ErgoMechKeyboards

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Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards

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Keep it ergo

Posts must be of/about keyboards that have a clear delineation between the left and right halves of the keyboard, column stagger, or both. This includes one-handed (one half doesn't exist, what clearer delineation is that!?)

i.e. no regular non-split¹ row-stagger and no non-split¹ ortholinear²

¹ split meaning a separation of the halves, whether fixed in place or entirely separate, both are fine.
² ortholinear meaning keys layed out in a grid

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Some useful links

EMK wiki
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Compare keycap profiles Looking for another set of keycaps - check this site to compare the different keycap profiles https://www.keycaps.info/
Keymap database A database with all kinds of keymap layouts - some of them fits ergo keyboards - get inspired https://keymapdb.com/

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Hoping for guidance on custom split QMK using Blackpill (self.ergomechkeyboards)

submitted 1 year ago by nydas to c/ergomechkeyboards

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi all,

I'm hoping for some troubleshooting tips. I have a self-build split keyboard using Blackpills.

If I flash either side with 'SPLIT_KEYBOARD = no' in my rules.mk, then both sides work fine (but both working as the left side). If however I set 'SPLIT_KEYBOARD = yes', then both sides stop working.

It's driving me insane!

These are the relevant details of rules.mk:

MCU = STM32F401
BOOTLOADER = stm32-dfu
SPLIT_KEYBOARD = yes
SERIAL_DRIVER = usart

And config.h:

#pragma once
#define HAL_USE_SERIAL TRUE
#define SOFT_SERIAL_PIN A12
#define MASTER_LEFT
#define MATRIX_ROWS 6
#define MATRIX_COLS 6
#define SERIAL_USART_DRIVER SD1
#define SERIAL_USART_TX_PAL_MODE 7

And halconf.h:

#pragma once
#define SERIAL_USB_BUFFERS_SIZE 256
#include_next

And mcuconf.h:

#pragma once
#include_next 
#undef STM32_SERIAL_USE_USART1
#define STM32_SERIAL_USE_USART1 TRUE

Please help! I've been at this for three days.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Hi. Im pretty sure you cant use pa11 or pa12, as they Are used for usb…

Check this: https://www.reddit.com/r/olkb/s/CqDGqABzg3

[–] Nibodhika 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like I said last time:

I have a crkbd but never heard of Blackpill, is that one of the ones that's already defined in qmk? If not you need to create the mapping from layout to pins, I have no idea how that is done though.

If it's defined have you flashed both halves? Before using it? I imagine so otherwise the right side wouldn't work at all, but just in case.

At least for crkbd the keymap is defined as if it was a single thing, so you don't need to specify split keyboard, the mapping of pins to keys should take care of that, but the crkbd is always split so that might be the reason you need to define that in your keyboard.

I know it's a bit inconvenient, but have you tried setting it to not split and flash the right hand size with a MASTER_RIGHT config defined?

[–] nydas 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Blackpill is defined within qmk already. You can do a search in the repo for STM32F401 and see a number of keyboards that use it. From this, you can also see which are split keyboards. The M60 Split is a good example which uses a SPLIT_HAND_PIN to define left and right. The Phoenix is another. This also uses the SPLIT_HAND_PIN. Given that, I've tried updating, but no luck. If SPLIT_KEYBOARD = yes then nothing works. If SPLIT_KEYBOARD = no then they work but they both come through as the left side (even if SPLIT_HAND_PIN B9 is set, and B9 is connected to GND or not).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Are you tying B9 high? By default, Gnd is right, Vcc is left. Unless there are pull-ups, both sides will act as slaves.

You can try just flipping that with #define SPLIT_HAND_PIN_LOW_IS_LEFT

See the docs at: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/docs/feature_split_keyboard.md#handedness-by-pin