pxlfvr's stock-based firmware with a better trackball
A modified build of ClockworkPi's own Arduino firmware: QMK-like trackball smoothing and Select + ball scrolling without QMK's USB power quirks.
What it takes
- Firmware flash
Difficulty 2 of 3 — moderate.
Details
pxlfvr (tweiss283 on GitHub) kept the stock Arduino sketch and tuned the trackball's sensitivity and smoothing to feel like the QMK port, restored Select + trackball scrolling in place of the Fn-based mode and kept the stock firmware's power behaviour. It flashes with ClockworkPi's own tool: sudo ./maple_upload ttyACM0 2 1EAF:0003 <firmware>.ino.bin. Unofficial and at your own risk, as the README says.
If all you want is a remapped key rather than new firmware, WhyDev's thread ended up using the keyd daemon (X11 and Wayland) to swap Alt and Super, with Select + ball scrolling coming from a firmware update.
Links
Open at Forum thread- GitHubRepository
- Forum: remapping keys with keyd insteadForum
Related mods
Open-source QMK port of the keyboard firmware: Select + ball scrolls, Fn + G game mode, precision mode, tap-hold keys and a web tester, flashed over USB.
A clean rewrite of the stock keyboard firmware on STM32 HAL: ten switchable layers, a better trackball curve with inertia, Fn lock and auto-dimming backlight.
ClockworkPi's flash tool updates the keyboard's STM32 over the internal USB with dfu-util, no disassembly; the UART route and the S1 pads recover a bricked one.
SuperMarioSF's xinput middle-button emulation turned the ball into a scroll wheel; ClockworkPi then built Fn + ball scrolling into the stock firmware.
Swap the stock ball for a white BlackBerry ball, the ball from a Pimoroni breakout or a fresh EVQWJN007 module — the usual first fix for a jumpy trackball.
beams' guide revives dead trackballs by roughing the ball on 120-grit paper or fitting a 5.5 mm glass ball, with a printed shim to stop the module rattling.