Anyone used an Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE?

[LifeIsOnTheWire]

https://www.adafruit.com/products/2829

Its a bluetooth Teeny-like device, and has an ATmega32u4.   Does anyone have any experience with it?  Can it run TMK or QMK things?

[priyadi]

QMK supports those. I'm typing on a handwired using Feather 32u4 BLE right now. Amount of pins is a little too short, though, only 17 are available. You will need an IO expander or some creativity with your matrix, even with a 60% keyboard.

[orihalcon]

Is it possible to load Soarer's Converter firmware on one of these?  Sounds too simple to me, but hey, won't know if I don't ask.  I am guessing that the problem is that if used like a regular Soarer's Converter instead of a controller, it would require a lot of power to run the original keyboard's controller basically making the low energy part kind of useless.  I can imagine a project enclosure that basically just has a large battery inside plus the Feather 32u4 that you could plug an old model M into so as to use it with an iPad or whatever device wirelessly.  Not sure the latency would be very good though with BT LE.  Thoughts?

[priyadi]

Is it possible to load Soarer's Converter firmware on one of these?  Sounds too simple to me, but hey, won't know if I don't ask.  I am guessing that the problem is that if used like a regular Soarer's Converter instead of a controller, it would require a lot of power to run the original keyboard's controller basically making the low energy part kind of useless.  I can imagine a project enclosure that basically just has a large battery inside plus the Feather 32u4 that you could plug an old model M into so as to use it with an iPad or whatever device wirelessly.  Not sure the latency would be very good though with BT LE.  Thoughts?

As a matter of fact, I ported TMK's terminal_usb code to QMK to revive several old 122 keys Model Ms. I'm using Teensies, but it should be trivial to use it with the Adafruit controller.

[LifeIsOnTheWire]

QMK supports those. I'm typing on a handwired using Feather 32u4 BLE right now. Amount of pins is a little too short, though, only 17 are available. You will need an IO expander or some creativity with your matrix, even with a 60% keyboard.

Thanks for the reply, that is great to hear.

I'm considering using one for a 30% keyboard, so the 17 pins is more than enough.

[zl_ramiel]

QMK supports those. I'm typing on a handwired using Feather 32u4 BLE right now. Amount of pins is a little too short, though, only 17 are available. You will need an IO expander or some creativity with your matrix, even with a 60% keyboard.

Will there be a noticeable lag when you use it?

And how long could the battery lasts?

[Dellamorte]

@priyadi was there anything special you had to do to get qmk working on the feather?
     I have the same one and i am struggling to get it working . I'm only using 14 keys ( gamepad) so I have plenty of pins left.

[SectorOMEGA]

Dont want to open new thread for the same question As I'm also interested in this. So can I use I2C I/O expander for the Bluefruit? I have one of those lying around http://wearableelectronicsforfashion.com/en/shop/sparkfun-16-output-io-expander-breakout-sx1509/

[zombimuncha]

Dont want to open new thread for the same question As I'm also interested in this. So can I use I2C I/O expander for the Bluefruit? I have one of those lying around http://wearableelectronicsforfashion.com/en/shop/sparkfun-16-output-io-expander-breakout-sx1509/

Did you ever get anywhere with this? I'd love to see a "For Dummies" guide to using these.

[SectorOMEGA]

I have been using smaller I/O expander with arduino and some servo motors I will dig up my code for the expander and post it here if you want

[zombimuncha]

I have been using smaller I/O expander with arduino and some servo motors I will dig up my code for the expander and post it here if you want

So the I/O expander is not something that "just works" with QMK / TMK? Sounds difficult for me, with basically zero electronics knowledge

[nephiel]

Product page states it has 20 GPIO pins. Does that take into account the I/O pins required for Bluetooth?

[SectorOMEGA]

Basically, the bluefruit lacks enough pins for 60% keyboard. As someone said above can make it but we have to play with the wiring matrix. What I/O expander do is that via the I2C gives you more pins for the wiring. Regarding the QMK/TMK still to investigate this, but there should not be a problem if you address the right pins configuration

[TalkingTree]

Regarding the QMK/TMK still to investigate this, but there should not be a problem if you address the right pins configuration

bpiphany uses a modified TMK firmware with his Costar replacament controllers which use 74HC42 shift registers. It might ease the process of writing some code for this purpose.