Microsoft Sculpt Mobile

This is a way to take a Microsoft ergonomic bluetooth keyboard, and make it into a hard-wired keyboard running QMK.

The keyboard is known under several different names: Mobile Bluetooth 5000, Mobile 6000, Sculpt mobile, and Asus rebranded.

I had a stack of them, since they're cheap on ebay, travel well, and are just ergo enough.

The ribbon cable is 1mm pitch, which is hard to hand solder. I bought a cheap set of "pitch adapter" boards https://www.amazon.com/Double-Sided-0-4mm-1-0-Adapter-60mmx38mm/dp/B00OK42118

Cut the original ribbon cable sockets off the bluetooth board using a razor, they're hard to desolder. They're also allow the cable to be inserted on top or bottom.

If I was going to do it again, I'd make the MCU connection come out the top of the keyboard and avoid the wires dangling out the bottom.

As I was debugging the matrix, I started to get random failures. In desparation I tried a second MCU, but had the same problems. It turns out that the ribbon cable connections can get worn. Shave a half millimeter off the end of the ribbon cable & the errors go away.

My method for discovering the matrix was to set up a LAYOUT macro that included all pins. See MATRIX_TESTING_LAYOUT if you need it. Then set up a keymap that has all printable symbols in the first 4 rows. test each key & record output. Then switch the printable symbols to the bottom 4 rows & repeat. This was enough to show the matrix.

The full original keymap for the Sculpt is

| | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | |:-:|:--:|:--:|:--:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:----:|:----:|:----:|:-----:|:----:|:------:|:----:|:-----:|:----:|:------:|:----:|:---:| | 0 | b | n | m | , | . | / | | | | Caps | | | | | | | | Fn | | 1 | g | h | " | | | | | | | | Vol+ | Mute | RCtl | | Vol- | PgDn | LCtl | | | 2 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Del | | PgUp | | | | | RShift | | | | LShift | | | | 3 | p | [ | ] | \ | | | | | | | RAlt | | | | LAlt | | | | | 4 | y | u | i | o | | | | | | | | | | LGUI | | | | | | 5 | ~ | - | += | j | k | l | ; | 5 | 6 | Bksp | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F4 | F5 | F6 | | | 6 | a | s | d | q | w | e | Up | Left | Down | Right | | | | Space | F1 | F2 | F3 | Tab | | 7 | F7 | F8 | F9 | F10 | F11 | F12 | | f | r | t | z | x | c | | v | Enter | Esc | |

This works with 18 cols + 8 rows on a Teensy++, or ARM-based Teensy.

The Astar mini has all pins exposed , so you can do 18x8 If you want a speaker, LEDs, etc., you'll need to free up a pin. I recommend joining columns R and L to the same pin.

Building - add ASTAR=1 to the compile line or leave out for teensy2++

Make example for this keyboard (after setting up your build environment):

make handwired/ms_sculpt_mobile:default

See the build environment setup and the make instructions for more information. Brand new to QMK? Start with our Complete Newbs Guide.