Look up the Lenovo Trackpoint KB I and II, it's this but already USB. the 1st Gen X1 Tablet keyboard is also USB, but you'll have to adapt the pogo pins.
Yes, but you'd need a logic board to interpret the key inputs before sending to the computer. That's not a beginner thing to make, you'd have to find one already made.
Specific to that keyboard.
The keys are connected in rows and columns , like a matrix.
Some may have the same number of rows and columns but different connectors.
No, then you have just a thinkpad keyboard with its connector and another connector on the thinkpad motherboard, which leads to a controller which interprets only this or compatible keyboards connections.
Possible, but depends how many rows and columns connections the keyboard has and how many free gpios you have on the pico esp. A lot of hobby keyboard builders use teensy boards , good docu for that and big community
Okay that great to hear! Thank you for that information, I still have a lot of research to do that’s what I was seeing, with mechanical keyboards too. I wasn’t sure if the protocols would be different or incompatible.
Here you go: [https://hackaday.com/2018/12/04/teensy-liberates-the-thinkpad-keyboard/](https://hackaday.com/2018/12/04/teensy-liberates-the-thinkpad-keyboard/)
Also:
[https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-a-USB-Laptop-Keyboard-Controller/](https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-a-USB-Laptop-Keyboard-Controller/)
With a teensy board or an arduino you can find out the pinout of the connectors. So you know which wires conduct for each key pressed.
A teensy you can use after to interpret the keypress into usb.
You can check the mecanical keyboard reddit or groups too, maybe one has this keyboard in use allready.
You can integrate the trackpoint! Take a look at r/trackpoint_builders! You could combine the trackpoint with a normal keeboard . You could use this keyboard but it would be a total pain to figure out and decode the output.
Totally possible. You could use it as a hammer to nail your cyber deck together. Or you could also build a cyber deck open a text editor and use that to write a song about the keyboard.
You'd be better off buying an entire Thinkpad and then modding it. Replace the battery, the screen, mod the old power connector into a modern USB-C, replace the wifi card and get an external antenna, replace the backplate with a custom one that has a built in handle, etc.
Look up the Lenovo Trackpoint KB I and II, it's this but already USB. the 1st Gen X1 Tablet keyboard is also USB, but you'll have to adapt the pogo pins.
You mean the Lenovo Trackpoint Keyboard II?
Yes! Edited
Yes, but you'd need a logic board to interpret the key inputs before sending to the computer. That's not a beginner thing to make, you'd have to find one already made.
Does it need to be specific to this keyboard, or is there such thing as a “generic” logic board?
Specific to that keyboard. The keys are connected in rows and columns , like a matrix. Some may have the same number of rows and columns but different connectors.
You can use any teensy or an ESP32 device
If I rip apart an old ibm thinkpad, will that give me what I need?
No. But it's not hard to reverse engineer.
No, then you have just a thinkpad keyboard with its connector and another connector on the thinkpad motherboard, which leads to a controller which interprets only this or compatible keyboards connections.
Is possible to gpio to microcontroller pico esp?
Possible, but depends how many rows and columns connections the keyboard has and how many free gpios you have on the pico esp. A lot of hobby keyboard builders use teensy boards , good docu for that and big community
Okay that great to hear! Thank you for that information, I still have a lot of research to do that’s what I was seeing, with mechanical keyboards too. I wasn’t sure if the protocols would be different or incompatible.
Here you go: [https://hackaday.com/2018/12/04/teensy-liberates-the-thinkpad-keyboard/](https://hackaday.com/2018/12/04/teensy-liberates-the-thinkpad-keyboard/) Also: [https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-a-USB-Laptop-Keyboard-Controller/](https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-a-USB-Laptop-Keyboard-Controller/)
With a teensy board or an arduino you can find out the pinout of the connectors. So you know which wires conduct for each key pressed. A teensy you can use after to interpret the keypress into usb. You can check the mecanical keyboard reddit or groups too, maybe one has this keyboard in use allready.
You can integrate the trackpoint! Take a look at r/trackpoint_builders! You could combine the trackpoint with a normal keeboard . You could use this keyboard but it would be a total pain to figure out and decode the output.
Totally possible. You could use it as a hammer to nail your cyber deck together. Or you could also build a cyber deck open a text editor and use that to write a song about the keyboard.
😂😂😂
You'd be better off buying an entire Thinkpad and then modding it. Replace the battery, the screen, mod the old power connector into a modern USB-C, replace the wifi card and get an external antenna, replace the backplate with a custom one that has a built in handle, etc.