Tenstaana's Chunky V2 – now with trackpad. Less janky and more janky at the same time.
KBD.news Published January 23, 2022
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The Chunky v1 was featured just a few weeks ago (KBD #59) but the next iteration is already here.
My initial goal was to make Chunky v1 less janky by hiding away the MCU and OLED which is commonly exposed in DIY keyboards, to use the amazing Cirque trackpad instead of the pimoroni trackball, and to have dedicated mouse buttons using Kaihl silent mouse switches – tenstaana.
Some other goals: adding ESD protection, proper plug detect circuit for the blackpill, and tenting legs from ZSA. The Chunky also has SPI breakouts and additional i2c headers for expansion.
The GlidePoint Cirque circular trackpad came from Mouser. They come in three different diameters (24, 35 and 40 mm) and a few different overlays.
In this project the 40mm variant and the curved overlay was used (TM040040-2024-303):
To get the trackpoint going, the bottom plate houses an Atmega32u4 breakout.
I grew up with thinkpads so I was looking to replicate the trackpad + trackpoint experience – tenstaana.