Zenith Z150 Key Chatter w/ Soarers - Help Thread

[consideringquiet]

Hello!

I recently came into owning a Zenith Z150, which types a dream aside for one problem : some pretty gnarly key chatter. This chatter manifests both as missed keypresses as well as repeated ones that do not stop until another keypress.

The board came pre-equipped with an custom adapter internally, but I determined it was knockoff pro micro with an ATMEGA32U4. As far as I can tell, the solder joints are solid both on the board itself and on the microcontroller. Another puzzling thing is that the onboard solenoid seem to behave as expected/actuates with every keypress (although, even on repeated presses). So when a keypress is missed, I still hear the actuation. This leads me to believe the source of the issue could be:

- lack of N key rollover
- grounding issues/pin issues with the microcontroller

Below are some pictures of the microcontroller and keyboard itself:

https://imgur.com/a/seP93Nf

I have tried applying some additional solder to the contacts on the microcontroller, no dice unfortunately.The QMK toolbox sees the keyboard and seemingly the missed keypresses, which is quite odd. Below is an example:

> R06 R05 r9F -16 u16
> rB9
> r39 +2C d2C
> rB9 -2C u2C
> r39 +2C d2C

Where RB9 is an actuation of the space bar, but it seems to be missed.

I have tried this keyboard on multiple machines (all running windows) and the issue seems to persist across the board unfortunately.

Would anyone have any advice on this issue? I considered reflashing, as I would like to customize the layout some, but I am unsure if this would solve the issue. Any and all advice is very much appreciated!

[jsheradin]

The Z150 is slightly non standard in how it implements the XT protocol. Soarers will do weird stuff as you describe. TMK handles it just fine. You should be able to flash it to your existing converter without changing anything. Double check that the reset pin is wired up - it's not optional with this board.

https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/wik ... lack-label

[undefineDname]

I've tried QMK, with no success. It has chattering and is very unstable with all my boards IBM XT, Z150, and DC2014.
The problem is in QMK, as i understand, because it is using old TMK version.
Also, my pro micros (not original) can't supply sufficient voltage to boards, but works perfectly with AEK II

My current setup is based on TMK + Teensy 2.0 - it is very stable and works awesome, so I would recommend you switch to the TMK.

photo_2024-05-22_14-21-36.jpg (93.77 KiB) Viewed 2421 times

[rezenew]

I had the exact same problems you described with my z150 and an internal soarers.
It is 100% the firmware used. I realized this because keys wouldn't register but the internal beeper would still go off. Someone on the DT discord helped me... I don't remember what I flashed but it was a standard firmware thing and after that I never had a single problem.

[consideringquiet]

The Z150 is slightly non standard in how it implements the XT protocol. Soarers will do weird stuff as you describe. TMK handles it just fine. You should be able to flash it to your existing converter without changing anything. Double check that the reset pin is wired up - it's not optional with this board.

https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/wik ... lack-label

Ah perfect thank you very much! I'll give this a shot after work today and update here the results.

[consideringquiet]

The Z150 is slightly non standard in how it implements the XT protocol. Soarers will do weird stuff as you describe. TMK handles it just fine. You should be able to flash it to your existing converter without changing anything. Double check that the reset pin is wired up - it's not optional with this board.

https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/wik ... lack-label

So an interesting update:

The flash did resolve the dropped keys, but after disconnecting the keyboard one time, the keyboard is unresponsive. Attempting to connect other PCs is also unsuccessful.

However if i reflash soarers once again, functionality in this regard is restored, but the dropped keys comes back.

I am using the QMK Toolbox to flash, could that be the issue? Can't seem to find this particular issue anywhere. I assume it has to do with the fact this pro micro uses the rst pin rather than p7 for resetting, but I otherwise have no idea.

[jsheradin]

I'd suspect a reset pin issue. By default TMK uses PB7 which apparently isn't exposed on the Pro Micro. You should be able to edit the port and bit in config.h to match how yours is wired now. It probably needs to be on something other than port D.

https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/blo ... nfig.h#L56

a504570b03287da7cdd419270ec49603-2009744840.jpg (159.65 KiB) Viewed 2192 times

[consideringquiet]

I'd suspect a reset pin issue. By default TMK uses PB7 which apparently isn't exposed on the Pro Micro. You should be able to edit the port and bit in config.h to match how yours is wired now. It probably needs to be on something other than port D.

https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/blo ... nfig.h#L56

a504570b03287da7cdd419270ec49603-2009744840.jpg

Figured out that I will need pin 6 for the reset pin here, but both virtual box and mingw64 are giving me trouble when attempting to compile on my machine. Looks like I will need to come back to this later.

As soon as I can get this going I will update this thread. Thanks again for the help!

[consideringquiet]

Alright, had some time this weekend to dig back into this and thankfully all is sorted out with the suggestions you al gave!

Despite the many trials and tribulations of trying to use mingw64 (I know it is not recommended but installing the VM was just as much of a hassle, what with file sharing and al the ubuntu quirks on install, took me around 2 hours to deal with the constant freezing and troubleshooting of virtualbox)

Turns out the firmware was the source of the issue. Thanks again to all who posted and provided tips!

Now onto some of my other projects... (NCR4950...)