Author Topic: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840  (Read 10027 times)

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Offline CameronBanna

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  • Location: San Diego, California
Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« on: Tue, 12 June 2018, 19:18:22 »
Been working on this for a little while now, figure i share it and maybe get some feedback plus the first test pcbs came in today. The keyboard will be based off of Nordics nRF52840 which supports ble 5.0 and usb. it will also be hot swappable with kailh sockets and have full per key rgb leds based on apa102 2020 leds.

Offline cy384

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    • cy384
Re: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 12 June 2018, 20:26:48 »
have you written any firmware yet?  I've just started playing with a dev board for one of these.

Offline CameronBanna

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  • Location: San Diego, California
Re: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 12 June 2018, 23:18:09 »
Yeah, i will be perfecting it with these boards then order a full sized one. if anyone is really good at writing firmware's "QMK" i would be willing to supply pcbs to develop with.

Offline PJE

  • Posts: 30
Re: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 09 July 2018, 16:04:07 »
Very interesting....

How did the Holyiot 18010 work out? I was looking to use the same module on a wireless version of my Space Invader/OneHand keyboard.
I’m looking to respin my PCB to replace the ATSAMD21 with a this module.

https://reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/88tgnt/space_invader_onehand_m0_update/

Is your design open source? I’d love to see what you did for the PSU.... ;0)

Offline CameronBanna

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  • Location: San Diego, California
Re: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 10 July 2018, 00:19:15 »
I moved away from the holyiot for thee main reason being that i asked them to email mi the datasheets on it and i used those figuring that the would be most accurate and have the most info and ended up designing my PCB with the swo and swclk lines switched since the ones they emailed me were backwards only to find out later that thee ones they had on the product page were correct so that was quite annoying and made me decide use the fastnel  bt840 instead.

Im not really wanting to post any code or PCB schematics yet since stuff is still being worked out in both but i could email it to you if you want just use my username at gmail.com. not sure exactly what your referring to with the psu? for the chip i used a mcp73871 for the load balancing and battery charging plus a couple other things. still have some optimization and sleep states to do to get the power usage to where i want.

Heres a couple pictures of whats been going on with the pcbs.

Offline CameronBanna

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  • Location: San Diego, California
Re: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« Reply #5 on: Mon, 06 August 2018, 13:35:33 »
Haven't updated in a while, but still working hard on this. Decided to add the debugger to the board for cmsis-dap debugging, a com port and drag and drop programming. Also added a USB hub so it will still be usable as a USB or Bluetooth keyboard. Software is doing good too I've got my power usage alnost dialed in, the apa102 draw around 80ma when off so they and the signal lines to them are now switched so you can turn them completely off when not being used . All the LEDs for the nrf, battery charger, and debugger have a common solder bridge for each chip so they can be disabled or enabled. There's more but should be getting another round of pcbs made up soon that should be the final one... Hopefully.

Offline Amy Worrall

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Re: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« Reply #6 on: Fri, 28 February 2020, 05:13:35 »
Hi CameronBanna. Did you ever finish this board? Would love to see what you did with it!

Offline CameronBanna

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  • Location: San Diego, California
Re: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 08 March 2020, 14:11:37 »
Hi CameronBanna. Did you ever finish this board? Would love to see what you did with it!

PCBs  are all designed, Firmware is almost there. there has been a ton of changes. moved completely away from the apa102 due to power problems and clearance with switches. ordered 4k reverse mount smd leds from alibaba instead lol, using the is31fl3733, which has been a dream to work with. heres the latest pcb design. gets hard dropping $100+ on pcbs every time.
237318-0

Offline Applet

  • Posts: 487
  • Location: Sweden
Re: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« Reply #8 on: Wed, 25 March 2020, 03:24:34 »
I'd love to hear how the firmware is progressing, I'm also making a nRF52840-powered 60% PCB to play with BLE (but using the Minew MS88SF2 for easy soldering).  ;D

Offline SpaceDork84

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Re: Bluetooth 5.0 + USB Build - nRF52840
« Reply #9 on: Sat, 04 July 2020, 02:41:38 »
I'd love to hear how the firmware is progressing, I'm also making a nRF52840-powered 60% PCB to play with BLE (but using the Minew MS88SF2 for easy soldering).  ;D

Yeah, I'm especially interested in the firmware too. Ordered an Adafruit nrf52840 Feather to play with and found a promising QMK issue on Github: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/issues/2054

Anyone else made any progress?
« Last Edit: Sat, 04 July 2020, 03:22:20 by SpaceDork84 »