this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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ErgoMechKeyboards

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Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards

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Control switch trigger behaviour like wooting rapid trigger? (self.ergomechkeyboards)
submitted 1 year ago by telekenetic to c/ergomechkeyboards
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Thought I might ask here, sorry if I'm in the wrong place. But I just learned about Wooting's rapid trigger (https://wooting.io/wooting-two-he), that deactivates the switch when it changes direction instead of when it reaches the reset 'breaking point'.

My thought was if this would be able to be controlled on a regular MX switch and if such a program already exists? Since I'd prefer not to buy a Wooting keyboard and run their software. Seems like Razer has copied Wooting in their latest software (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c64yGHLO-TU&t=10s), but I'd prefer not to buy Razer products either. So looking for an open source program to control the trigger behaviour of the keyboard.

Hope my question is clear, thanks:)

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[–] Gumshoe 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My thought was if this would be able to be controlled on a regular MX switch and if such a program already exists?

No. Most MX switches feature a mechanical switch that moves actual metal pieces to complete a physical circuit by coming into contact with each other at the actuation point. It has neither the ability to detect where in the keystroke it is nor alter the point at which the metal pieces make contact.

I say "most" because there is a thing called an "optical switch" which can have this type of capability, and they DO make this in an MX form factor, but you can't just use these in any MX compatable board, it would need to be a board designed to work with optical MX switches.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not sure but I don't think optical switches have that ability either, you're either breaking the beam or you aren't.

Wooting uses hall-effect sensors and MX-compatible "switches" that have a magnet in the plunger. The set and reset thresholds can be set in software/firmware.

So it can be done with hall-effect switches but not with mechanical switches as you say.

[–] pca006132 1 points 1 year ago

If they are using ToF sensors, it is possible. But hell ToF sensors are expensive...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For this you need an analogue sensing mechanism such as hall-effect sensors (as Wooting use). You can see some open-source reference designs for PCBs, Firmware, and switches using hall-effect sensors on riskable's github to get you started. Technically you should be able to make a PCB like this and then use the same "switches" that Wooting use, though idk where they source them.

[–] pca006132 1 points 1 year ago

I think the dometyl keyboard (https://github.com/geoffder/dometyl-keyboard) was designed to use hall effect sensors with wiz switches. Not sure what is the PCB design that read the hall effect sensors.

If we just need digital, a comparator should be enough. However, wooting require 1 ADC for each switch, or at least some multiplexer. As it is unlikely for a single MCU to have that many ADCs, the pcb will likely require multiple chips like ADC0809 that can read 8 different analog outputs. Probably some more mux as well to reduce the number of pins required for the MCU.

[–] telekenetic 1 points 1 year ago

Thx for all the answers!<3