I bought a dead CM Storm Novatouch TKL with Topre switches from another geekhack member. I believe the microcontroller or another chip is defective. I've tested the basic stuff: no broken wires, voltage all across the board, no loose components or dried soldering. I've tried starting it in BSL mode, but no luck there. I've tried connecting it to my Linux Mint desktop and Windows laptop, both through a hub and directly. The device simply does not show up. The microcontroller heats up though. TL;DR not a trivial problem. It has original caps on it.
I would like to try to rewire the keys using a Teensy, however, before I attempt this, I'd also like to know what I could get for the keyboard if it were functional AND programmable. There is quite some information available on this keyboard: http://vekkt0r.github.io/articles/novatouch-tkl-reverse-engineering-part-1/ Writing or modifying software shouldn't be an issue since I'm quite familiar with programming.
So my questions are:
- How much could I still get for the keyboard in this state?
- How much could I get for it if it were functional and programmable?
Thank you in advance!
If you do this do it for the fun and experience, don't expect to make any money. You're not going to be able to get more than retail price and will spend a ton of time on it.
The value of it as-is will be just about 30% less than the price of selling the switches in it on their own, desoldered. Shipping cost eats into this greatly, especially being a TKL and thus fewer switches.
Programming the teensy won't be your issue, getting the wiring working will be. You'll need to figure out how the PCB routes the rows and col and then figure out a way to intercept these paths to wire to your teensy instead. Fun as a project, but it'll be a lot of work. There's also no guarantee it will work. If this fails the only way to get it working will be to desolder the PCB and either put your own on or handwire it. Extensive use of a multimeter to verify the integrity of the PCB is going to be required.
In terms of creating a working board, you'll find it more time efficient to mow lawns, buy a plate, switches, PCB and case and build one from scratch.