This release contains improvements and bugfixes in the software and firmware. It also adds new commands for password protected keyboard locking and for temporarily saving and restoring control line state to RAM instead of EEPROM.

The new password command can be used to interactively set or clear a password. If a password is set, the new lock command will lock the keyboard, preventing keystrokes from reaching the computer until the user supplied password is entered.

The new commands memorize and recall work similar to the existing save and restore commands, except that state is only held termporarily in RAM instead of being written into EEPROM memory.

The preserve option for the convert command has been deprecated as it is no longer necessary.

The update command now also accepts files in Intel HEX format.

The number of EEPROM write cycles has been significantly reduced. Values are now only written if they have actually changed.

A detailed list of changes and upgrade instructions can be found in the remainder of this post.

As always, please refer to the project page for detailed documentation.

Changelog for version 1.5

Software/Firmware:

  • The utility command update now also accepts firmware updates in Intel HEX format.
  • The --preserve option for the convert command has been deprecated. It is no longer required since saved state is now stored outside of the configuration.
  • The command line client now shows usage information when called without arguments. In order to read commands from standard input, use - as the single argument.
  • The windows version of the command line client now detects when the user double clicks on the executable instead of using it interactively from the command prompt. An informative message is shown and the cmd window is kept open until the user presses a key.
  • New commands password and lock implement password protected keyboard locking. When lock is executed, the keyboard is locked until the password previously defined using the password command is entered.
  • In addition, the predefined slots LOCKED and UNLOCKED have been added. These allow the user to run additional keyman64 commands before the keyboard is locked or unlocked.
  • New commands memorize and recall have been added. These commands are similar to save and restore except that the state is not permanently saved to EEPROM memory but temporarily saved to SRAM.
  • Fixed the --identify command line option
  • Fixed a bug that would leave trailing whitespace in symbol values when adding a comment to the line after the value part

Upgrade instructions:

Upgrading from version 1.3 or earlier:

Please first upgrade to version 1.4 following these instructions.

Upgrading from version 1.4:

  1. Upgrade the command line utility on your PC

  2. Download the new firmware

  3. Connect the keyman64 via USB and power on the C64

  4. On your PC, run keyman64 update keyman64-application-1.5.hex

If you have previously saved control line state using the save command, please note that the saved state is lost during this upgrade.