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Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

chadaustin.me

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Re: Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

#51

Post by pixelbath »

Have been using a Sculpt keyboard since around 2015. One thing that seems to alleviate the problems of missed keys and the keyboard going to sleep (at least on Windows): in the Device Manager, look for the connection dongle (it should be connected via the USB Root Hub) and edit its Power Management settings to disable "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power."

I haven't had any issues with the laptop going to sleep when it's told with this setting enabled, and afaik battery life is unaffected (still haven't changed batteries in the keyboard after 3 years).

Regardless, I'll still be checking out this mod. I didn't even know this keyboard had LEDs in it.

Suggestions for Microsoft product developers if they ever read this or care:

1. Fn keys have got to be like the rest of the keys. Like other users here, I get F5 (which I use to run code in Visual Studio) stuck probably greater than 50% of the time.

2. Separate Fn key, or separate media keys. The switch is stupid, and I never use the non-Fn functions.

3. Take the calculator key off the main keyboard; it's a duplicate of the key on the numpad, where it is actually useful.

4. I'm ok with the backspace key on the numpad, but the top 3 keys should be regular keys, not microswitches.

5. Better power management and wake-from-sleep. This thing should never be dropping keystrokes. Ever. I'd trade battery life for this feature.

6. Make wired optional! Almost everything has a charger these days...why am I given alkaline batteries for this? This also potentially opens up the gamer market, given the latency reduction shown in this article.

Re: Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

#52

Post by chadaustin »

alexvoda wrote: post #31
amelius wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is shockingly bad. What is so bad about it? I suppose they ordered prototype quality.

Look at the first long trace in the top left sector. It is detached from the board. That is a rather serious manufacturing defect.

Yeah, I was disappointed by the lifted trace. It was only on the assembled one. The others all look fine to my untrained eyes.

Because I had low confidence in my circuit, I ordered the cheapest possible assembly. I assume hand-assembled or a mix, given one of each part.

I’m hoping to attempt hand assembly myself soon. Picked up a hot air station and a new set of parts from Digi-Key. :)

Re: Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

#53

Post by chadaustin »

brainlessdev wrote: post #21

Awesome article! A tip: the images are way too heavy for the 600w you gave them. They range from 2 to 7MB. You can probably get them down to like 50KB each!

Haha, you’re right. I was so annoyed by other people’s project photos being low-res so I couldn’t zoom that I vowed to upload the highest-resolution photos I could get away with. I’ll find a Jekyll plugin for thumbnails!

Re: Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

#54

Post by tomduncalf »

vinay427 wrote: post #20
tomduncalf wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep have had the same thing happen with one that someone left in the office after they left the company - no one could find the receiver and so it was useless. Seems like a bit of a wasteful design, you’d think they’d switch to Bluetooth.

Bluetooth, at least on Logitech devices that support both their proprietary connection and BT, seems to have far more latency in many situations. The difference is Logitech's proprietary setup with Unifying receivers allows multiple compatible devices to be paired or unpaired to any Unifying receiver, including multiple receivers and (on some newer mice/keyboards) simultaneously connected receivers.

Ahh OK, makes sense! Thanks

Re: Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

#55

Post by majkinetor »

pixelbath wrote: post #51

Have been using a Sculpt keyboard since around 2015. One thing that seems to alleviate the problems of missed keys and the keyboard going to sleep (at least on Windows): in the Device Manager, look for the connection dongle (it should be connected via the USB Root Hub) and edit its Power Management settings to disable "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." I haven't had any issues with the laptop…

Fn keys are disaster. They are second grade plastics, small and extremely bad. The Fn switch is something that deserves letting the designer go.

Coupling of dongle with keyboard and mouse is another design issue that deserves changing the entire team - if dongle goes out (and I have 2 that did) you can basically throw away working mouse and keyboard. WTF man ?! Its enough that your laptop goes hot for a month or so to make dongle unusable by melting its electronics.

I have 3 sculpt keyboards and never had one go to sleep on different Windows 10 systems over 2 years ?

One other thing that goes to my nerve is how hand pads look unclean after only month or two of usage, I am basically ashamed when people look at it. Its not possible to keep it clean.

Otherwise, awesome keyboard :)

Re: Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

#56

Post by murderfs »

chadaustin wrote: post #52
alexvoda wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the first long trace in the top left sector. It is detached from the board. That is a rather serious manufacturing defect.

Yeah, I was disappointed by the lifted trace. It was only on the assembled one. The others all look fine to my untrained eyes. Because I had low confidence in my circuit, I ordered the cheapest possible assembly. I assume hand-assembled or a mix, given one of each part. I’m hoping to attempt hand assembly myself soon. Picked up a hot air station and a new set of parts from Digi-Key. :)

If you're using stencils (and as long as your boards are relatively small, there's almost no reason not to with how cheap they are from jlcpcb/oshstencils), I highly recommend buying a jar of Loctite GC-10: it's the best solder paste I've ever used, and it lasts forever. I have a jar that expired 2 years ago and is still great.

Also, the T-962 reflow oven is pretty good for its price, with a bit of modding (flashing open source firmware (https://github.com/UnifiedEngineering/T-962-improvements), removing masking tape that melts and stinks, and adding a thermocouple for cold junction compensation).

Re: Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

#58

Post by [deleted] »

_ph_ wrote: post #30
w4rh4wk5 wrote: post #22

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…

Indeed, the Sculpt is my favorite keyboard so far. Despite being a mac-only user, I have several for them (work, home...). The biggest complaint I have is the small function button/escape row. If that was full sized, the keyboard would be close to perfect. A nice addition would be Bluetooth support, so you don't need the dongle for the keyboard any more.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

#59

Post by [deleted] »

sqldba wrote: post #45
w4rh4wk5 wrote: post #22

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.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Sculpt Wired Conversion Mod

#60

Post by [deleted] »

w4rh4wk5 wrote: post #22

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…

[deleted]
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