Replacement controllers for various Costar keboards
(Marketplace threads seem to have a timeout after which the category is struck through. All controllers are still available.)

Why don't you pay bathroomepiphanies.com a visit!



The Frosty Flake - CM Storm Quick Fire Rapid
current rev 20140521

discontinued rev 20130602


The Ghost Squid - CM Storm Quick Fire XT
current rev 20140518


The Kitten Paw - Filco Majestouch full size (*also some early Rosewill boards)
current rev 20160418

discontinued rev 20130602


The Pegasus Hoof - Filco Majestouch tenkeyless
current rev 20150108

discontinued rev 20150108

discontinued rev 20131001


The Black Petal - Rosewill full size (*some early boards use the Filco Majestouch controller)
current rev 20131001


Cool Talk (Voice of Reason adaptation) - CM Storm Quick Fire Rapid
current rev 20151102


The controllers are assembled in my toaster and tested. The solder joints seem to come out very good (much cleaner than hand soldering), and there has been no reports on ill-effects so far.

If you want get a custom controller for your keyboard, send me a PM with your Paypal e-mail address and what you want. I'll send you an invoice from there. I have plenty of all controllers.

Please observe that some (early?) Rosewill boards use the same controller as the full size Filco Majestouch boards. Be sure to open your board up and have a look to know what controller your board uses. Here is a partial compatibility list.

Payment through Paypal unless you have a grudge with them.

Pricing Table
Circuit boards only

• $5 each

Toasted and tested units

• $30 each ($35 Cool Talk/Voice of Reason)

Do-it-yourself kits*

• $30 each

Shipping and handling

• $5 flat

*Toasting the controllers is not much more work than preparing parts for DIY kits. Packing the kits is also more time consuming than the assembled boards. The time to assemble a board hand-soldering should easily be worth more than price difference to the old kit price. The quality of the solder job will also most probably be higher than any hand-soldering. I'm only keeping the DIY kit option for those who really really want to do the job themselves for whatever reason.

Mine arrived on Monday. Thanks Sir!

How hard is it to solder the SMD components? I have a decent soldering iron and some really fine soldering tips but I never tried to solder in SMD parts.

Very nice bpiphany. I've been hearing about this lately, glad to see it finally.

The crystal is a bit tricky to get into place. You need flux and a decently sharp edge tip to get close enough. Other than that everything is just small. So as long as you've got steady hands, time, and tweezers, it shouldn't be impossible.

I'm tempted to get this for my FILCO... But my soldering skills or tools just aren't there for this kind of work...

Keyboard gnomes at work..

Original post updated with new models. There are plenty of each one available.

Great stuff! So, the new Filco TKL controllers can do with less resistors?

Yes, the new ones are all the same setup. No external pull-down resistors. This time the internal pull-up resistors are used. So there are 18 less resistors due to that alone. There is one more SOIC16 with its decoupling capacitor. On the other hand the controller has fewer pins and capacitors.

All components are on the bottom, layouts can be found here.

With my new toaster I think I will be able to offer assembled controllers again. I have updated the first post with new info.

Can I ask - is replacing the controller effectively just a job of unplugging the old controller and plugging in the new one? If I bought an assembled one, would it require any soldering?

Cheers in advance

George

I assume the Pegasus Hoof does not work with the CM Storm QFR?

Edit:
Well I'm stupid, That's what the Frosty Flake is for!

Yes, if you buy the controller already assembled by bpiphany, you only have to open your keyboard's housing, unplug the existing controller, and plug the new one in its place. Then you have a fully programmable keyboard.

Frosty Flake is for the QFR.
Pegasus Hoof is for Filco TKL.
Kitten Paw is for Filco 104/105.
Black Petal is for Rosewill 104.

Awesome - now just to decide if I want one or two (or three) and I'll be placing an order

Cheers bud

George

It's about that time. The modding urge is rising. My Filco will never be the same. And it's calling for a custom controller PM is on the way!

So I'm just putting my Frosty Flake together (finally!), but I want to make sure; The PCB has 10kOhm resisters printed in several spots, where wiki/File:Frosty_Flake_Components.PNG has most of them replaced by 510Ohm ones. I'm assuming the image is correct, as it's newer, but I want to make sure...

I don't know in which order I learned things but the conclusion is; Costar controllers have 510Ω for red LEDs and 10kΩ for everything else (that's what I have seen this far). It is possible the other colors would survive with 510Ω as well, and only be a bit blinding. On the replacement controllers the intensity can be adjusted through PWM. Just to be sure nothing pops I recommend using the same value as the original controller on your board was. And I think the QFR comes with red LEDs(?).

The remaining 10kΩ resistor is a pull-down for the HWB signal. The value doesn't matter too much there, 510Ω would be a bit on the low side for a pull-down. 5k-50kΩ is more like a typical pull-resistor.

I have it up and running now, did a quick test, and it seemed to work (still haven't received the switches for my board, so I'll have to wait a few days for the thorough rundown). Either way, yes the qfr uses the red diodes, so I'm good with the 510Ω resisters.
Another thing I would have liked being a little clearer, is the soldering of the reed switch. It's placement is not mentioned at all, on the drawing, but I spotted the soldering points in the pictures. Perhaps you could upload a picture of the board(s) finished, component-side up? I have a feeling that'd help anyone as confused as me, about where the various components are to be placed.

Regardless, thanks for the boards, they're absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to give my flake a real spin (and then at some point, get my paw soldered up as well).

I've added pictures of the component sides of the controllers to the wiki. I might update them with better quality ones later.

A little bit of research would tell which of the ISP pins is RESET ;) Also, I removed the ISP header from the newer boards, making it more obvious which holes the reed switch goes into. The reed switch started out as a sort of bonus feature on the Liberation Device, and then it just stuck around. I guess I still see them as sort of "extra", and don't pay much attention to them... The ISP pins can be accessed via the regular headers if needed. They can't be in place when the controller sits in the case anyway. Hooking the correct pins up through the regular headers shouldn't be much harder anyway, if the fuses or bootloader needs to be tampered with.

My parts arrived a few days ago, thank you very much. Gonna solder that beauties within the next few days (getting hold onto a FX-888 in Germany takes some time). Is there description how these controllers work in detail? I wondered about the reed switch, does it clear the flash when I hold a magnet next to it?

The reed switch jumps the controller into program mode.

How do I get the Frosty Flake into programming mode?
dfu-programmer always says: no device present.

Edit:
Hit it harder with magnets

rindorbrot wrote:How do I get the Frosty Flake into programming mode?
dfu-programmer always says: no device present.

Edit:
Hit it harder with magnets

I have this exact same problem with my Pegasus hoof. Could you please elaborate what do you mean by hit it harder? I've tried neodymium, nothing seems to help.

The keyboard has to be plugged in for it to work.
Just trigger the reed switch with the magnet, then the controller switches to programming mode.
You should see it in the Device manager then.
Now you can install the correct driver for it, which is bundled with dfu-programmer if I remember correctly.

Then dfu-programmer should be able to find the controller correctly.

I did exactly that. Dfu-programmer still compains "no device present".
Edit. I'm a doofus. I didn't realize I had to first put it into boot mode and then install the libusb driver. I'm a dork.
Thanks rindorbrot.

Just added the CMS QFXT information to the Wiki -- hint, hint..

Assembled and toasted!

Great stuff !! Running three QFR's w/ Frosty Flakes and waiting for a Black Petal for my warranty-voided-before-1st-use RK-9000

After bpiphany was kind enough to send me a Pegasus Hoof I didn't know where this reed switch is, and randomly moved a magnet here and there until the controller switched into boot mode / program mode. You notice it by typing something, it will have no effect anymore, the keyboard reacts as if beeing dead. Then I used Easy AVR USB Keyboard Firmware Keymapper (yes, the name is that long), and assigned a scancode called SCANCODE_BOOT to my Keyboard (I assigned it to Fn + Esc). By this, you never have to use a magnet anymore, you can switch to boot mode with this scancode. And I've flashed my firmware like 50 times after this, what an relief without magnet!