Adding a Trackpoint to my Keyboardio

Hardware hacking
1

Hello all!

I really like my Keyboardio, but one thing I miss from my previous keyboard is a trackpoint. I’ve been trying to use the MouseKeys and it’s just not as fast as the trackpoint is. So I want to attempt to add a Trackpoint to this thing. Ideally, I’d replace the enter key on the right hand side of the keyboard.

I’m following this previous DIY trackpoint keyboard path: https://deskthority.net/wiki/MX13_SpaceSaver_Keyboard

I’ve got the module out and I’ve got an Arduino reading the trackpoint module already. So I’m feeling pretty good about that part.

It’s likely I’ll frankenstein something together initially that doesn’t integrate with the Keyboardio at all just to get a feel for it. But when I do want to integrate it in, I’m wondering what the best path will be. I see two options:

  1. Hope that there are two unused lines in the cable that connects the two halfs of the Keyboardio together. If that’s the case, I can run data/clock over those and read them on the left hand side and send the mouse data to the computer. If there are not two extra lines, I guess I could run another cable over and see how that goes.

  2. Hook into the I2C bus and hope I don’t interfere with keyboard scanning. This seems like it’d be the cleanest, but also riskiest?

I’d love to hear any opinions on what the best way to go is.

Thanks!
Brian

6 Likes
2

Sorry I don’t have any insight to offer here, wondered if you gave it a go and if so how that went?

3

Please update us on this, would be a very interesting read!
I love the trackpoint on my thinkpads and am also thinking about doing something like this.

2 Likes
4

Same here, I’d also be interested in modding the keyboard to have a trackpoint.

1 Like