maemo.org - Talk - Producing Qwerty OtherHalf --order counter: 75/75 --ordering closed

maemo.org - Talk (https://talk.maemo.org/index.php)

- The Other Half (https://talk.maemo.org/forumdisplay.php?f=59)

- - Producing Qwerty OtherHalf --order counter: 75/75 --ordering closed (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=91535)

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

If you're going to have four rows of keys (as in your mockup), you should definitely have dedicated number keys.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

@maluka Starting with a bluetooth keyboard would be exactly the same. Strip everything, use the keys only, don't use BT and build from the ground up. The only difference is I don't have a BT keyboard case on hand.

@minimos The keyboard keys are only 19mm high, so it will be no problem to incorporate holes in the OH for the camera. However, solving hardware issues like this is not priority at the moment. Lets get a proof-of-concept first!

@DeeGee I had already found that chip. Problem is it runs on max 3.6 volt, where the jolla phone runs on 3.8 volts. And I don't have a special oven for cooking this kind of chip on the pcb

@youmeego Off-topic!

Anyone experience with NKRO, ghosting, pcb design?

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

Quote:

Originally Posted by KFX (Post 1378959)

If you're going to have four rows of keys (as in your mockup), you should definitely have dedicated number keys.

Which mockup? The first picture? That's just an artist impression made by someone else.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

As the design has just started, I suggest, why don't you at the same time design to have an extra battery with the qwerty OtherHalf. The extra battery could be the same as the original Jolla battery, doubling the mAh value.

I have noticed, I have never been satisfied with the original battery capacity of any recent mobile devices I've been using. I have purchased a bigger battery to all of these: Nokia 8110, Nokia 6260, N95, N95 8GB, N900, Samsung Galaxy S3. I guess I have been and always be a heavy user, whether it was Symbian, Maemo, Android, ...(Sailfish, Tizen, ...).

Although Jolla has designed the OtherHalf system to be stackable, so able to stack several OtherHalfs together, I find it unlikely and perhaps unpractical to do for real, for example having extra battery OtherHalf and qwerty-OtherHalf from separate suppliers and then use them with Jolla phone.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

Good idea, but off topic! 1 thing at a time. No projectors, no extra batteries, no lasers or exlosions, just qwerty keyboard.

Okay, maybe explosions, but no extra batteries.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

Quote:

Originally Posted by zimon (Post 1378963)

Although Jolla has designed the OtherHalf system to be stackable, so able to stack several OtherHalfs together, I find it unlikely and perhaps unpractical to do for real

Source for this assertion?
I've seen others speculate about this, but I've never seen Jolla confirm that this is precisely how their OH system will work.
Apologies for the off-topic, carry-on.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirkvl (Post 1378929)

Yes, I am the first one (nice, Jolla slogan used!) to open a thread about building an OtherHalf with a qwerty slider! In this thread I will post my ideas, pictures and ask questions to you guys.

The goal -for now- is to have a complete setup ready for when the first batches of Jolla phones is shipped. The qwerty slider is without a doubt the most anticipated extra feature and with some extra time on the hand, why not!?

http://i.imgur.com/jMYGijl.jpg

So, lets dive right in! The Jolla phone will have a I2C connector on the back. Luckily, my RPi has I2C as well, so the first prototypes and proof-of-concepts can be tested. The RPi and Sailfish both support Python, which makes the programming a lot easier. I don't have any experience with the Sailfish SDK, but that will come later on.

The keyboard itself will be taken from my old -and dead- N900. Nostalgia much?! The keyboard consists of the motherboard with the electrical connections, a plastic sticker with pieces of metal to make the connection and the *click*, and the actual buttons.
http://s2.postimg.org/cv4qdzz95/13100005.jpg

The motherboard will be scrapped. To complicate things, I will try to build my own pcb from scratch. This tutorial provides all the necessary steps. It will be a double-sided board.

On this pcb, there will be a button-matrix similar to the one on the motherboard. To connect the keys to the phone, a mcp23017 i2c gpio port expander will be used.

Next step, pcb design. The N900 keyboard had some issues with NKRO, perhaps someone can shed some light on this to design a new way to connect the keys in a better way? The gpio-expander had 16 i/o ports.

The software: the keyboard has to be continuously scanned for key-presses. How will a background python (or other) script affect cpu and battery usage? Better/possible to start/stop the script when the keyboard is slided out? Continuously scan for I2C devices? For the near future, testing software will be on the RPi. I have some experience with that, but help is welcome.

The slider mechanism: Maybe the old slider mechanism from the n900? Design a new one? Other options? Personally, if parts are machined nice, I love to show mechanical parts. If not, the game is to not show anything.
http://phandroid.s3.amazonaws.com/wp...en-550x412.jpg

Please keep the topic clean and respond if you would like to (and can) help!

get rid of that MCP23017 and go for an tiny ARM cortex M0 from NXP like:

http://www.nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/LPC81XM.pdf

that way it could be used for other cool stuff too :cool: And price is < 2EU on fernell for the 8Kbflash + 2kb ram variant.

http://de.farnell.com/nxp/lpc811m001...sop/dp/2320693

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikecomputing (Post 1378969)

get rid of that MCP23017 and go for an tiny ARM cortex M0 from NXP like:

http://www.nxp.com/documents/data_sh...PC11XXLVUK.pdf

that way it could be used for other cool stuff too :cool: And price is around 3.5EU on fernell for the 32Kbflash + 8kb ram variant.

http://de.farnell.com/nxp/lpc11c14fb...qfp/dp/1812185

1. Did I mention this was a diy project? I cannot solder this small chip. If you can, feel free to jump in!
2. Try ordering something at farnell..

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirkvl (Post 1378970)

1. Did I mention this was a diy project? I cannot solder this small chip. If you can, feel free to jump in!
2. Try ordering something at farnell..

see my post again I updated it with a smaller variant :) that can be soldered by hand and costs less.. and can be used with upto 3.6v.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf

Ive asked jolla for dimensions and also other side connections to main body. Wanted to create a 3d printer map. Do you got some intel on this? Without it I fail to see how to go forward with another side.