What I want to do here is to convert the cirqle glidepoint touchpad that you see on the left of the picture into one USB device,that can be recognized by any operatying sistem :
Adafruit has some interesting tutorials, such as this one showing how to use the converter on a PC to capture images from an MLX90640 I2C thermal camera.
If you can power it with 2.5-3.6V, you can skip this section. The type-c breakout board runs at 5V. So we cannot directly power it directly. We can probably use a logic level shifter and voltage regultor to provide 3.3V. Alternatively, according to the post on Cirque Forum, the trackpad can run at 5V when R7 and R8 are removed.
Does there exist one level swifter that can be attached via USB and / or some kind of flex cable ?
I really don’t know how to connect the Adafruit TXB0108 8-channel Bi-directional Logic Level Converter to your SparkFun Logic Level Converter to the Seeed Xiao on the left and to the 12 pin FPC on the right.
As you can see we have a long chain of “plug and play” component. This is what I want.
for me it’s difficult to guess what are the pins to connect
If not usb,even a flex cable,also easy to connect is ok
but not dupont wires…they are fragile and I’m not able to understand which pin goes to which hole.
There are no plug and play components for what you’re trying to do. Your best bet would be the dev kit I linked to above. Even then, you might have to do some modification.
The dev kit is too big for me,since I’m trying to create/assemble a cyberdeck device that more or less it will have the form factor of a phone. It’s cost is even bigger.
In addition to this,I can’t make any modification to the dev kit. I’m not a programmer.
Having said that,can u explain to me how should I connect the voltage regulator to the left and the right component ? thanks.
The good news: you do not need a level shifter for what you are attempting to do. Both the Seeed Xiao and the Cirque TM023023 are 3.3 V I/O devices. The blog you reference implies that the Corne keyboard being used does not have a 3.3 V regulator, so they modified the Cirque to be able to operate at 5 V. Fortunately for you, the Xiao does have a regulator (see Getting Started with Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 | Seeed Studio Wiki for the schematic), so you can connect the Cirque directly to the Xiao!
That being said, there are a couple problems I see with what you are attempting. First, you claim you are not a programmer. The Xiao, however, is a microcontroller that will have to be programmed. It doesn’t know what a Cirque TM023023 is nor how to interact with it - you will have to program that into it! You will also have to program it so that the computer is able to interpret the data the Xiao is processing from the Cirque. I assume you would like the computer to see it as a HID device, correct?
Second, you are looking for a plug-n-play solution. I may be wrong, but I fear that isn’t going to be an option for you. I think the closest thing you’ll find is a breakout board that will turn the FFC into through holes that you can solder wire to (that’s what was used in the blog you referred to). A device that can pull the I2C/SPI signals off the FFC and convert it to USB sounds precisely like what you’re trying to build with the Xiao.
I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like this, but if I understand what you are wanting to do, the way to get there is to get an FFC breakout board, and solder the SPI or I2C pins (depending on how you ordered the Cirque) on the breakout board (along with power - 3.3 V and GND) to the Xiao. Then program the Xiao so it presents as an HID device to the computer and provides reports based on the data it gets from the Cirque. As I said, I don’t think you’ll like that, but I believe it is as close to plug-n-play as you are going to get (i.e. not really that close).
Fortunately this community is full of people that are very willing to help you learn and accomplish what I outlined above, if you’re willing that is. The alternative, I suppose, would be to hire someone to build this device for you. Either way, I wish you the best of luck!
but,not to the 35 mm diameter touchpad. It is too big for the device I’m trying to build.
What I want to do is to use the same kind of touchpad,but of 16 mm. Infact I have already bought some samples of these touchpads from the company.
I want to ask you : how much complicated is to exchange the 35 mm with the 16 mm,in your opinion ?. Should I desolder and solder again some wire that’s inside its case ? And when I have exchanged it,will it work again like before ?
It could solve all my problems in a very elegant way.
Second, you are looking for a plug-n-play solution. I may be wrong, but I fear that isn’t going to be an option for you. I think the closest thing you’ll find is a breakout board that will turn the FFC into through holes that you can solder wire to (that’s what was used in the blog you referred to). A device that can pull the I2C/SPI signals off the FFC and convert it to USB sounds precisely like what you’re trying to build with the Xiao.
The Halcyon Cirque Touchpad Module uses the QMK firmware. So this is the firmware that I should use. Maybe it has a github where I can grab the firmware and I can use it as is. Infact that product is the same product that I want to build by my own.
Based on datasheets I was able to find for the TM023023 (23 mm), TM035035 (35 mm), and TM040040 (40 mm) trackpads, they all use the same pinout on the FFC cable and are all 3.3 V devices. I couldn’t find a datasheet for the TM016016, but I would venture to guess that Cirque used a common pinout for all their products. So, to replace the 35 mm with a 16 mm, I believe all that you need to do is disconnect the FFC from the 35 mm and connect it to the 16 mm - no soldering required. Keep in mind, I have never worked with these products and am only providing my thoughts based on what I have found available on the internet, i.e. proceed at your own risk.
The Halcyon Cirque Touchpad Module is compatible with the VIK standard by Sadek Baroudi, making it compatible with all Halcyon Series keyboards as well as other keyboards supporting the VIK standard…
First of all,I’m not interested to buy an Halcyon keyboard. For my phone I will use the CardKB keyboard (it uses a groove to USB-C connector :
)
I suppose that it will not work if I connect the Touchpad sold by Halcyon ,via USB, ,to my Radxa Zero 3W ? but if they provide one USB cable,it should work…
Furthermore,if I change model of touchpad,I should reinstall the firmware ? I suppose that they installed the firmware on the keyboard,that I don’t have ?
just because I can attach the 12-pin FFC connector directly to the board. It’s good if the circle touchpad is 23mm. But for my FreeBSD cyberdesk I want to use the smaller version of their touchpads,at 16 mm. Now it comes the problem. The svlinky board does not accept a 6-pin FFC connector. So it should be recreated from scratch. Since it is open source,it can be done by some good engineer. What I want to know is how much money can cost to me to hire someone for this job.
