Author Topic: Replacement controllers - Filco, QuickFire, Rosewill, (others?) (Read 59585 times)

bpiphany · « **Reply #100 on:** Mon, 15 July 2013, 13:08:27 »

Added build instructions to the wiki
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Kitten_Paw#Build_Instructions
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Frosty_Flake#Build_Instructions

neoezekiel · « **Reply #101 on:** Tue, 16 July 2013, 11:35:13 »

Do you have 1800 in the plans any time soon?

reality404 · « **Reply #102 on:** Thu, 18 July 2013, 06:22:36 »

Thanks bpiphany received my Frosty Fake today.

bpiphany · « **Reply #103 on:** Thu, 18 July 2013, 06:38:56 »

Quote from: reality404 on Thu, 18 July 2013, 06:22:36

Thanks bpiphany received my Frosty Fake today.

That was fast. Always nice when the postal system does its job =)

Quote from: neoezekiel on Tue, 16 July 2013, 11:35:13

Do you have 1800 in the plans any time soon?

What does that look under the hood? It's not one of those where a good old Teensy would do a perfect job?

bpiphany · « **Reply #104 on:** Thu, 18 July 2013, 07:32:13 »

FedEx was here =) 125 sets of components. I got tubed and loose decoders and controller last time by mistake. Mouser didn't even have the controller on tape. I'm usually a bit reluctant about ordering from DigiKey. They always have nosy questions on what I will do with all those micro controllers (I guess scud missiles is the wrong thing to answer). Either they have flagged me as safe or they (like Soarer) think the 32u2 is too dull to do anything harmful... This time on the other hand the package was held up an extra day in customs. FedEx didn't want to put down that much in advance I guess. Other times they just sent a bill for the taxes afterwards.

Look at all those chips, still far from ordering full rolls, 1665 controllers =D

domoaligato · « **Reply #105 on:** Thu, 18 July 2013, 15:06:31 »

Thanks bpiphany I also received my Frosty Fake today.
perfect condition. I will have to send it to someone else to do the smd soldering as I do not have enough experience. but thank you so much for this!

bakageta · « **Reply #106 on:** Tue, 23 July 2013, 11:36:12 »

My poor Filco has seen better days, but I've been limping it along as I didn't want to give up my HID Liberation Device. I was just wondering last night if anyone had made similar for the QFR in case I decide to replace my board with a cheaper option, and what do you know, there's this. Been a while since I've done SMD soldering, but I guess that's no excuse, time to pick up one of these.

metalliqaz · « **Reply #107 on:** Thu, 12 September 2013, 19:45:22 »

If someone wants to be my guinea pig, I can add support for these to my custom layout tool. (info)

CPTBadAss · « **Reply #108 on:** Thu, 12 September 2013, 19:45:55 »

Once I get my Full Size Filco controller, I'll hit you up metalliqaz.

nullstring · « **Reply #109 on:** Tue, 17 September 2013, 12:11:02 »

Any updates on the rosewill controller?

bpiphany · « **Reply #110 on:** Wed, 18 September 2013, 01:28:50 »

I'm finishing up the Rosewill controller. I just need to do some decorating... =) I also have a new version for the Filco tenkeyless almost ready. Production takes a couple of weeks on top of that. There is one more prototype I want to squeeze in on the same shipment, but that is also almost done.

Photoelectric · « **Reply #111 on:** Wed, 18 September 2013, 08:05:30 »

Quote from: bpiphany on Wed, 18 September 2013, 01:28:50

I also have a new version for the Filco tenkeyless almost ready. Production takes a couple of weeks on top of that. There is one more prototype I want to squeeze in on the same shipment, but that is also almost done.

Sweet! What is different about the V2?

bpiphany · « **Reply #112 on:** Wed, 18 September 2013, 12:07:08 »

It will use the ATmega32u2 like the other controllers in this thread. Soarer will despise me, but it will be 20 or so less components to solder =)

nullstring · « **Reply #113 on:** Wed, 18 September 2013, 14:37:32 »

Quote from: bpiphany on Wed, 18 September 2013, 01:28:50

I'm finishing up the Rosewill controller. I just need to do some decorating... =) I also have a new version for the Filco tenkeyless almost ready. Production takes a couple of weeks on top of that. There is one more prototype I want to squeeze in on the same shipment, but that is also almost done.

Great news. Sounds like we're looking at something in the november time frame?

IvanIvanovich · « **Reply #114 on:** Thu, 19 September 2013, 07:03:03 »

For Cherry stuffs, I think the best thing would be to make something kind of like your kittenpaw, that is a compatible for a 40pin socket. All of my 2KRO G80 boards use Motorolla ZC86956P or Motorolla XC40910P on Winkey. Others I have which use Phillips MAB8051AH2P are already NKRO.

bpiphany · « **Reply #115 on:** Thu, 19 September 2013, 11:16:12 »

We need more matrix traces http://deskthority.net/wiki/Controller_matrix_traces Perhaps just adapter boards for a Teensy or Teensy++ to fit the DIP pattern on the Cherrys would be sufficient? Depending on how much room there is in the case. Or just a fly-wired Teensy. The problem with most of the keyboards I made replacements for is that a Teensy doesn't really fit.

And 2KRO isn't "fixable" without diodes (on every switch).

bpiphany · « **Reply #116 on:** Tue, 01 October 2013, 05:17:50 »

$575 worth of PCBs ordered! They are going to be stuck in DRC (Design Rules Check) for a couple of days. One of the designs in particular is a bit on the edge, and I suspect they will have opinions... I more or less assume I will have to do some more work on that one. And then there is production and shipping times to wait out as well.

CPTBadAss · « **Reply #117 on:** Tue, 01 October 2013, 08:16:36 »

Hehehe, can't wait to see that box of PCB bpiphany!

bpiphany · « **Reply #118 on:** Wed, 02 October 2013, 00:01:35 »

Meh, unholy frak, this is getting ridiculous. Their holidays seem to hit me e v e r y time... Everyone just need to wait another week i suppose, patience =)

Quote

October 1st is China's National Day, our factory will be in a 7 days holiday from October 1st to October 7th. In the meantime, order production and delivery time will be delayed,and there may be a delay more than the vacation, please prepare in advance.

Jmneuv · « **Reply #119 on:** Wed, 09 October 2013, 11:26:08 »

Does the firmware support a FN-layer out of the box? That'd be the main use for me.
If not, some pointers would be appreciated.

bpiphany · « **Reply #120 on:** Wed, 09 October 2013, 11:38:54 »

Production has started \o/ Seems like the only thing they needed to double check was if I really wanted white silkscreen on white solder mask. Not this time, this time it was my error, but I suspect they have had that requested before. This is what they asked. Love the perfectly fine but a bit awkward English =D

Quote

White solder mask & white silk screen
Please confirm it. Because we encountered this setting and it was a wrong choice. However, we also encountered this setting and it was the customers need.

I wish I knew the grammar structure of Chinese, could have been useful other times... Anyway pcbwing techs are always very helpful. I think I may be getting good at this (or old and un-inventive...). No DRC errors this time =) I of course have no idea if everything is electrically correct until I tested them my self. But that is a future problem.

bpiphany · « **Reply #121 on:** Wed, 09 October 2013, 11:41:05 »

Quote from: Jmneuv on Wed, 09 October 2013, 11:26:08

Does the firmware support a FN-layer out of the box? That'd be the main use for me.
If not, some pointers would be appreciated.

No, not as long as no-one else has written something. Someone is very welcome to adopt the tmk_firmware if they find the time...

Fn-keys are pretty easy to solve on the other hand.

Code: [Select]

on key-press 
  if pressed(Fn-key)
  then
    do this
  else
    do that

bpiphany · « **Reply #122 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 10:20:02 »

In Abe we trust to measure very small things of copper.

More news later today...

jdcarpe · « **Reply #123 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 10:22:46 »

Quote from: bpiphany on Thu, 17 October 2013, 10:20:02

In Abe we trust to measure very small things of copper.

(Attachment Link)

More news later today...

* jdcarpe gasp*

Is it real?

xavierblak · « **Reply #124 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 11:19:35 »

Guessing it's designed to replaced a 48pin dip chip. But from which keyboard? Hmm.

jdcarpe · « **Reply #125 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 11:23:06 »

Well, it definitely uses an ATmega32U2 controller, but what are the other 3 ICs there?

xavierblak · « **Reply #126 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 11:42:09 »

I/O expanders of some sort to allow for more I/O on the smaller micro?

esoomenona · « **Reply #127 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 11:43:10 »

The Rosewill?

metalliqaz · « **Reply #128 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 13:49:21 »

This looks cool!

While I'm here, if anyone is adventurous and has a Kitten Paw wants to help me test my firmware, drop me a line. I don't have a fullsize Filco so I can't test it myself.

xavierblak · « **Reply #129 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 13:57:46 »

Quote from: esoomenona on Thu, 17 October 2013, 11:43:10

The Rosewill?

The pin count is different than the rosewill controller posted here.

bpiphany · « **Reply #130 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 15:50:24 »

Oh how much fun to see the speculations =D

Quote from: jdcarpe on Thu, 17 October 2013, 10:22:46

* jdcarpe gasp*
Is it real?

It's definitely physically sitting on my kitchen table.. It's not for real yet though. I didn't have time left to try to build one yesterday. I was building some of these Filco TKL replacement controller

And just now I have successfully adopted my firmware and tested that I got everything correct.

I was also building some of these for the Rosewill

but I don't have time to work on the firmware tonight, so they remain untested this far. I have high hopes for tomorrow though =)

The tiny one is planned to be a general controller board for DIY projects. Having everything assembled from factory (if the prototype works out). It has one ATmega32u2 and three 74hc138, that gives 24 mutually exclusively selectable outputs and 15 general IO pins (including RX/TX MISO/MOSI/SCLK and 3 of them with PWM for LEDs). I need to gather some courage to try to build one tomorrow. And sleep, coffee, and a loupe... The header rows are on a 0.3" spacing, and the hole thing is 1.2" long. With bent headers it will be kinda like a wide SOIC package.

esoomenona · « **Reply #131 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 15:54:17 »

I love you, bpiphany.

jdcarpe · « **Reply #132 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 15:57:29 »

I <3 bpiphany, too.

Dat Black Petal.

Also, YGPM.

metalliqaz · « **Reply #133 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 15:59:39 »

Pegasus Hoof different than HID Liberation Device?

esoomenona · « **Reply #134 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 16:01:23 »

Quote from: metalliqaz on Thu, 17 October 2013, 15:59:39

Pegasus Hoof different than HID Liberation Device?

32U2 instead of 32U4.

esoomenona · « **Reply #135 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 16:03:44 »

Quote from: bpiphany on Thu, 17 October 2013, 15:50:24

The tiny one is planned to be a general controller board for DIY projects. Having everything assembled from factory (if the prototype works out). It has one ATmega32u2 and three 74hc138, that gives 24 mutually exclusively selectable outputs and 15 general IO pins (including RX/TX MISO/MOSI/SCLK and 3 of them with PWM for LEDs). I need to gather some courage to try to build one tomorrow. And sleep, coffee, and a loupe... The header rows are on a 0.3" spacing, and the hole thing is 1.2" long. With bent headers it will be kinda like a wide SOIC package.

That is a very cool thing! And I thought a Teensy was... teensy.

metalliqaz · « **Reply #136 on:** Thu, 17 October 2013, 16:44:34 »

Not enough RAM in 32U2 T_T

bpiphany · « **Reply #137 on:** Fri, 18 October 2013, 05:01:41 »

Just finished coding the Black Petal as well. Everything seems ok. It was a bit finicky to test as I only have the stripped PCB from one.

I added the new controllers to the classifieds thread http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46700

Jmneuv · « **Reply #138 on:** Fri, 18 October 2013, 11:38:00 »

sweet designs

bpiphany · « **Reply #139 on:** Mon, 28 October 2013, 02:21:14 »

I tried soldering a couple of the tiny breakout boards in different ways, soldering pen with regular solder and hot air gun with solder paste. Those 0402s are damn small... I totally see the use of solder paste and reflow soldering. The components just float into place, like magic, when the paste melts. Applying the correct amount of paste without a stencil is c completely different matter... At one point I just had a bunch of components floating around in a big pool of molten solder *shrudder*. The next time I blew the two 22Ω resistors away, never to be found again... At least it works =) I tested all IOs with an oscilloscope. I also have a test board with a lot of LEDs on its way from pcbwing to make testing more convenient.

Here are some pictures of the one I soldered with paste and hot air (mostly, I had to correct a few things with the soldering pen). First a comparison to the Teensy.

And a closer-up. I need some more practice to make this perfect...

esoomenona · « **Reply #140 on:** Mon, 28 October 2013, 08:43:03 »

Wow! That thing is TINY. If you've never had a Teensy in your hands, you just don't understand the comparison. It's a beauty, though.

CPTBadAss · « **Reply #141 on:** Mon, 28 October 2013, 08:48:26 »

Rofl! That's awesome. I remember being shocked at how small the Teensy is. bpiphany is some kinda mad scientist

.

MOZ · « **Reply #142 on:** Thu, 31 October 2013, 12:44:58 »

Haha, geniuses think alike, regack has designed parallely almost an identical controller. I'll let him post more.

Grendel · « **Reply #143 on:** Wed, 06 November 2013, 11:36:25 »

Hm, wondering if The Black Petal could be used in a CM Storm Quickfire XT ?

bpiphany · « **Reply #144 on:** Wed, 06 November 2013, 13:33:27 »

Quote from: Grendel on Wed, 06 November 2013, 11:36:25

Hm, wondering if The Black Petal could be used in a CM Storm Quickfire XT ?

No, most probably not. It looks very much like they moved the USB communication pins. They have also ****ed with all interchangeability on previous controllers, for no good reason.. Coming from the same manufacturer and all =P

Grendel · « **Reply #145 on:** Wed, 06 November 2013, 14:14:01 »

Dang. Thanks for checking it out. Guess Costar is "hard-locking" controllers to boards to play it safe -- customers probably don't want their precious features showing up on a competition product... Plus, the XT has an extra status indicator (F9, winkey-lock.)

bpiphany · « **Reply #146 on:** Sun, 17 November 2013, 09:07:30 »

I've started experimenting with re-flow soldering. Ordered some stencils from this place http://www.smtstencil.co.uk/ The stencils are good for being plastic, with no frame and so on, and I still need some practice and tweaking to the process. It sure is a lot faster and more consistent than hand soldering. I'm in the middle of modifying a toaster into a small re-flow oven as well. So far I have been using a hot air gun (only lost one capacitor to the wind..).

There are more pictures in this set http://www.flickr.com/photos/67486915@N03/ As comparison the "big" DIP package is the IO-expander used on the ErgoDox, and the SOIC is the same that goes on the larger controllers.

I didn't have components for the previous controllers at work, but I had some stencils made for them as well. I will try and see how fast and consistently I can pop them out.

Edit: And of course I forgot to mention the interesting part... With right angle headers the controller turns into an SMT component =) It's just possible to insert the bent part from the back as well, lowering the profile even more. Mounting the pins inwards would resemble a J lead package. The pins could probably be trimmed some to make the whole thing a bit more narrow.

hasu · « **Reply #147 on:** Sun, 17 November 2013, 18:01:59 »

300mil width and half pitch(1.27mm) controller... Great job!

I'm also interested in your SMT sordering process; DIY toaster, stencils, solder paste, temperature profile and etc.... Are you using some existent DIY toaster controller project or your own?
I'm grateful if you can share your experience somewhere when you have spare time.

bpiphany · « **Reply #148 on:** Tue, 19 November 2013, 08:39:33 »

I'm working on something like this. It looks promising so far. I removed everything but the heating wires, and today I installed one of these to regulate the power input.

The temperature probe for my multimeter is not speced to stand the heat I'm hoping to achieve, but I have a sturdier one on order from ebay. Anyway, the elements heat up and I can regulate the power. Now I only need to figure out the settings for different stages of the soldering process. It will never be a production line for anything more than "prototypes". But that's all we are dealing with here, right?...

I will take some photos and write something about it when I've got it working "properly" =)

bpiphany · « **Reply #149 on:** Thu, 21 November 2013, 07:48:42 »

Toast it http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/toaster-smd-re-flow-oven-t6861.html

News:

Author Topic: Replacement controllers - Filco, QuickFire, Rosewill, (others?) (Read 59585 times)