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ThumbsUp! Trackball v3/5, v4 Usage

ThumbsUp! Trackball comes in three versions, v3 (the bottom one), v5 (top left) and v4 (top right):










Trackball v3 and v5

Versions v3 and v5 have the same layout, six mouse buttons in each, plus configuration buttons and three slider switches. The only difference between them is the switch types they use: Kailh Choc in v3 and regular mouse-type buttons Omron in v5, 

These two versions can be used as thumb- or finger-operated with either left or right hand.
Two slide switches define device orientation and hand it is used with:


In thumb-operating mode index finger presses left button, middle finger - middle button, and ring finger - right button, this configuration is kept in all device positions (configured through switches shown above) :




Trackball v4

v4 got two more buttons and it uses Kailh Choc switches.

In v4 the orientation switch is mislabeled - THUMB means "backward", i.e. the USB connector is towards you, and FINGER means "forward", with the USB connector away from you.

In the default layout thumb is used for the left button, ring finger - for the right button. palm presses Scroll button, pinkie - for the middle button:





Scrolling

To scroll - hold the Scroll button and rotate the ball. Release Scroll button to return to the "normal" mode.

Navigate Back/Forth

(In v3/v5 firmware only)
To navigate back and forth in the applications supporting that, e.g. web browsers:
Hold Scroll button and press Right Button to go back or press Left Button to go forward.

Charging

To charge the device - connect it to a USB charger or a computer and turn the battery switch to ON position. Power switch disconnects the battery, when it is OFF the device will work from the external power, but will not charge the battery.

Bluetooth

Default firmware allows trackball to be used either with USB cable, or wirelessly over Bluetooth.
When device is connected to a  computer with USB cable - the Bluetooth connections are kept active, but device communicates through USB cable only.


By default device supports three Bluetooth profiles. 
To connect to a computer over Bluetooth:
    - disconnect the USB cable, if it was connected
    - turn device on
    - press BT CLEAR button (may be labeled as BT RESET on some versions)
    - on the computer/phone add a new BT device - it will be called "Trackball v.3" for v3/v5 or "Trackball v.4" for v4.

To add another device 
    - press BT SEL button
    - repeat connection as described above.

To to switch between connected devices - press BT SEL button to go to the next device, it will iterate through the connected devices in order they were added. 

Online Configuration with ZMK.Studio

Trackball buttons can be re-assigned online.
For that - connect the device to a computer with USB cable.
Open internet browser, navigate to https://zmk.studio/
The page will prompt you to select connection type:



Click on USB, it should show this window, select your device and click Connect:


Trackball firmware protects itself from unauthorized modification, this prompt will ask you to unlock the device:


Press STUDIO UNLOCK button on the trackball:


Layout editor page should appear.


Notice the mouse buttons are not labeled on in the layout, but are shown when you select a button, or hover the mouse over the button.


Changes to the  mouse  buttons are applied immediately.

You may reassign all the buttons except for RESET.
Please be careful with the sliding switches - they control navigation between layers, and also pointer direction, so if you replace them with something else - only the first (#0) layer will be active.
That is you probably need to limit your changes to the six top buttons in the layer for the orientation/hand you use:

//TODO: Make the layer names to be displayed.

For v3/v5 layers are the following:
0 - THUMB_LEFT  
1 - THUMB_RIGHT
2 - FINGER_LEFT 
3 - FINGER_RIGHT
4 - THUMB_LEFT_SCROLL 
5 - THUMB_RIGHT_SCROLL
6 - FINGERS_SCROLL

For v4 layers are:
0 - FRONT_RIGHT
1 - FRONT_LEFT
2 - BACK_RIGHT
3 - BACK_LEFT
4 - FRONT_SCROLL
5 - BACKWARD_SCROLL

Firmware Reset

ThumbsUp! v3 and v5  firmware files are preserved here:
https://github.com/ak66666/ThumbsUp-Trackball-v3/tree/main/firmware.working

ThumbsUp! v4 firmware files are here:
https://github.com/ak66666/zmk-config-trackball.v4/tree/main/firmware.working/Landscape%20Orientation




To flash the  default firmware to your trackball:
- download files to you computer
- connect trackball to the computer with USB cable.
- press twice RESET button on the trackball.
- a new drive should appear in the system (could be named NICENANO, like in the picture below):


- copy file "settings_reset-nice_nano_v2-zmk.uf2" into the new drive.
- trackball will reboot, the new drive will disappear.
- press RESET button twice again, a new drive will re-appear.
- copy file "a_ball-nice_nano_v2-zmk.uf2" into the new drive.
- trackball will restart, the new drive will disappear.
- trackball should be reverted to the original settings.

You would need to re-establish Bluetooth connections after this.

ZMK Source Files

Bluetooth/wired versions:

https://github.com/ak66666/zmk-config-trackball.v3
https://github.com/ak66666/zmk-config-trackball.v4

Dongle versions:

https://github.com/ak66666/zmk-config-trackball.v3.dongle
https://github.com/ak66666/zmk-config-trackball.v4.dongle

Dongle Support

You may switch from using Bluetooth to connect to the computer to a USB dongle (https://zmk.dev/docs/development/hardware-integration/dongle).

For that you will need one more nice!nano v2 (or its clone) controller which will be connected to the computer and act as a dongle.

To create a trackball and dongle pair, download these three files from the source files mention before:
settings_reset-nice_nano_v2-zmk.uf2
tuball_dongle-nice_nano_v2-zmk.uf2
tuball_right-nice_nano_v2-zmk.uf2

For the trackball - flash "settings_reset-nice_nano_v2-zmk.uf2",  then "tuball_right-nice_nano_v2-zmk.uf2", disconnect the trackball and turn it off.
For the dongle - flast "settings_reset-nice_nano_v2-zmk.uf2", then "tuball_dongle-nice_nano_v2-zmk.uf2" files to the  extra MCU.
Turn on the trackball, it should link to the dongle.
From now on they will remember each other even after powering off.

Known Issues

- Layer names are not shown in ZMK.Studio
- Sometimes, upon connect or being turned on, the trackball starts rotating in direction, opposite to what is set by the direction/hand configuration switches. Press any button, after that the mouse pointer should more according to the switch settings.
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