Building Phantom Hardware and Firmware Mods

[litster]

Haha. Amazing video, it seems the plate doesn't affect the wobblility. Now I want a Phantom as well.

Yes!  It is all worth it if RiGS is ordering a Phantom  because of my videos!  Wait, the group buy is closed.  Looks like 7bit is still tinkering his scripts, send in your order now.

Did you watch the video in 1080p?  I am so proud of the quality!  The original video clips were 60 to 70MB each in size, for just 9 and 13 seconds.

Oh, and never saw my fingers that big on screen!

[RiGS]

Yeah, I watched the second one in 1080p. The quality speaks for itself.
I'm still debating between the layout. The 1.5x size modifiers look better than the 1.25 size modifiers, but those keys tend to be sticky. At least the TAB key sticks when I don't hit it perfectly at the center.

[alaricljs]

What switch type RiGS?  My browns don't have any issue with being hit way off-center, including capslock which is larger.

[alaricljs]

I wonder how hard carbon fiber would be to work with, on second thought. There are so many car modification blogs and forums with DIY instructions for making custom carbon fiber parts...

If you get the carbon fiber as cloth then it's nearly identical to working with fiberglass.  What you think of as the carbon-fiber look is purely a cosmetic layer.  Carbon fiber structures are made with uni-directional carbon fibers that are laid in an alternating pattern according to the structural requirements of the item being crafted.  For a standard flat panel this would usually include layers at 90° and 45° to the first layer.

[hazeluff]

I'm thinking about making a case out of fiberglass. I don't own a Filco and it's much cheaper for me to make my own case (free actually since I'm an automotive painter with free supplies). I've worked with fiberglass on automotive paint repair before so I think I have what it takes. I'll probably fabricate the case out of clay or foam or something and then make a mold. Anyone else done something like this? I wonder how hard carbon fiber would be to work with, on second thought. There are so many car modification blogs and forums with DIY instructions for making custom carbon fiber parts...

If someone has a Filco case who would like to take on a project like this too, don't throw away your mold if you make one.

Robotics club here at my uni makes everything out of their makerbot. >< They just print parts they need. Too bad Keyboard case is too big for it.

[Sojik]

If you get the carbon fiber as cloth then it's nearly identical to working with fiberglass.  What you think of as the carbon-fiber look is purely a cosmetic layer.  Carbon fiber structures are made with uni-directional carbon fibers that are laid in an alternating pattern according to the structural requirements of the item being crafted.  For a standard flat panel this would usually include layers at 90° and 45° to the first layer.

Is that so? I thought they just clearcoated or laminated the carbonfiber.

[alaricljs]

Woven CF takes up too much space making it so that more epoxy is present in any given volume than if you lay it out with unidirectional carbon and alternate the direction of the fiber.  Epoxy isn't the strength so you want the least amount of epoxy in something structural.  If you need something to be lightweight but strength is not a major requirement you still want to limit the epoxy since this is the heavy part.

Laminated is the process I just described, so... err, yeah.  For carbon fiber bicycle frames the woven CF is oven applied after the structure is assembled, it's mostly cosmetic to the point that some bikes are available without the woven look.

If you are lucky enough to have a simple shape you can also use a press to eliminate epoxy and air holes.  

This goes out the window if all you care about is looks.  Then you just use woven CF and however much epoxy you need because typically epoxy is cheaper than CF.

[mkawa]

Robotics club here at my uni makes everything out of their makerbot. >< They just print parts they need. Too bad Keyboard case is too big for it.

can it do walls thin enough for keys?

[lootbag]

soo... any chance of getting the dimensions for case design anytime soon?

I would like this as well!
I do not own a Filco tenkeyless so I cannot take measurements myself.

[RiGS]

So presuming that you are talking about the cherry switch stickers, vinyl is the wrong choice.  The real deal I believe are made of paper, possibly some fiber reinforced stuff but definitely not vinyl.  Vinyl is far too easily deformed for that to work.

The stickers work so well you wouldn't believe it.

[alaricljs]

The stickers work so well you wouldn't believe it.

But they're not vinyl, are they?  The ones I've seen pictured certainly don't look vinyl.

[RiGS]

These are made of vinyl.

[RiGS]

In fact other materials wouldn't work so well, because of the way how Koreans designed these stickers. It has to be flexible to nicely cover the area around the hole intended for the diode/led, and to protect the switch from the dust.

[RiGS]

I will show my sheet to a local company to replicate it, and I will organize a group buy.

[mkawa]

awesome, rigs!

[RiGS]

actually, i'm curious now what impact this is going to have with being able to get the housing open from the top only, once these are plate mounted.
img1
however, sixty's stickers above are different than the ones seen below:
img2

Nope, those are the same.
The stickers interfere with opening the switches.

[RiGS]

Indeed, those are different. I got mine from sixty, but these are the newer ones with the cutouts.
I think it is still possible to open the switches, but a different approach is needed. I will test it out.

[TheProfosist]

I plan to build this thing once so i would be interested in them.

[litster]

Soarer updated his XT/AT to USB Teensy firmware.  http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:17458&p=527414&viewfull=1#post527414

Posting it here:

Ok, so what's new is all the stuff outlined in this post.

You can now define a bunch of settings in a text file, compile it, and upload it to the converter. There's a few example config files in the tools zip.

The tools are Windows only, but should be very easy to build for Linux and Mac.

You probably want to get all three zip files anyway - there's list of HID codes in the src archive which might come in handy.

The converter now outputs the HID codes that come from the first (fixed) stage of translation to the debug output (hid_listen), preceded by + or -. This should help a bit if you're not sure which code you need to remap for a key.

I've removed previously hard-coded settings. They are now in the legacy.sc config file. If you want the v0.997 converter to act exactly like v0.996:

• Flash the Teensy with the hex file
• Open a command line prompt in the tools folder, and type these commands:
• scas legacy.sc legacy.scb
• scwr legacy.scb

There's two versions of the hex file for each Teensy. The _temp versions will reset all settings each time they boot up. Hopefully they won't be needed, but if I've screwed up, or writing the config to the Teensy is interrupted, they can be used to clean things up.

General Status Update...

• EEPROM handling in Converter - done.
• Utilities to read/write EEPROM - done (for Windows).
• Settings binary format - done.
• Settings handling in Converter - done (but not fully tested).
• Simple compiler to turn Settings text file into Settings binary file - todo.

What are the Settings then?!

• Remaps
• Macros
• Layers
• Selects

Remaps
Are not whole translation tables! As a silly example, if you wanted to swap the '1' key with the '2' key, you might write:
1=2
2=1
(with some additional bumph around that to define a block).

Macros
Can trigger for any single key with any of the standard modifiers.
Separate macros can be defined on make and break (although, on make only is the most useful and reliable).
Macros are sequences of comands which can currently be: key events, modifier manipulation, and delays.

Layers
Up to 8 keys can be defined to act as a 'Fn' key to access further layers.
Any key can be used in this way - the keys are defined using the remap mechanism, so remapping a key to, say, 'FN1' defines it.
A layer is defined as any combination of those keys - so theoretically up to 256 layers! However, since each layer takes up a fair bit of memory, roughly 3 is the max on a Teensy 2.0, and maybe 25 on a Teensy++.
Each remap block is tagged with the layer it applies to (if not the base layer).

Selects
Up to 7 keys can be defined to toggle configurations of settings.
As with layers, these can be defined as remaps (to SELECT1 etc). But they can also be put in a macro, so that you can define a combination of keys to select a configuration.
All of the blocks for remaps, macros and layers can be tagged with a Select ID (1 to 7). But it is not required. In fact, base settings would usually not be marked as a Select.
Triggering a Select toggles that group of settings, but leaves the others alone.

So, basically... enough Settings to shoot yourselves in the foot with! :-)

Back to the todo - does anyone have experience with Boost::Spirit?
It looks interesting for the compiler part...

[mkawa]

is this the source the current phantom firmware is based on?

[litster]

No, it is not.  Posting it here in case someone is interested in porting it over for Phantom.

[mkawa]

i can start hacking around if someone can answer my question about simulavr in the firmware modding thread in profosist's subforum

eta: it's basically, how do i runned simulavr for atmega32 on linux!?

[litster]

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:17458&viewfull=1&page=31&do=comments#post530048

From Soarer.  If you are able to help porting the code over to work on Phantom, please let Soarer know.

This new update sounds very awesome.  We need someone to help port it over to use on Phantom  :-)

Currently got about a dozen items on my to-do list, and making this sort of thing possible, somehow, is quite high on the list. I really can't say at the moment how quickly I'll be able get to it though.

[agor]

Is there a detailed pcb picture with measurements available for people designing their own case?

[bpiphany]

Is there a detailed pcb picture with measurements available for people designing their own case?

I will get this done within the next couple of days. I am pretty busy, but I should be able to squeeze it in. It shouldn't take too long...

[agor]

Don't stress yourself, this is very much appreciated, thank you!

[bpiphany]

Don't stress yourself, this is very much appreciated, thank you!

There are CAD drawings for all the mounting plate in a zip file in the wiki article. They should in fact be more interesting than the PCB itself, but I will make a drawing of it as well.

[mkawa]

imo it's not a big issue atm since we're more than a month out from board delivery. there's no way i'm going to pay for any prototypes before i have boards anyway.

[bpiphany]

Ok, done, the four large holes and the smaller one in the center between the function and alpha section are for mounting purposes. All the other holes are center holes for switch locations.

[mkawa]

can you export in a 2d format? tiff maybe?

[bpiphany]

That, to my understanding, is the 2D format of the industry. Just install qcad and be happy with it =) You wouldn't be able to extract any measurements from a tiff anyhow...

[mkawa]

windows? UGH

you can absolutely extract measurements from a tiff (or eps) by the way. graphic design would be pretty much impossible if you couldn't

[litster]

QCAD runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows.  And of course the Windows is the best version of all three!  LOL!

[mkawa]

windows isn't even the best version of windows

that would be BEOS SIR, the only TRULY FRENCH OS

eta: yay, measurements. thanks folks

am i right in thinking that the 5 large holes are free to be used for pcb mounting? (ie nothing else needs to go through there?)

[bpiphany]

am i right in thinking that the 5 large holes are free to be used for pcb mounting? (ie nothing else needs to go through there?)

That is correct. The four large holes as well as the smaller centered one between the function and number row. All other holes will be covered by switches. (Some may be free depending on chosen layout.)

[Sojik]

Blank 1.5 modifiers are really hard to find. I wonder if I can modify my 7bit plate for 12 1.25 keys. I was counting on GB4 to get blanks but they were removed so I'm sort of screwed.

I like the idea of all the extra keys on the bottom row but 1.5 keys seem to be pretty rare.

[TheProfosist]

Blank 1.5 modifiers are really hard to find. I wonder if I can modify my 7bit plate for 12 1.25 keys. I was counting on GB4 to get blanks but they were removed so I'm sort of screwed.

I like the idea of all the extra keys on the bottom row but 1.5 keys seem to be pretty rare.

Have you seen bmy layout it uses 1.25 and 1.75 instead. there are small 0.125 gaps on the ends of the row though not that it bothers me.

[mkawa]

SP claims to have PBT 1.5x modifiers in stock right now...

[litster]

If you are new to soldering, here is something that might help, available in many different languages:  http://mightyohm.com/blog/2011/04/soldering-is-easy-comic-book/

Added this to the wiki as well.

[Sojik]

Have you seen bmy layout it uses 1.25 and 1.75 instead. there are small 0.125 gaps on the ends of the row though not that it bothers me.

Yes I have. Clever solution. I found PBT blanks from SP that I think I'm going to be happy with though.

SP claims to have PBT 1.5x modifiers in stock right now...

Thanks. I just ordered them.

[litster]

Been making more 7x costar stabilizer bars today.  So I figured I would make a video to show you all how to make one yourself if you need to.  I can make one in about 5 minutes now. 

Edit: Fixed youtube link after forum migration

[litster]

Yes, I could mount the bender to a board, but it wouldn't be as portable as it is now.  I can bend stabilizers in my office, by the dining table, wherever around the house.  If I bolt it down, I am going to be stuck in the garage when I make stabilizer bars.  The wire is not that hard so it is fairly easy to bend without bolting the bender down.

Also, the few times in the video when the bender was moved out of sight, it is because I needed to bring it up so I can eye ball the wire's angle, make sure it is either flat for the 90-degree bends or at the correct angle for the Z bends.

[litster]

yeah, i get that with the quantity you need to do, you'll be doing them in all your spare time.  that being said, i'm not suggesting you bolt it to your desk, but rather a small piece of board, which you could then clamp to any flat surface, being dinning room table, desk, etc.  i've done this with a lot of my mountable tools,  where i don't want them permanently fixed.

Ah, I see what you mean.  Good idea.  Now I need to go find a free scrap board from home depot :-).  I should still be able to bring my head down to eye ball the wire.

[captain]

Has anyone considered making the Phantom a bluetooth keyboard?  I wonder if it would be possible to add a BlueSMIRF HID and a battery compartment....

[litster]

Not in this thread.  This is for building Phantom.  The Phantom we are building here uses Teensy.

Good idea though.  Will need bluetooth to connect to all the new tablets that are coming out this year.

[jdcarpe]

What is the plate material type and thickness?

[litster]

aluminum and 1/16" thick.  A little filing may be required for Costar stabilizers.  Just a little bit.

[jdcarpe]

aluminum and 1/16" thick.  A little filing may be required for Costar stabilizers.  Just a little bit.

Thank you for the info, litster.

[litster]

We are getting close to get parts sorted and packed.  Any effort going into revving the current Teensy firmware?  I see there is some firmware action with the Ergo Dox project.  I lot of that could benefit Phantom's firmware as well, right?

[TheProfosist]

We are getting close to get parts sorted and packed.  Any effort going into revving the current Teensy firmware?  I see there is some firmware action with the Ergo Dox project.  I lot of that could benefit Phantom's firmware as well, right?

I would love to see some action with the firware go on. I know verylittle of whats needed to code the teensy but have a layout designed for my phantom already which could end up being problematic.