vekkt0r / novatools Goto Github PK

Hi Adam,

I want to thank you for your amazing research on the NovaTouch keyboard. A while ago, I bought a broken NovaTouch from a friend. It wasn't being detected through USB and the MSP430 was getting really hot. Having no experience whatsoever with SMD soldering and only a little in electronics, I was kind of afraid to get started but I figured what the hell, it's already broken. I ordered a new MSP, and after a LOT of bad practices in electronics repair, I managed to get the old chip off, and the new chip on, using hot air soldering and soldering paste.

Then came the scary moment. I connected the NovaTouch to my PC in BSL mode. And it was recognized! I found the original firmware files in one of the forks of this repository and flashed it onto the MSP using your Makefiles. The keyboard was recognized by the computer, but none of the keys seemed to be working properly. Repeatedly pressing a key resulted in one getting "stuck", it'd send a load of keystrokes to the PC, but I still had hope, since the keystrokes did match the keys. A few days later I had some spare time and got back to the board. I resoldered some of the connections to the MSP and the connections to the Topre chip. I used some medical alcohol to clean the board and assembled the keyboard. And boy did it work! I owe this success story to you for the most part, so thanks a lot!

Hi, and - thanks for doing this! a non-programmable Topre keyboard is a blasphemy, no more, no less :) 👍

Could you tell me if I can flash the keyboard using this device: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Advanced-MSP430-BSL-USB-programmer-download-Adapter-USB-Port/32671993072.html ? (or, perhaps, point me to another source) Thanks!