nRF52 based BLE ergodox style keyboard

[Independent_Contact]

Hi all,

Long short -- I develop sports tech stuff using BLE and other wireless. Not a coding expert but I've designed some stuff in use by major sporting competitions. I've wanted a mechanical keyboard for a long time, but I tend to 1) use my laptop now and 2) use ergo keyboards. There are a limited selection of available ergo style keyboards without going off the deepend so I've stuck with the last few revisions of the MS ergo 4000.

Stumbling onto the ergodox I almost bought. I found it via the "dark matter" concept by now defunct atom computers (just a neat guy doing other stuff now I think). The X-bow keyboard almost meets the build, except it's more twisted ortho-linear than colmnar stagger. However I hit the following points

Ergodox uses a I2C expander chip but debounce is done in the teensy meaning a laggy left keyboard
Underglow instead of backlight keys and believe it's only one colour. I'd like colour for layers
Ergodox infinity solved most of the problems -- and is generally unavailable
Ergo-Done (chinese) go back to the expander
If I pull out a seperate keyboard for work to avoid my laptop one while on battery, I don't want to kill the laptop battery pulling 2 - 3 watts for lights and inefficient code (Not that I know what's in others firmware, and I am NOT a firmware expert)

I use the nordic nrf51/52 chips for my work. Nice integrated chips with radios and there are both adafruit BLE feather examples (tested) and the messy messy weird nordic reference keyboard code available.

So what I'm thinking on doing is something like the dark matter... a stripped down ergodox but with separate micros (yes two ble connections), possibly with direct input rather than scanning a row column matrix (limits to 32 input max per keyboard). A large battery to give it some weight and drive the LED matrix using a (IS31FL3731) driver or chinese WS2812's. Contemplating a screen -- cheap chinese OLED?

However.... to prove the idea I'm debating starting much much much simpler... frame + hardwire + Adafruit Feather nRF52 Bluefruit (or clone it with a pre-cert module).

I can't find anyone else doing BLE really and the closest was a TMK on the atmega328 /32u4 + an nrf51 (original blue feather).

Is there any love / interest in me open sourcing this so people can help with the code to use for other keyboards? Are mechanical keyboard purists also wired purists? (I'm sort of a wired purists but I'd like this portable for work). Does anyone know of any firmware out there for the nrf52 as a starting point?

[Blaise170]

I think whether one gets behind wireless or not largely depends on the environment for which it will be used. Unlike mice where movement is directly affected by the cord, keyboards do not really matter whether they are wired or not, though wire will always provide slightly better reliability long term. On the other hand, portable keyboards are better suited for wireless, as having to plug in a keyboard while away from your desk can become rather cumbersome.

[Blaise170]

For anyone who doesn't trust random links from brand new users: Geekless Tech Scriptless