ThumbsUp! Keyboards

ThumbsUp! can be made wireless using a nice!nano v2 MCU (or its clone) running ZMK. Recently ZMK got support for ProGlide Cirque touchpads, and the biggest difference from QMK was requirement to have an activity pin (DR) to be used/specified in the configuration. My configuration project is here: https://github.com/ak66666/zmk-config/tree/cirque Unfortunately that requirement was not known to me when I designed ThumbsUp! boards, so in order to make these boards wireless and with touchpad I had to add a bodge wire from the touchpad to a inter-PCB connector, and then from the connector on the other plate to the controller. Luckily there were a few unused pins in v9, so the task turned to be relatively easy. Step 1. Solder the wire to the third pin from the top on the innermost row: Step 2. Solder the other end of that wire to one of the pins in the center header. For that - gently pry the plastic spacer a up halfway, and solder the wire as close to the board as possible. I chose the bott...

  VIA and REMAP are great online visual tools to re-define QMK-based keyboards. All current ThumbsUp! keyboard support both tools by default.   Configuration File Download JSON file for your board from here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/2s8vz5tq5lffmpjuqbz2c/h?rlkey=71amow1mhhwfe54c0ywx59bfc&dl=0   v2 Atmega: rev2_atmega_via.json v2 RP2040: rev2_rp2040_via.json v3, v4: rev3_rp2040_via.json v5, v8: rev5_promicro_unibody_5x12_via.json v6: rev6_rp2040_5x6_via.json v7: rev7_rp2040_5x6_via.json     How to use VIA   In web-browser navigate to https://usevia.app/ :   Click on Settings icon:             Click on "Show Design Tab" toggle, so it is moved to the right: "Design" icon should be visible on top of the screen:       Click on it, this screen should appear:     Move "Use v2 definition" toggle to OFF (left) position. ...

In this post I will quickly go through the major design milestones which lead to the current ThumbsUp! keyboard design.   For years I used ThinkPad laptops and external ThinkPad Travel keyboards like the one below. I even used them together, i.e. as a split keyboard. The laptop was on the right and the external keyboard on the left, with a display between then. So my left hand used the left side of the external board, and the   right one - the right side of the laptop. A bit excessive, but otherwise quite comfortable, especially with the original version of Travel keyboard, with its trackpad and trackpoint, so either hand could use the mouse navigation.       There were some issues with the cursor control, and I rather refer to my article on All Things Ergo for details. So I started to look for other options.   There was some generic mechanical 60% keyboard, a Mistel Barocco, a Ergodox EZ, and an Ergodox Infinity (the group buy arrive...

ThumbsUp! keyboards can be made wireless.  Not all of them, but those driven by ProMicro controller. There are multiple options, so far I only used one of them, the nice!nano v2 with ZMK-based firmware. Nice!nano is a drop-in replacement for AtMega32U4-based ProMicro units. It got a compatible pinout and is quite simple to use. Here is how it looks fully assembled: These are the parts: nice!nano v2 in the middle, the battery on the left and the pin headers on the right. Also there is a power switch on the PCB - it physically disconnects the battery from MCU/USB. I use pin headers/sockets to allow MCU swap. The default/standard sockets are too tall, so I have to pull the pins from headers and cut them so they are flush with the board surface. Make sure solder balls are small enough to  allow the raisers/connectors to actually connect. Notice the MCU goes components towards PCB. Make sure the B+ and B- holes are not used, they are added in nice!nano, but the ProMicro does not ha...