Welcome
(typing)
Well from the lovely sound of that keyboard
You can understand why I came up with the idea recently of wanting to use one of these
There's my main keyboard for writing letters to Lego asking them to please mass-produce
My Commodore BrixtyFour for and other things
Now this is the M0110 Keyboard
And it's the last of the phone jack style keyboards to be supplied with the vintage Macintosh computers
And this one came from the Macintosh Plus
And I found it on fleBay
So after it's finished, its quality control checks by Puppyfratic
It's time to see how we could hook it up to a modern-day Mac
So inside here should be the Mac to... ... the Mac2USB by Drakware
Put on eBay
And you can see here, it just plugs in the RJ11 port on the Macintosh keyboard
Kind of embarrassing though that they printed this upside down
Just kidding
Inside it is a Silabs Universal B Microcontroller
And basically acts like a Mac host and receives keystrokes from the old keyboard
Then just translates those into USB key presses for the new Mac
And there are a few PCBs on the market that will do this
You could even design your own and send away to PCBW ay
They offer a full assembly service
And as we all know PCB the stands for
Phone Cable Board, doesn't it?
And as for the Mac2USB
The firmware includes four keymaps
You can even emulate the function keys by pressing the caps lock key
Even though this keyboard doesn't have function keys at all
Now funny story, this is made in Malaysia
And I actually used to work in the factory
But they had to let me go because I didn't put in enough SHIFTS
(clears throat)
Hmm sorry, I can't control it
Anyway, let's return
This cables kind of icky and sticky
So we'll give the whole thing a bit of a quick cleanup before we get started
Of course with RJ11, it's always the second way around that you try put that on Craigslist
Put that on Craigslist (breaking noise)
Ba-naa
Wait, it doesn't ... it doesn't fit
Oh!
Sorry ... other end
Ba-naa
So, out with the old and in with th..
oh ..
Out with the new and in with the ...well.. retro
An elegant keyboard for a more civilized age
Yeah, I actually did all the sound effects in the movies myself
Isn't that a great combination
Think I'm onto something here
But what I'm not onto is getting this working
I tried every possible thing, but I just couldn't get the keyboard to be recognized by the new Mac
It would even say to press the key to the right of the shift key
And it just wouldn't respond to that key press
Hmm
I've tried all the usual things: cleaning the ports, checking the connections, different USB cables
So let's try talking to the one company who might know how to fix this
(recorded voice) Hi. Thanks for setting up a call with Apple
Hi, how are you?
(recorded voice) To speak with an advisor, press 1.
(recorded voice) For quality assurance purposes, your call may be monitored or recorded
Yeah, same here
(recorded voice) Apple is happy to offer a choice of music while you wait
Please play the Retro Recipes theme tune while I wait
Hello.
(music playing, Yo Mama?)
(Apple advisor on the phone)
Was that you singing just now? You got a beautiful voice
(Apple) What can I help you with today?
Just first up, is this call recorded?
(Apple) Uh, yes yes
Okay, and that's okay with you, as well?
(Apple) Yes.
It's fine by me
Basically, I've got a 1986 Macintosh Plus keyboard
And I'm connecting it through a USB adapter to a modern-day iMac, but it's not actually working
(Apple) Ooh, I think they discontinued that in like, the 90's.
So, pretty recently.
Well. I'll try to help you as much as I could over the phone
Okay, do you know if Walmart could do that?
(Apple) Uhh.. did you say Walmart?
Right.
(Apple) I don't think Walmart, no.
But I wasn't so sure about that
Let's just double-check with Ashley. Oh, hi.
(Ashley) Hi, how are you?
Good, how are you?
I'm doing very well.
Great. I hope you can help me. I need a replacement keyboard cable for a Macintosh classic
(Ashley) For the Macintosh Classic, we only have the inverted phone cables but the Macintosh has the straight
How it takes the straight? I thought it was inverted
Nope.
That might be where I'm going wrong cool, thank you
You're welcome
Okay. Well, let's say if Apple can help us find one of those cables
(Apple) There is one called Unitek Computer Stores. It's in Encinco, CA
Now, they do have appointments today. Basically, they look at all our older products. They actually have the ability to order any old parts, if you need.
Gotcha. Well, you know you've been really helpful. Is it possible to have a quick chat with Tim Cook?
(Apple) Tim Cook? I wish I could get quick that him.
Yeah, that's okay. I just thought that with me running a YouTube channel called Retro Recipes
Someone with the last name Cook might want to speak to me
(Apple) Well you can go online and send out an email, if you like.
Okay, I'll just drop Tim Cook an email then, no problem
Thank you so much you've been really helpful. Alright you have a good day
Cheerio
Why is there always Lego everywhere?
Yeah, but now all joking aside, I was blown away by Apple's response
I honestly didn't expect them to even acknowledge these old machines
But they actually were offering me an appointment to get this resolved
Unfortunately, this store was a little far away.
So I turn to fleBay
But first let's take a look at the cable we've got here
And you can see it is inverted on one side
On one side, the black cable is on the left on the other side, it's on the right
A few days later my new cable arrived and you can see here how this one is not inverted
On the left is the new one and the black cable is on the right-hand position in both plugs
In my right hand is the old cable, which is inverted
So I think what happened at some point
The person who owned this thought they could just replace the cable with a phone cable
And were surprised when it stopped working
And so they sold it to me
All right, so let's put this one .. wait, what is this it looks
Like a retro controller for dogs, oh
(squeaky noise)
Ohh, I remember now!
This is from BarkBox.com
And it's not a Konami, it's a KO-GNAW-MI
Goodness, the whole entourage is here
Careful! I'll cut your nose off!
That was about your face
(squeaking)
Now play nice
Greedy.
Yeah, she's the retro gaming fan in the family
Sorry guys. I can give you the label..
Op.. Broke the dog
Sorry buddy!
Don't worry, they made friends
(friendlyish growling) Kind of.
Now, where were we? Oh, yes, so let's try this new cable with the Mac
And it was detected first time
And we just have to hit the button to the right of the left shift key
Not confusing at all
And yes, it responds
And the same, the button to the left of the right shift key
Again, not confusing
And there it is! Your keyboard has been detected
Sorry
Unintentional toilet human
And it's incredible every single key is mapped perfectly to the keystrokes that appear on the screen
I can even hold down command S to save a file
And those function keys work, too
Now I waited so long to get this result that I'd bought a new Mac by then to help improve the quality of these videos
What the heck? Let's create our YouTube video thumbnail using this keyboard
Nice
And as Steve Jobs said.....
Oh no, that was someone else
Either way, I'm gonna use this keyboard to write that email to Tim Cook
What I might also do is get this Apple Trackpad 2
Althogh, funds are a little tight right now
But I realized if I go to iStyles.com
And use this photo of the underside of this keyboard that I took and add in a logo
I can position that photo and create my own vinyl wrap for the trackpad
I don't know. What do you think?
Is that the way to go or should I spray the keyboard dark gray to match the trackpad instead?
Hmm.
Either way, I'm a big fan of how this turned out.
What do you think?
Comment below and Cheerio
Oh and speaking of fans.
Do you wanna say hi to your fans? Ashley: Hi everybody. Hi fans, please like and subscribe!