HIDman is an open source device to allow the use of modern USB keyboards and mice on legacy PCs.
Peripherals that support legacy PCs are becoming hard to find, especially for the very first PCs. This project aims to provide a simple cheap solution that will cover everything from the original IBM 5150 PC all the way up to modern computers that have PS/2 ports.
- (should) Support the majority of standard USB keyboards and mice, including ones that use wireless dongles.
- Also supports (some) USB Game controllers - buttons/axes are mapped to keypresses or mouse actions
- Can emulate the following devices :
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- OG IBM PC / XT Keyboard
- AT / PS/2 Keyboard
- Serial Mouse (with optional Logitech-style 3rd button)
- PS/2 Mouse (with optional Intellipoint-style scroll wheel and up to 5 buttons)
- Driverless configuration menu - change settings just by opening a text editor
You can connect many different combinations of USB devices to HIDman.
The most obvious being to connect a keyboard to one USB port, and a mouse to the other one :
Or, you could perhaps connect a wireless keyboard+mouse dongle to one port, and a game controller to the other :
Hub support can be hit-and-miss. This is (mostly) not HIDman's fault - many modern hubs don't support low-speed USB devices properly.
- Connect male-to-male Mini-DIN cables from HIDman’s keyboard and mouse ports to your PC’s PS/2 ports.
- Turn on your PC.
- If necessary, press HIDman's ⏻ power button to select PS/2 mode (light blue).
- Connect a male-to-male Mini-DIN Cable from HIDman's keyboard port into a Mini-DIN to DIN adapter.
- Connect that adapter to your PC's keyboard port.
- Connect a straight-through male-to-female DE-9 cable from HIDman's serial port to your PC's serial port.
- Turn on your PC.
- Press HIDman's ⏻ power button to select AT mode (light blue), or XT mode (orange) for early 80's IBM PCs and clones.
Configuration is provided through a built-in menu system. No software install is required - all interaction is through the keyboard.
Simply open a text editor on your target PC (eg notepad, edit, vi), then hold HIDman's power button for a few seconds. The menu will be typed out into your text editor.
"Adv.Keyboard" and "Adv.Mouse" switch the keyboard and mouse respectively into "Native Mode". This may be required to access certain functions such as scroll wheels and extra buttons on mice.
"Intellimouse" enables scroll wheel and 5-button support for PS/2 mice.
"Debug" enables the debug menu. The most useful debugging option is "Dump HID Data". Enabling this dumps information about all USB devices connected after that point.
If you are having trouble getting a USB device to work, enable HID Dumping then connect the troublesome USB device. Wait for it to finish dumping, then press ESC and save the resulting data to a text file. Then send it to me for analysis.
Firmware development is continuing, so if you have problems it's always worth updating to the latest version.
The first step is to put the HIDman in firmware update mode.
- Disconnect everything from HIDman, including all USB devices and PCs. (failure to do this may result in damage to HIDman, your PC, or both).
- Hold down HIDman's ⏻ power button.
- Use a USB A-to-A cable to connect HIDman's LOWER USB port to a USB port on your modern PC.
After that, update instructions will depend on your operating system.
If this is your first time updating, you're going to need to download and install WCH's ISP tool - https://www.wch-ic.com/downloads/WCHISPTool_Setup_exe.html
After that, follow the instructions in this diagram :
There are a few options here, but the only one I could get to work is ch55xtool : https://github.com/MarsTechHAN/ch552tool
Once you've installed that, use the -f parameter to specify the firmware file to load. For example :
python3 ch55xtool.py -f hidman_axp_v1.1.bin
HIDman actually outputs keyboard and mouse signals on BOTH PS/2 connectors. If you have a PC that can take advantage of this (typically Mini PCs or Laptops), you can keep the cabling neater by using only one cable.
Note that there are two different types of Combined PS/2 ports, and HIDman provides for both types. Generally, laptops will need plugged into the Mouse port on HIDman, and Mini PCs want the Keyboard port. If it doesn't work with one port, try the other one.
Another way to take advantage of the Combined PS/2 port functionality is to use a widely-available PS/2 splitter :
This also allows neater cabling, as you could connect both keyboard and mouse ports to the rear, and not have to connect to the front mouse port.
The HIDman is based around the CH559 from WCH, a remarkably flexible chip with two USB HOST ports. This makes it ideal for our purposes.
The code is forked from atc1441's excellent repository - https://github.com/atc1441/CH559sdccUSBHost
PCB and enclosure was designed in KiCad - source files are in the hardware directory.
Development is very active but it is usable in its current state.