I have a bit of a sour experience with this keyboard. I love it, I really do. But when I accidentally wrecked the receiver, here's what I found: * MS doesn't offer replacement receivers * Each keyboard is paired to its specific receiver so you can't even buy an off-the-shelf replacement * MS make it extremely hard to reach a person to speak to * Their website practically doesn't have support for this keyboard My Scul…
Awesome post! I'm confused about the schematics of the keyboard and I wonder if anybody here might point me in the right direction:
The HWB pin is pulled permanently low, so the MCU runs the default USB DFU bootloader on startup/reset.
Then the application firmware can be programmed using dfu-programmer.
But what happens after programming, when you unplug the keyboard and plug it back in? Since HWB is still pulled low, doesn't the MCU go back into the DFU bootloader instead of running the application?
How does the keyboard run the actual application firmware rather than the bootloader?
I'd actually like a mod the other way round: There are a bunch of great mechanical keyboards (such WASD V3, daskeyboard prime or many other amazing custom builds) but they are all wired. I don't know why they don't make proper mechanical wireless keyboards (they are bulky enough that a battery should easily find space). But a wireless conversion mod would be the next best thing. Due to my (unchangeable) desk situatio…
I posted this [1] a few days ago [2], but there are a few custom, wireless, mechanical, ergonomic keyboards. e.g. Redox-W which falba.tech (Poland) will provide assembled if you need that [3]. It's not cheap though. For a DIY method, start at [4] or [5]. [1] https://aposymbiont.github.io/split-keyboards/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179311 [3] https://falba.tech/19644-2/ [4] https://www.reddit.com/r/Erg…
Hey, thanks for the list. I'm actually into "non-ergonomic" (traditional) full-size mechanical keyboards, and even there, I haven't really found one that does fully customizable work (keys, colors, switches - no manufacturer logos) and is wireless.
Do you have a recommendation for this, too? If so, I'd be grateful!
It is a pretty nice keyboard. The layout is pretty good aside from the small clicky F keys and physical Fn switch (don’t use them much so not too worried), and I like how the key travel feels like Macbook keys. Also totally cured the RSI I was starting to feel years ago. Mine broke recently (a key cap fell off and I thought I could just shove it back on which ended up breaking some plastic bit) and I looked into alte…
Wireless is the worst thing about my Sculpt. The crummy Fn row (coupled with the Fn-to-proprietary switch) is the second worst thing. I'd love to see a mk2 which fixes those issues.
If a wired one were to exist, it would be pretty snazzy if it had a built-in USB hub like the Das Keyboard so you could stick 2FA dongles in it. Or if someone made a mousing accessory to snap in to the central gap; maybe a wiggle stick or itty-bitty touchpad.
Great work. Something I'd definitely want would I still be using the Sculpt. Like others have mentioned here, the Sculpt suffers from other issues apart from being wireless: My biggest issue is the small, poorly constructed F-keys. Switching to regular sized keys on the Microsoft Surface Ergonomic shows how bad they actually are. Anyway, is there a way we could get Microsoft to build a Sculpt v2 which fixes the short…
They have another firmware bug that has been going on for years and years and was never fixed.
If you type quickly, it can lose the case of the characters in combination with the shift key.
Hold down the left shift and type CSMSDC. One of them will be lowercase (from memory it's the S). If it doesn't happen for you, either it's not a Sculpt, or you don't type fast enough. Once you can do it it'll happen every time.
Great work. Something I'd definitely want would I still be using the Sculpt. Like others have mentioned here, the Sculpt suffers from other issues apart from being wireless: My biggest issue is the small, poorly constructed F-keys. Switching to regular sized keys on the Microsoft Surface Ergonomic shows how bad they actually are. Anyway, is there a way we could get Microsoft to build a Sculpt v2 which fixes the short…
They have another firmware bug that has been going on for years and years and was never fixed. If you type quickly, it can lose the case of the characters in combination with the shift key. Hold down the left shift and type CSMSDC. One of them will be lowercase (from memory it's the S). If it doesn't happen for you, either it's not a Sculpt, or you don't type fast enough. Once you can do it it'll happen every time.
It’s not a firmware issue, it’s n-key rollover with poor matrix choice. There’s no fixing it short of replacing the controller with one that can handle more keys.
I want this. I'd buy it in an instance if it were available as a kit. I also use the MS Sculpt keyboard, but I miss the QMK firmware of my DZ60 mechanical keyboard.
Since updating to the latest feature pack of win 10 my M$ comfort curve usb keyboard started going to sleep after a few moments of non use, then dropping keys when you started typing again. I had to go deep into the device settings to disable auto sleep for it. its like windows 10 drivers for ms hardware just suck.
Great work!
I have two Sculpt's that I use daily, and have also wanted to do something like this for a while.
I've never had issues with the wireless signals, but would like QMK firmware so I could remap buttons.
I haven't really found a way to do this in Linux, with keyboard layers and whatnot.
Awesome post! I'm confused about the schematics of the keyboard and I wonder if anybody here might point me in the right direction: The HWB pin is pulled permanently low, so the MCU runs the default USB DFU bootloader on startup/reset. Then the application firmware can be programmed using dfu-programmer. But what happens after programming, when you unplug the keyboard and plug it back in? Since HWB is still pulled lo…
Good eyes! That’s a handy feature of this MCU: power-on boots start the application, not the bootloader. External resets switch to the bootloader if HWB is pulled low.