A ton of keyboard conversions via GitHub – trekawek/mac-plus-ps2: Arduino project that allows to connect a PS2 keyboard to Macintosh Plus
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/12
This is for earliest compact Apple Macintosh systems predating the introduction ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) on Macintosh SE and Apple Macintosh II (and Apple IIgs which technically is not a Macintosh):
[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – trekawek/mac-plus-ps2: Arduino project that allows to connect a PS2 keyboard to Macintosh Plus
Before continuing to an even more impressive keyboard and mouse interfacing project below (basically many kinds of modern keyboard, mice and gamepads to many retro computers) that I found thanks to doing some more research after finding the above one, lets summarise where the above one is still useful for:
I think it is applicable to these classic Compact Macintosh models (for a diagram see the Wikipedia article List of Mac models, in other words all the M0001* models:
M0001: Macintosh 128K (originally just called Macintosh despite there already had been a Macintosh XL which in turn had a different keyboard, see below)M0001W: Macintosh 512KM0001A: Macintosh PlusM0001E: Macintosh 512KeM0001D: Macintosh 512K/800M0001ED: Macintosh EDM0001AP: Macintosh Plus ED / European Version
It does not work for the Macintosh XL (which was basically the Macintosh version of the Apple Lisa), as both the Macintosh XL and Apple Lisa used the Apple Lisa keyboard.
Regrettably a lot of early Lisa and Macintosh XL information got lost over time. Here hare two links I found with useful information:
- [Wayback/Archive] Geocities/SiliconValley/Lakes: Apple Lisa 2 (gone offline after Geocities died) mentions these model numbers for the Macintosh XL (which is the same machine as the Apple Lisa 2/10)
- A6S0300
- A6SB100
- A68B100
- 55 page [Wayback/Archive] Apple Lisa/Macintosh XL Do-it-Yourself Guide [Wayback PDF View/PDF View] by Sun Remarketing
Luckily there are adapters for those really early keyboard interfaces too, and some even support a big variety of modern and retro hardware combinations:
- [Wayback/Archive] Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) to Apple Lisa Keyboard Adapter | ArcaneByte
The adb2lisa is a keyboard adapter that connects keyboards using the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) interface to an Apple Lisa or Macintosh XL system. With the adb2lisa keyboard adapter, ADB-based keyboards behave like an original Lisa keyboard!
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – warmech/m0110-to-lisa-keyboard-adapter: This is a compact, inexpensive, quick, and dirty adapter for using Macintosh M0110/A keyboards with an Apple Lisa. It is not to be considered a fully polished/finished tool and was mostly thrown together to learn how keyboard protocols work. Caveat Utilitor…
- [Wayback/Archive] USB4VC: USB Inputs on Retro Computers! from dekuNukem on Tindie
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – dekuNukem/USB4VC: USB Keyboard/Mouse/Gamepads on Retro Computers!
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – dekuNukem/usb4vc-configurator: Update and add custom gamepad mappings to USB4VC with this cross-platform configurator!
- [Wayback/Archive] Early Macs just gained TONS of new input device choices – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] Modern Input Devices on Retro Computers?! – Yes, It’s Possible! (USB4VC Demo) – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] USB4VC – Using Modern Input Devices on Old PCs – YouTube
The github repository references links in the README file, one of them already to an older version in the Wayback Machine, one didn’t even link (because of the ftp scheme) and another already died. With the ever dying links, below is the list of links in the same order of the README, but with archived links prepended:
- [Wayback/Archive] mac-plus-ps2/mac_plus_ps2/keymap.ino at master · trekawek/mac-plus-ps2 · GitHub
- [Wayback/Archive] PS2Keyboard Library, Connect a keyboard for user input
- [Wayback/Archive] Mac Keyboard Interface
- [Wayback/Archive1/Archive2] ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/documentation/macintosh/Mac%20Hardware%20Info%20-%20Mac%20128K.pdf
- [Wayback/Archive] altercation.tmk_firrmware_hhkb_teensy2.tmk_hhkb_teensy2/protocol/m0110.c at master · jpluimers/altercation.tmk_firrmware_hhkb_teensy2.tmk_hhkb_teensy2 · GitHub
Via [Wayback/Archive] Building a PS/2 Keyboard Adapter for Early Apple Macintosh Computers (128K, 512K, Plus) – YouTube
Queries
- [Wayback/Archive] adb “lisa” keyboard adapter – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] model number of macintosh xl – Google Search
--jeroen






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