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rianadon / Cosmos-Keyboards

Taking Keyboards to the Final Frontier
https://ryanis.cool/cosmos
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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pro micro usb-c holder doesn't match with the controller #28

Open RobertBrunhage opened 3 months ago

RobertBrunhage commented 3 months ago

3 issues I found trying to get the pro micro usb-c holder to hold the controller.

  1. Some of the pins are hidden and not exposed through the two opening lines (see image to the far right and you will see pin holes covered up and a little on the left side there is almost no space) image
  1. The pro micro has some small components on the bottom and therefore is not fully flat. I could fix that by making a "groove" for the components that are on the underside of the pro micro image image
  1. The bumps that are supposed to hold the controller in place is blocking the "poles" to connect to the controller (maybe those two could be towards the center more on the backside of the controller?) image image

Here is how the fix ended up like (you still don't have the ability to slide in with the pins attached but the 3d print easily bends to attach the controller.

image image

Edit: after looking at the images the length dimension looks a little bit off

rianadon commented 3 months ago

It's been a while since I've used a pro micro with a keyboard since the rp2040-based stuff is so cheap nowadays, so this is some really good feedback! The usb-c pro micros that I did use a while ago were from Aliexpress and didn't have anything underneath them. They were purple and looked something like this:

Pro Micro Usb-C

I think the ones you have are different ones. This might also be why the length is a little off? For these I think the groove you made is the best way to deal with those parts. If you wanted to make a PR for that, that would be fabulous, otherwise I can add something similar to the generator if I know how deep and wide the groove needs to be.

As for the male headers, I personally don't use them. This is how I wire my keyboards:

RP2040-based board connected to keyboard with wires soldered directly to the board

In low-profile keyboards like the one in the picture, there isn't enough vertical space for connectors. Therefore I solder directly to the top of the microcontroller, and it doesn't matter whether pins are exposed through the bottom.

I know the vertical headers are pretty popular in taller manuform-style keyboards, but for a few microcontrollers the pins run the full length of the pcb, so there's nowhere left to put retaining tabs. For those reasons I don't really support them officially in Cosmos, even though as you've seen with some bending you can get the tabs to work with the headers.

RobertBrunhage commented 3 months ago

Got it, will make some small custom modifications for my micro-controller then to make things fit correctly!

Regarding the groove, I just edited in blender and took off like 2/3 of the height, didn't do any calculations and don't have any tools to easily check sadly..

I wonder if it would be worth having a custom input for the "length" of the controller on the website, but that is up to you I can make those changes myself also if needed.