Uncategorized

Not everyone needs to take their keyboard along for typing but as someone who spends a great deal of time typing all sorts of things whether it be blog posts or responding to customers or just banging out responses to Redditors, I really want to be able to use my split keyboard as much as possible.

Enter the Modern Coup split low-profile Carry Case.

This case is made specifically to fit my low-profile Choc Corne. It’s compact and easy to throw into a bag or just to carry on its own.

I’ve gotten used to taking my keyboard around with me to coffee shops or the library when I’m working away from home. Having a carry case is perfect.

This summer I plan on taking just my phone, Kindle and Corne in its carry case while I bike around the Rideau Canal. I like to just stop by where there’s a nice view to do some writing on my iPhone with iA Writer.

The Corne is wireless, obviously, so connecting it to the iPhone is trivial. It’s already paired so I just swap profiles on the keyboard with a combo keypress. I have the same keyboard paired to my desktop PC and my MacBook as well and I’ve never had any problems switching between them with the same keyboard.

Flashing split keyboards works a little differently than your typical keyboard since you obviously have to flash each half.

But what do you do to flash them an in what order? What about when you update your keymap or want to enable some special features of the firmware like QMK’s tap dance or CAPS WORD for example?

Typically a split keyboard will communicate with the host device (host meaning the device your keyboard is connected to–typically your computer) via the left half. Depending on the keyboard this is configurable so you may choose to connect the right half instead but basically only the one half is connected to the host itself. The rest of this post will assume the left half is the one connected to the host; assume the reverse if the right half is connected.

So the main half is connected to the host device, and the right half communicates with it and simply monitors what keys are being pressed. This means when flashing an updated keymap you flash it only to the left half.

Some things to remember: flash the left half only when updating the keymap

Flash both sides if you’re making changes to things like the OLED, etc. When in doubt, flash both halves.

Remember to unplug the keyboard from the host device before you disconnect the TRRS cable connecting both halves. This is done to prevent the possibility of shorting the halves and rendering them inoperable. Once the keyboards are unplugged from the host device, then unplug the TRRS cable.

Once you’re finished flashing the keyboard, whether that’s one or both, make sure you’re plugging in the TRRS cable first and connecting both to each other first. Only then should you connect the keyboard to the host.

Don’t try to test the non-main half otherwise your host will treat it as that side. Say your left half is the main half and you flash both sides. If you then connect the right half and try to test it the host will assume it’s the left half and you might assume it didn’t flash the firmware properly.

Connect both to each other and the main half to the host before you test out your revised keymap and whatever other firmware functions you updated.

I just finished building a Corne and Sofle split keyboards recently and during my research into what microcontrollers to use I found there was so much more out there now than when I first got into this hobby.

A few years ago the choice for a microcontroller (which I’ll refer to as an ‘MCU’ for the rest of this post) was between a Teensy or a Pro Micro or a clone of some sort. Now there are a ton of options to choose from.

Since I live in Canada my choices for sourcing an MCU is rather limited compared to living in the USA. The usual avenue for buying MCUs is Amazon, Digi-Key, Mouser or a Canadian vendor of keyboards/keyboard parts off of Alex Otos’ vendor list. Of course the cheapest route is to buy at least a few from AliExpress and wait a few weeks to a month or more for it to arrive.

The older Pro Micro MCUs and clones were notorious for breaking at the Micro USB ports after just a handful of times of plugging and unplugging the cable.

I didn’t want to worry about this especially since I’ll be doing a lot of plugging/unplugging in the beginning while I sort out my keymap. So I went to AliExpress and ordered Pro Micro clones with a USB C port.

When ordering from AliExpress I like to pay through PayPal while using my credit card as a funding source so I have two avenues of recourse in case of any issues first through PayPal and second through my bank/credit card issuer. Thankfully I didn’t need to worry about that this time around.

When sourcing MCUs from AliExpress and building a keyboard that normally requires a Pro Micro, you’ll want to make sure the a) pinouts are the same and b) the physical dimensions are close to or the same as the original Pro Micro otherwise you run the risk of the MCUs you ordered not working for your specific build. This applies only to keyboards that were designed to run off Pro Micros though–if you’re hand wiring a keyboard or designing your own from scratch obviously this won’t affect you but you’ll still want to take it into consideration.

There’s a great list of the most common microcontrollers over on the Golem project run by Tamas Dovenyi of kbd.news.

If you’re even slightly interested in keyboards you owe it to yourself to subscribe to his monthly Keyboard Builder’s Digest. It’s really great content for keyboards nerds and hobbyists. I’m not affiliated with him in any way but he’s an awesome guy and he puts out great content and I love the work.

I’m waiting on some wireless MCUs to arrive this week so I can build and try out a super low-profile Corne build with Choc switches.

Stay tuned for that build which I’ll share here and over on /rmk and the /r/ergomechkeyboards subreddits.