Lucie / minutecurrently trying to finish a new version of the MNT Reform Keyboard for the Reform Next (but will be backwards compatible). it has an RP2040 MCU and RGB backlight (individual for each key). still needs a bunch of routing.
gadgetoid@mntmn wS281x LEDs? Sequential rows and columns for PIO-based scanning? 🤔 nice to see the RP2040 in more keyboards, does it get a fully featured USB bus to the host OS so you can reprogram it?
Andy Piper@gadgetoid @mntmn ... I'm excited for when I can hack on the keyboard in the Pocket Reform! 😄 also RP2040
@gadgetoid yes, fully featured USB :3
@mntmn oh lord give me more keyboards I can actually hack on myself 😍
Lonnon Foster@mntmn Watching that unrouted count gradually fall as you work is one of life’s great pleasures.
elly@mntmn Are you using the same LED driver as Framework 16 by any chance? Just curious 
@elly i'm using no LED driver, the LEDs are digitally controlled
@mntmn Ah, I see. I were curious because FW16 uses RP2040 + IS31FL3743A and has QMK sources:
https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/qmk_firmware/tree/fl16-v0.2.8-prep/keyboards/framework
https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/qmk_firmware/tree/fl16-v0.2.8-prep/keyboards/framework
Frooastside@elly @mntmn I started making a keyboard with the RP2040 and the IS31FL3737B with QMK but rn I design one without LEDs so just the RP2040 for the company I work at https://github.com/Frooastside/Frooastboard/tree/main/Frooastboard%20A600
Pete Johanson@mntmn (asking the following not to question your choices, but better understand the motivation) what makes you pick RP2040 over something dead simple like stm32f072? Availability? Price? More "hackable" nature of rp2040?
@petejohanson i migrated to rp2040 during the chip crisis from atmega32u4/2 and kinda stuck with it.
@mntmn makes sense. Tons of keyboard makers did the same thing.
@petejohanson @mntmn am I missing some glorious third party promised land for STM bringup because their HAL and software stack (CubeMX 😫) is insufferable 🤣
I guess with keyboards there are plenty of ports for existing firmwares/RTOS?
IMHO MicroPython on RP2040 makes a really great baseline from which to hack together a keyboard- with even the HID descriptors written in Python it was hella fast to iterate.
@gadgetoid @mntmn most of their variants are well supported by @zephyr and by @zmk by extension. QMK uses chibios for their stm32 support, but I've not used it personally. But I've got a few stm32 keyboards/macro pads here that happily do their thing.
And for sure, if using CP, RP2040 is a no brainer.
josch@mntmn Could maybe the traces somewhere in the highlighted area be routed so that a big-enough circular space is created such that people adventurous enough with a drill or dremel can try out a track-stick mod without having to manufacture their own custom keyboard PCBs first? Thank you for considering! 🙃
Context:
https://community.mnt.re/t/another-alternate-keyboard-idea/1915/5
Context:
https://community.mnt.re/t/another-alternate-keyboard-idea/1915/5
Another alternate keyboard idea
I have been a long-time trackpoint enjoyer as I used various thinkpads models for about 15 years as my main laptop before I switched to the reform. So I understand the excitement. I much prefer a trackpoint over a touchpad because it allows my fingers to stay on the home row while operating the pointer. Since the MNT Reform Trackball also has this property, I’m not looking back much. But… today I disassembled some old Thinkpad keyboards I had floating around and this let me come back to this th...
@josch ahh i see now it basically needs a hole to poke through, the actual joystick base thing gets mounted much lower in the enclosure https://github.com/joh/crkbd-trackpoint
@mntmn Yes, exactly. :)
@mntmn Oh wow, that's a *lot* of free space! Thank you! No, I do not have a 3D model. I only have the product pictures in the forum thread i linked and i have a few thinkpad modules here. Would it help if I created a small 3D model of one of them? Thank you!! ❤️
@josch yes a 3d model or dimensions would help a lot in trying to find a position in kicad 3d viewer
@mntmn The board with the sensor I have looks like this in openscad:
cube([14, 19, 0.5]);
translate([(14-4.5)/2,10,0.5]) cube([4.5, 4.5, 3]);
That board would be put under the keyboard pcb. It would be nice if there were space for the sensor box (4.5 mm each side) could stick through the hole as that would make the whole thing more compact.
On top of the box, the stick would be mounted. I have no dimensions of that but supposedly a labret cheek piercing works well:
https://github.com/alonswartz/trackpoint#q-what-should-i-use-for-the-trackpoint-stemstick
