Completed my Explorer RxCT build!
Skree @ Skree @lemmy.world Posts 4Comments 31Joined 2 yr. ago
Skree @ Skree @lemmy.world
Posts
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2 yr. ago
That's really weird. It should be read only.
I miss the traffic, and volume. This transition really has alot of bumps, but also down with the reddit mess.
Super cool stuff!
I wonder if my flexible pcbs fit in there! If you'd be interested I'd be willing to send you a set of pcbs to see!
I have some gripes with their design. One side they're properly positioning the antenna. The other, not so much.
If memory serves this is the right side. The antenna is pointing away from what it cross pares to. It's got the ribbon cable carrying GND, VCC, Rows and columns violating it's signal space too.
The best suggestion to resolve this would be to tape down the FPC cable so it's violating the yellow area as little as possible. But that doesn't help that it's pointed the wrong way. Truth be told I don't know if this is really a fix for their connectivity issues.
I'm just getting into trying the holyiot module they're using in some of my designs. With other nRF52840 modules I've never had signal issues. ZMK does a stellar job. But I don't know if the 360pro issues are tied to this specifically or something I haven't seen just yet. Maybe it's down to their revisions to ZMK? The key press held down is really weird. I wonder if it's somehow related to power modes being weird on their ZMK.
It might be possible to change the routing slightly.
I'm in the process of building a hotswap option for the 360 and 360 pro boards. 360 is more of a pain in the butt due to their use of shift registers instead of actual diodes. It's a bonkers and expensive decision if you ask me, but I'm not the multimillion dollar company.
Actual mods:
It depends really on your goals. Compared to the Advantage2 the 360 is like a middle schooler's science project to a reasonably solid product needing a few tweaks.
You can play around with sound deadening. The boards are naturally pretty heavy so I wouldn't consider weights. I loved the Haimu heartbeats, the board is silly quiet now. If you'd like I can see if I can get the owner's perspective on here sometime. Keycaps: I know people swear by the Kinesis caps. I didn't mind just DSA caps. Though shine through DSA is a little more difficult to get ahold of. I think they offer PBT caps finally so I'd go that route and not worry about it.
Honestly, my changes to a 360pro would be deadening because I'd be opening the case for switch replacement. I'd want hotswap (I hope to offer this in a couple of months), and that's really it. I'd love to say I'm skilled enough to reverse engineer their thumb + main board. I don't feel comfortable doing that sadly. I can design a replacement but it would only work on traditional ZMK and would be somewhat expensive.
Side note: Upgrade keyboards selling different batteries seems silly. Firstly, the battery in the 360pro is just as big. It's well fitted, and the thicker battery likely means longer lifespan (dendrites and stuff not an actual chemist). They'll possibly tell you about diode stretching, and how it takes them 4+hours for a board replacement. I call BS. But at least they're "kinesis approved." There's nothing in the case / board that denotes tampering. I don't know how a warranty department would notice any of my work other than the switches themselves are different. I've enjoyed upgradekeyboards as a source for supplies for nearly a year, but their kinesis service being 6-9months out is bonkers really.
I'm no electrical engineer. But I was informed that having the return to ground close to all data connections is a good thing from a EMI and signaling perspective. I often put ground vias near all my rows and column pads.
Yeah just some vias for return to ground; everything looks reasonably fine from a quick overview. You have space, and cross talk really isn't a concern, but more padding between signal traces could be helpful in some of the closer areas. Though all of that is minimal in concern.
I'll give things a look over. First thought, you ground poured, but didn't link any of it together with vias. That would be helpful in ensuring good ground return paths.
https://github.com/WainingForests/Universal-Toe-Beans Or toss me a email / message me on discord (Alakuu or Skree_LLC) and I'll see about getting a listing up. My prototypes in black worked perfectly fine. I haven't ordered for the hotswap just yet but if you're interested I can finalize the design tonight and order probably tomorrow!
Before the whole reddit explosion squished sales I was working on having hotswap EC-11 single key pcbs. I'm basically there. It's expensive with the method I've found that works but an option if you're interested.
Honestly, if you don't want hotswap you could also just solder them to one of the EC-11 single key pcbs I've made.
Casting them?
Batteries require management with control circuitry normally on the MCU. This means you need to pick MCUs that support batteries.
You will also want a on off switch for the battery somewhere.
I always use LIR2450 button cell batteries where I can. The steel body makes them more resistant to damage where as pouch cells can't take much of a scuff.
They're very portable! Just make sure the battery can't be smushed if the board itself gets some pressure, and that it can't get poked by sharp / conductive things.
ZMK for the nice nano and XIAO nrf52840 should even report battery life! Your primary half (generally left) drains faster than the accessory half.
RGB / screens that aren't designed for low power are utterly destructive to battery life. I get ~1-2 weeks on 120mah splits. With RGB I'm lucky to get an hour.
You don't change these batteries as they're rechargeable. Most boards will function while recharging. I offer QI wireless charging on my boards if you request it.
I can do up to 5 rows; infinite columns but a sheet comes with 6.
Oh yeah, handwiring literally is why I spend literal months of time designing over and over the flexible pcbs. I think technically there's a good 300+ revisions. (Last I checked the old version backup on my cad program was almost a gig worth of saves).