Input Cover controller - reusing an Input Cover as a USB device

Creators & Developers Mainboard
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Finally, I’ve managed to build a batch of these =) A RP2040 USB-connected Input Cover controller with support for all Input Cover features - keyboard with backlight, touchpad, fingerprint sensor, fingerprint LED and power button. Firmware to do “plug&play USB keyboard” is currently WIP, but if you want to get one of these boards, the firmware should be ready by the time the board’s in your mailbox ^~^

For the hackers among us, the board’s fully open-source, MicroPython test code is in my repo, there’s two extra USB ports available (from the onboard USB hub) for whatever devices you might wanna add, four digital outputs for your LEDs or other gadgets, and the board itself serves as a module someone could integrate into a larger PCB for, say,… a custom mainboard? One can dream!

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20 Likes
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This is amazing, and at $20 on the store its so tempting for me to pick one up even thought I don’t have a spare Framework keyboard to use it with. Thank you so much for putting this out there!

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I don’t have much to contribute but that’s really cool man.

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thanks my issue has been fixed.

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I just wanted to ask, is this something that relplaces, or coexists with the existing ribbon cable? I wanted to DIY a ThinkPad-style trackpoint into my laptop, but not if it’ll disable the existing keyboard/trackpad.

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This is something that you plug an Input Cover into, instead of your mainboard. If you have a spare input cover, you can use it as a USB keyboard, and eventually, kb+touchpad combo.If you want to mod the Input Cover to add a trackpoint, this won’t work - I do have an idea that’d help with this, but it’ll take time for me to develop it, so it’s not here yet.

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I look forward to that! I’ve found a a few standalone trackpoints on Alibaba that use a USB 2.0 cable that connects to the trackpoint PCB. Might be difficult to fit that dead in the center of the keyboard like a traditional Thinkpad trackpoint, but it’s one step closer.

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Would this work with just a keyboard? I don’t have a full spare input cover, but I do have an extra keyboard alone that I would like to repurpose.

I know it might be some complicated soldering to only connect the keyboard pins through the normal connector, but that I could do, the question is would the firmware allow it?