Hootswitch is a prototype ADB multiplexer that allows peripherals (inluding keyboards and mice) to be shared across up to four retro computers.
This project has two parts: an example hardware design and the firmware, located in their respective folders in this repo.
Basic ADB keyboards and mice are supported. Switching between computers works via the button on the front or Control / Option / ⌘ / Shift in sequence, followed by 1 - 4 to choose a port.
The firmware is still under active development and many bugs remain. Known issues include:
- Mouse input can be a bit "floaty" especially during extreme movements.
- No other ADB devices besides keyboards/mice are supported yet.
- No features based on the Pico W wireless chip have not been implemented.
This section will continue to be updated as progress is (hopefully) made.
You will need the Pico SDK and associated tooling. There is a setup script here that assumes you're using a Raspberry Pi as your development environment if you want to try that; I personally use Debian bookworm on a regular x86 system instead, set up as follows.
Dependencies and associated tools:
sudo apt install git cmake gcc-arm-none-eabi gcc gdb-multiarch automake \
autoconf build-essential texinfo libtool libftdi-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev \
openocd
Clone the Pico SDK. Execute
git submodule update --init in that project to get sub-libraries added. Set
PICO_SDK_PATH to point at where the SDK lives via ~/.bashrc or equivalent;
something like export PICO_SDK_PATH=/home/saybur/src/pico-sdk would be
suitable after being adjusted for your environment.
Also clone or download FreeRTOS. The LTS release
is likely fine. Set FREERTOS_KERNEL_PATH to the folder where
FreeRTOS-Kernel is located via the above method.
Once you have everything set up, build as follows from the root of the repo.
mkdir -p build
cd build
cmake ../firmware
make
Among other files, this will produce hootswitch.uf2. Make sure your power
selection is correct, then hold down the BOOTSEL button while you plug in
to your computer via USB. Copy the .uf2 onto the new mass storage device.
Reboot.
Except where otherwise noted, all software is available under the GNU GPL v3. The example hardware is available under the CERN Open Hardware Licence strongly-reciprocal variant, version 2. Refer to the licenses for specific terms.