Glacier One is a macropad designed to go along with the Phendrana Keyboard. Deriving it's name from a research center in Metroid Prime, located in Phendrana Drifts, the macropad aims to reach a similar goal, researching the circuit to ensure it works correctly before buying the full Phendrana Keyboard. It uses a Makerdiary nrf52840 m.2 board, so it is easily able to be swapped out if broken.
Features
- Longer Battery Life
- Multiple Bluetooth Connections
- Single-colour Backlight
- Cherry MX and Kailh Choc compatible
- Swappable Switches, Battery, and MCU
- 3D Printed Case
- 3DS Joystick
- OLED
Skills Learned:
- PCB Design (Eagle)
- Button Matrix Design
- C/C++
- Arduino Firmware
- LEDs
- Battery Chargers
- 3D Printing
Firmware
At the moment, the firmware is unreleased. In the future, it will be added to a Github repo. When it is released, follow the steps below:
Before flashing, ensure the .UF2 bootloader is installed. It should be version 0.7.0, which can be downloaded here
The file should be named "nrf52840_m2_bootloader-0.7.0_s140_6.1.1.hex", if the M.2 is bought seperately, you will need the Makerdiary Developer Kit Dock to upload it
- Download the Glacier One Firmware repo (currently unreleased)
- Follow the ZMK Toolchain Local Build Setup Guide
- Place the Phendrana files in the zmk/app/boards/shields/glacier-one folder (you will need to make the folder)
- It should look like below: (but with "glacier-one" instead of "phendrana")
- Open the zmk/app folder in terminal
- Use the command "west build -b -p nrf52840_m2 -- -DSHIELD=glacier-one" to build the firmware
- Upload firmware, to the Glacier One. If disconnected from USB, and powered, you should see the Bluetooth device
Inspirations
Hardware
Currently the Hardware files are not released. The 3d case files are intended to be released at one point, however I wish to fix the files first, and provide more files for different versions of Glacier One.
KiCAD/Gerber files likely won't be released, and neither would the BOM. This is because it wasn't really designed to be built by others, and I'd want to do a complete overhaul if others were to build one. If you'd like Glacier One, contact me
Versions
Rev 1.0.0 - Initial Release - Small errors, and doesn't include the voltage dropout detector in the PCB. Initial versions have been fixed with flywires
Instructions
Instructions for this project are not available.
Can I buy this?
Similar to Phendrana, a few Glacier One's have been given to friends, from extra parts I had when making my own. I do not really intend to sell these.
If you would like parts, feel free to get in contact. Please note that lead times may be long (likely about a month, I need to get parts and time for assembly), and are subject to price changes.
Notes
Glacier One is a keypad that attempts to follow the ZMK design language. This introduces a few unique features to the board, that may be odd the first time used. These are:
- Power, there is no outside power switch for Glacier One, it relies on sleep modes to save power
- Internally there is a power switch, however it was designed as more of a power switch for long transport
- Glacier One has two sleep modes:
- Idle - LEDs turn off, keyboard is still connected (~30s after you've stopped typing)
- Sleep - Keyboard disconnects from devices to save power from Bluetooth (~15m after you've stopped typing)
- These timings can be changed in the .conf files (for left and right), using these parameters: https://zmk.dev/docs/config/power#idlesleep
- Glacier One can be used either through USB, or Bluetooth, if connected to a PC using USB, it will always send keystrokes to the PC through USB
- You should still be able to charge while using Bluetooth, you just would need to use an AC adapter to do so
- It should be noted that Glacier One won't work with USB C-C cables