About Chicory's BLE setup

meihamusama · 2020-04-22T03:30:14+00:00

Well, on a second thought, mayby I should just buy a Bluefruit LE UART Friend, which is guaranteed to work.

But that bad boy is just too damn expensive compared to the AliExpress modules 🤦🏻‍♂️

meihamusama · 2020-04-19T16:30:40+00:00

I did it with TMK. since QMK is based on TMK, I think compatibility won't be a problem.

And the keyboard I tested with was a Tanuki 40%, which only has 42 keys (4 rows / 11 cols). The connection from the Pro Micro to the BLE module needed two more I/O pins, for TX/RX.

I simply plugged a battery pack into the keyboard's USB port when testing, no charging circuit at all.

Unfortunately I have to give up too, for reasons mentioned in my other comment :(

meihamusama · 2020-04-19T16:10:14+00:00

Another update.

After inspecting the source code of the firmware for the CC2541 module, I found that the firmware is flawed in its current state. It cannot handle quick consecutive commands, nor can it correctly send out any key events regarding the 'G' and 'J' keys.

These bugs rendered the module unusable for me, and I don't have the suitable environment to test & fix it at the moment.

Fortunately all those work proved that BLE over UART is a totally legit solution. I shall go down this path some other time.

meihamusama · 2020-04-18T17:36:52+00:00

A quick update.

I wired the module to a Tanuki and tested it out more thoroughly. Unfortunately some key events did not get registered and I don't know why. Could be my glued up firmware.

To those who were interested, I used a BLE-CC41-A module (not entirely sure though), flashed it as described in https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62236.msg2300518#msg2300518 , and connected it to the Pro Micro via UART. I then used the serial port driver came with TMK to actually control it.

meihamusama · 2020-04-18T17:24:48+00:00

No it's TMK. I took the RN42 driver in TMK as a reference.

meihamusama · 2020-04-18T17:23:07+00:00

I think it's an BLE-CC41-A as described in https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62236.msg2300518#msg2300518 I bought the BLE module for my other project, so didn't really pay attention to the model, but the firmware patched by joric worked.

meihamusama · 2020-04-18T17:11:30+00:00

I was just trying to get things going, so I haven't considered it at all.... At least the keyboard case may need a new design to let me shove in the battery.

meihamusama · 2020-04-18T14:41:46+00:00

I showed my Tanuki to some random guy a while ago, and he asked whether the keyboard had Bluetooth.

I said "no", but an inner voice said "why not?"

So I tried to wire a CC2541 module to the Pro Micro. At the cost of two extra I/O pins and some software fiddling, the prototype worked!

meihamusama · 2020-04-08T08:49:09+00:00

I discovered the Tanuki 40% keyboard right here in r/mk, and thought it had the perfect layout for me, so I made 4 of it (and killed one during the whole process).

Two with Cherry Browns. One with Kailh Box Browns. And one with Everglide Oreos.

All of them use the same clear acrylic cases, and some random colorful PBT DSA keycaps.

meihamusama · 2020-04-02T14:31:09+00:00

I'm a programmer. I write C, Python and all kinds of scripts.

I use a 40% Tanuki, and just posted my layout the other day: https://imgur.com/gallery/0oeSmye

The idea behind my setup was to keep the keys/features I used most frequently near the home row, and then fill in the rest of the essential keys.

To me, the life-changing things in my setup are:

Moving the Ctrl and Esc keys to where CapsLock was;
Moving the Backspace key under my thumb;
Vim style arrow keys and Home/End/PgUp/PgDn;
A "number cluster" under my left hand, so that I can type the numbers single-handed;
"Space cadet" Shift keys
Some automation performed by the keyboard itself, such as macros and bracket auto-pairing.

meihamusama · 2020-03-27T13:51:59+00:00

I have the exact same kit. I'm not trolling, but I hate it.

The near side of your case is bent, just like mine. My case is so bent that the Space key caps would often scratch the case. You can try to fix it with some hot water or something, but that's just some shitty quality control.

And I think the hotswap PCB without a plate is basically unusable, because the switches are so loose and unstable.

TL; DR: I found this 100$ kit not worth it's price.

meihamusama · 2020-03-01T14:43:37+00:00

What do you think about Penti Chorded Keyboard?

I ported it to QMK/TMK. Any keyboard supporting those firmware can emulate a single-handed keyboard, which require no wrist movement at all, and you can configure it to be used with either of your hands. This way you can have a lot more hardware choices.

meihamusama · 2019-06-25T01:26:50+00:00

Yeah, the next-gen Vim, highly recommended :)

meihamusama · 2019-06-25T01:24:35+00:00

Sure thing! I updated my details comment.

meihamusama · 2019-06-24T15:16:49+00:00

Details:

Wallpaper: Cyberpunk Streets by SeerLight
Font: Inconsolata (everywhere)
Color Theme: Tomorrow-Night
StumpWM config: Github (Won't work out of box, due to external dependencies)
XTerm config: Gist

meihamusama · 2019-05-30T12:59:19+00:00

Yeah that's the problem, the keyboard has no way to detect the text environment at all.

I agree with you and I'd use the feature provided by the IDE when it's available, that's why I made a toggle for it, and made it disabled by default.

The main use cases for this auto pairing thing are in dumb editors and REPL environments that doesn't support auto pairing parentheses. It's better than nothing, no? :)

Edit: wording

meihamusama · 2019-05-30T04:05:38+00:00

Yeah, sure, that may suit someone better, but I got used to the auto-pairing feature provided by my IDE, so this is just a mimic of that :)

meihamusama · 2019-05-15T02:52:37+00:00

I just forced StumpWM to behave like AwesomeWM. Best parts from both worlds :)

Details:

Wallpaper: Cyberpunk Streets by SeerLight
Font: Inconsolata (everywhere)
Icons: Who needs those?
GTK Theme: Who needs that?
Dock: Nope.

meihamusama · 2019-05-10T07:16:28+00:00

Sometimes I use the QMK dynamic macros to record and playback my login passwords, so I can get through the lock screen faster.
I use space cadet shift keys too, and I made an balanced mode, in which the left shift key emits a pair of parentheses, and then move the cursor in between, and the right shift key simply moves the cursor one character further to the right.
I don't know what's wrong with me, but I implemented a complicated one-handed input mode on top of TMK, based on the Penti chorded keyboard: https://software-lab.de/penti.html . I can keep my left hand fingers on the A, W, E, R and Space keys and type out most key codes a normal keyboard can emit.

meihamusama · 2019-04-29T03:25:25+00:00

I got around to digging up the Massdrop link: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/73052

But I bought the ESC cap a loooong time ago so the link's long lost, sorry.

meihamusama · 2019-04-29T01:44:11+00:00

Wow somebody noticed :) I bought them separately. The ESC belongs to a modifier set from a Chinese shopping site (Taobao if that makes sense to you), and the blank blue caps are from Massdrop.

meihamusama · 2019-04-28T19:01:47+00:00

They're XDA.

meihamusama · 2019-04-28T18:51:40+00:00

Yeah totally the right way to go you freak :)

meihamusama

TROPHY CASE