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• The OLED is here

  Mx. Jack Nelson • 11/03/2023 at 18:08 • 0 comments

  Last night I received the tiniest OLED screen I've ever seen. It will take up less space than a 2u key. I hooked it up today, and after some fiddling by @Steph to find a solution for pins being held on when the Pico does a soft reset (hint, it's this line of code) I got it working.

  displayio.release_displays()

  Here is the demo code for the display, including some forced text wrapping. 

  import board
  import busio
  import digitalio
  import displayio
  from adafruit_display_text import label
  from adafruit_displayio_ssd1306 import SSD1306
  import terminalio
  import time
  
  # Define your pins
  dc_pin = board.GP20  # Data/Command
  cs_pin = board.GP13  # Chip Select
  reset_pin = board.GP21  # Reset
  
  # Release any resources currently in use for the displays
  displayio.release_displays()
  
  # Create the SPI bus
  spi = busio.SPI(clock=board.GP10, MOSI=board.GP11)
  
  # Create the display bus
  display_bus = displayio.FourWire(spi, command=dc_pin, chip_select=cs_pin, reset=reset_pin)
  
  # Create the display instance
  display = SSD1306(display_bus, width=128, height=64)
  
  # Create a display group
  splash = displayio.Group()
  
  # Add the display group to the display
  display.show(splash)
  
  # Define the max width in pixels for the text to wrap
  max_width_pixels = 128
  
  # Estimate the max number of glyphs based on an average character width of 6 pixels
  average_character_width = 6  # This is an estimate; adjust for your specific font
  max_glyphs = max_width_pixels // average_character_width
  
  # Function to wrap text manually while respecting manual line breaks
  def wrap_text_to_width(text, max_chars):
      paragraphs = text.split('\n\n')  # Split on double line breaks to preserve paragraphs
      wrapped_paragraphs = []
  
      for paragraph in paragraphs:
          lines = []
          line = []
          words = paragraph.split()
  
          for word in words:
              # Check if adding the next word would exceed the max width
              if sum(len(w) for w in line) + len(line) + len(word) > max_chars:
                  lines.append(' '.join(line))
                  line = [word]
              else:
                  line.append(word)
  
          lines.append(' '.join(line))  # Add the last line
          wrapped_paragraphs.append('\n'.join(lines))  # Rejoin lines with single line break
  
      return '\n\n'.join(wrapped_paragraphs)  # Rejoin paragraphs with double line breaks
  
  # Define the text with manual double line breaks
  text_string = "Hello, World!\n\nTamagotchis are the best and the text wrap starts here"
  
  # Use the wrap function to wrap the text and preserve manual line breaks
  wrapped_text = wrap_text_to_width(text_string, max_glyphs)
  
  # Create a label with the wrapped text
  text_area = label.Label(terminalio.FONT, text=wrapped_text, line_spacing=0.9)
  
  # Set the location of the text
  text_area.x = 0
  text_area.y = 5
  
  # Add this label to the display group
  splash.append(text_area)
  
  # Run the display loop
  while True:
      pass
  

• Alright, stabilizers

  Mx. Jack Nelson • 11/02/2023 at 16:55 • 0 comments

  Everyone agrees, big keys need stabilizers. I've flown without them because technically 2u keys work without them, and my keyboards have been small enough to only use 1u and 2u keys. But this board will have a standard space bar, which is 6.25u, and four 2u or larger keys, so it's time to graduate to stabilizers. 

  Today I'm researching the difference between plate mount and PCB mount stabilizers. This article has a very good breakdown of the differences and comparisons between them. The cutout that I'm using for the plate supports PCB or plate mounted stabilizers, but I still have to choose a version and what orientation they're going to be in.

  I'm leaning towards PCB mounted stabilizers, but am not sure that I want to have to screw them all in. Then again, why not, I'm making the PCB so I might as well accommodate for PCB mounted stabs. Decisions. 

• Plate me

  Mx. Jack Nelson • 11/01/2023 at 19:43 • 0 comments

  Today I learned to generate a .dxf of my keyboard plate layout and use KiCad to render that layout in 3D. 

  Since I'm using KLE for this key layout I was able to copy the raw data into the Swillkb Plate & Case Builder. There I specified the radius of the corners, the margin size, and where to create cutouts for the joystick and OLED screen. I'm not entirely sure on the dimensions of those cutouts, I'll be more accurate when the parts come in. I still need to add mounting holes, but this is a start to creating the plate out of PCB.

• First comes the joystick

  Mx. Jack Nelson • 11/01/2023 at 02:34 • 0 comments

  A bizarre place to start for a mechanical keyboard, I know, but I have a navigation device in mind for this board and I wanted to build the key layout around it. My first joystick was salvaged from a flea market controller, but I have a couple more on order that have a clicking button in them as well. This one does not. But having it allowed me to hook up the joystick to the Pi Pico W and use it to control the mouse on my screen. With a little refinement of the variables I'm pleased to say it's a very comfortable navigation experience. I can't wait till I get one that clicks. 

  Here's the demo code to get the joystick working. 

  import time
  import board
  import analogio
  import usb_hid
  from adafruit_hid.mouse import Mouse
  
  # Create the mouse object
  mouse = Mouse(usb_hid.devices)
  
  # Create analog inputs for the two joystick axes
  joystick_x = analogio.AnalogIn(board.GP26)
  joystick_y = analogio.AnalogIn(board.GP27)
  
  # Constants
  CENTER_TOLERANCE = 2500  # adjust this if needed
  MOVE_AMOUNT = 8 # change for faster/slower mouse movement
  
  def get_movement(value):
      # If the joystick is near the center, don't move
      if abs(value - 32768) < CENTER_TOLERANCE:
          return 0
      # Return -MOVE_AMOUNT or MOVE_AMOUNT depending on the joystick's position
      return -MOVE_AMOUNT if value < 32768 else MOVE_AMOUNT
  
  while True:
      # Get the change in X and Y positions
      dx = get_movement(joystick_x.value)
      dy = get_movement(joystick_y.value)
      
      # Move the mouse
      mouse.move(x=dx, y=dy)
      
      #time.sleep(0.01)

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