Thanks! Have fun tinkering once you get the boards 😁
Btw your work on Cheapino is awesome! Made me aware of other matrix scanning methods. I've been trying to do round-robin matrix scanning on FAK and so far looks like it's working well
Well, there are many ways to do that. It's kind of a rabbit hole on its own. For me, I prefer layers to combos to access special keys like symbols, numbers, and function keys.
If you meant modifiers like Ctrl and Shift, I use home row mods. I also started with 40+ keys like a Piantor and swore I would never like home row mods, but ended up loving them after trying it.
Anyway, layers feel pretty intuitive to me. What do you think is making layers not easy for you?
Coming from daily-driving a Klor, it's a very natural transition. I can touch type on it mostly fine. Ergonomics is insane. All the keys feel much closer and way easier to reach. I miss the splay on the Klor though since I've come to like it.
https://github.com/semickolon/fak
FAK is a keyboard firmware for the CH55x series of very cheap chips, with the purely functional programming power of Nickel. The project aims to make keyboards much cheaper and to make configuration more declarative and fun.
New features:
- You can now make split keyboards with FAK!
- Combos of up to 8 keys that get the same treatment as physical keys
- Media keys for playback and volume control
Most importantly, three full examples are now in the repo of varying difficulties. The beginner example demonstrates how to make a simple keyboard and keymap definition and it looks almost like JSON (but with "variables").
The intermediate and advanced examples demonstrate how powerful Nickel can be. It features parameterization of keymaps and layouts, advanced home-row mods with eager decision, automatic generation of home-row mod behaviors based on their key position, and more. You can even bring your configs to a higher level of abstraction and be able to do something like this:
base_layout = "WFPBJLUYSTHKXNAIRCGDM,.O"
This, for example, defines the sequence of keys in your base layer and, since it's just a string, you can change it very easily. Somewhere along the way, this string of characters becomes kc.W, kc.F, kc.P, ... but done automatically. Abstractions like these can help make your configs more flexible and modular and they allow for code reuse across multiple keyboards and layouts (like QMK userspaces!)
I'd love to hear what you guys think! Any feedback, suggestions, and testing is appreciated! :)
Hmm actually, FAK could be extended to CH582. It would have to be a complete rewrite on the hardware code, but I could keep the Nickel config mostly compatible between CH55x and CH58x.
You just gave me an idea. Sounds like I can make a FAK spec and then there'd be compliant hardware-specific implementation for different chips 🤯
Yep, and I think they're even working on dongle mode. They call it "triple 2.4G" on the readme.
Thanks! No CH55x chip supports Bluetooth so it's USB only. I thought of possibly adding a Bluetooth module, but that's almost always a SoC and you're much better off using that as the main (and only) microcontroller instead.
There's this: https://forum.arduino.cc/t/jdy-23-bluetooth-module/672581 Could work as a "dumb" BT module but even so, it can't do HID over BT directly so have to translate that to HID with another chip. Not so power efficient too.
Basically, I've been through this path and it always led me to: just use one MCU with BT. Fortunately, CH582 is a cheap one. RISC-V with BLE. And it's been recently ported to QMK as well: https://github.com/O-H-M2/qmk_port_ch582
Cool! Though CH58/9x series might be better for efficiency because it's Bluetooth 5. CH57x is BT 4.
And QMK has already been ported to CH582 but personally haven't tried it yet. https://github.com/O-H-M2/qmk_port_ch582
Go for it! I have a schematic in mind but too lazy to learn KiCad. Would love to help out :)
Also, there's a commercially available CH552T dev board for about a dollar. I actually use this for development: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004141926425.html
Even cheaper if you buy just the chip. Just add a USB connector and two capacitors then that's it. No crystal, flash, etc. needed. A CH552G goes for about 30 cents: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003402478164.html
F.A. Keyboard Firmware. Contribute to semickolon/fak development by creating an account on GitHub.
Hey all! I'm excited to share and announce my open-source keyboard firmware project. FAK exclusively supports very cheap CH55x chips. You can get a CH552 for half a dollar or maybe even cheaper. No need for external flash, LDOs, or oscillators. The chip's basically a whole MCU on its own.
So far it has layers, hold-tap, and tap-dance. Split support, combos, macros, etc. and more to come. It's based on Nickel, a purely (almost) functional programming language, so FP folk can go crazy on their config and parameterize everything or whatever. But hey, you only need that kind of power if you want it. For beginners, you can start simple and it looks almost like JSON.
Home-row mods are a first-class citizen with very customizable hold-tap behaviors. There's global quick tap from ZMK. There's hold-tap flavors too, but settable per key per behavior. There's eager decision, quick tap, and more.
I've also been experimenting with other matrix scanning methods like the Cheapino's (forgot the name) and round-robin/charlieplexing. This means less pins required, so you can get away with a CH552T (instead of a CH558L with more pins, twice the price) and keep your build very cheap.
Please check it out! If you have CH552 chips around, I'd appreciate your feedback. I've yet to write better docs and a website, but feel free to DM me and I'd be happy to help you get it running!