and USB-C port.

    (Why I do this? PiKVM. KVM in “software”, where I attached an 68k-Mac to have Audio/Keyboard/Mouse over IP)

    • I don’t have a spec for that. The power and ground traces are 16 mil on 1 ounce copper. 7 watts is 1.4 amps continuous, which is maybe OK for those traces but I wouldn’t want to go any higher. It’s probably better to connect your Pi to a good quality powered USB hub, and plug that into the Wombat.

42. Any plans for a converter for the 512k? Or does anyone make one?

43. Firstly – I love my Wombat!! Thank you for such an awesome project!

    I\’m using my Wombat with a \”PiKVM\” (https://github.com/pikvm/pikvm) to remotely control my Mac. The Wombat currently reports itself as a \”relative\” device type, which normally what a mouse uses. PiKVM defaults to using an absolute type (like a tablet) since it makes the mouse a lot easier to use through remote control. PiKVM can be reconfigured to work in relative mode, but its pretty laggy and annoying.

    What is the feasibility of adding an \”absolute\” mode to Wombat so have it emulate a tablet interface if the USB device uses absolute positioning? Is this something you would consider implementing?

    • I don’t think so, sorry. Both USB and ADB mice are relative position devices.

44. FYI The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (uhk.io) does _not_ seem to be compatible with the Wombat at this time. I’m not sure if this is related. but may be helpful: https://github.com/UltimateHackingKeyboard/firmware/issues/70

    • The link mentions something about the UHK key rollover behavior, but I don’t think that should matter for the Wombat.

45. Any idea when the Wombat will be back in stock? Thanks!

    • Looking at mid to late April for Wombat restock.

46. This is a great product!
    Wombat has been announced as temporarily out of stock, but is it late?
    When it arrives, I will purchase it from Japan at the same time as Floppy Emu and Mac ROM-inator II 🙂
    Thanks.

    • It’s been delayed, but I’m hoping to take delivery this week.

47. Hi There, would it be possible to get an email, when this is back in stock please? Thanks in advance

48. Sorry for the continued Wombat delay. I’m now expecting to have more stock available next week. I’ll send a notice to those who’ve requested it when they’re restocked.

49. Hi Steve,

    Great Product! It was somewhat magical to see my new Logitech mouse working on a computer that is more than 30 years older than it!

    Unfortunately, I have not been able to get my keyboard to work with it. 🙁 I\’ve tried a few different firmware revisions (0.3.5, 0.3.3 & 0.3.0) and both with & without a hub but had no luck so far. Both \”ON\” & \”A\” light up nicely but \”B\” refuses to light up no matter what key I press…
    The keyboard in question is Feenix Autore with an ANSI layout. The system that I am trying to control is a Macintosh SE running Mac OS 7.5.3. I\’ve had no problems with it on Mac OS 9 (over USB on iMac G3) or the latest Windows/macOS versions, so I found it a bit odd that it does not respond over ADB at all.

    Do you have any tips/tricks that I could try? I am happy to provide any additional information that might help solve the problem! 🙂

    – Paul

    • I’ve heard the same from other VidHD users. It appears to be an incompatibility caused by how VidHD holds the computer in reset for a long time at power-up. A work-around is to press the Emu’s reset button after the computer starts up.

    • Hi Paul, for customer support problems, please use the Customer Support link to get 1-on-1 help. This sounds like a possible incompatibility with that specific model of keyboard.

50. Hi Steve, any updates regarding the restock? Thank you!