Nice!Nano and ZMK firmware FAQ
📣 If i will charge both sides (master + slave) at the same while having connected TRRS cable between them, will i break my controllers ?
YES. Most likely you will toast your controllers. I highly recommend AVOID having TRRS cable connected between halves while charging both at the same time. In the build service i always socket your controllers. This means you can easily swap the broken one with new one, without having to buy a full keyboard/build service.
📣 What solder iron temperature should i use to solder Nice!Nano ?
Avoid using non-regulated temperature irons, otherwise you risk to damage the controller or reduce it’s working life.
Recommended Soldering Iron Temperature when soldering is 240 Celsius (464 Fahrenheit).
Controllers are heat sensible and fragile components, please handle with care.
⚠️When soldering the nice!nano, avoid using high iron temperatures, as you could damage the main nRF52840 chip. A temperature around 270°C-300°C should be hot enough. The higher the temperature, the more likely you are to damage the board.⚠️
📣 Will Nice!Nano work with Rechargeable Li-Po Battery ?
Yes, it will work. The 110mah is perfect as it can stay underneath the controller using controller sockets and mill max pins making a clean and minimal look.
📣 How do i solder 110mah Rechargeable Li-Po Battery to the Nice!Nano ?
On nice!nano there are 2 pins: B+ and B-
On the battery there are 2 wires coming out: positive Red wire (3.7v) and negative Black wire (GND).
Red Wire should be soldered to B+ pin on nice!nano and Black Wire should be soldered on B- on nice!nano.
📣 How much the 110mah Rechargeable Li-Po Battery using with Nice!Nano will last without having to recharge ?
Depends on many factors and variables, but on average, in my experience, it lasts about 5-7 days using it around 8h/day without having to recharge. Here is the ZMK power profiler. You can simulate and have an idea of the battery autonomy. The battery on slave side will last more time than on the master side, as it consumes less charge.
📣 My split keyboard doesn’t have turn on/off power footprint on the PCB. What can i do about it ?
Lily58 Pro, Sofle, Chocofi, Corne and Cantor PCBs sold on kriscables.com are original designs, which were not designed with an integrated footprint for a turn on/off power switch.
By default, ZMK firmware sets deep sleep where battery drain is very slow after 15mins of idle. The power draw on nice!nano v2 during deep sleep is around 20uA, which is about 1mAh every 2 days.
More on power management here: https://zmk.dev/docs/behaviors/power
If you will travel and want to keep the keyboard in deep sleep, without worrying if any key will be accidentally pressed, waking it up, in the bag, you can use ZMK’s Soft Off Feature. By defining a key combination in ZMK you’ll be able to turn the keyboard keypresses on/off. Please check more on that in ZMK documentation.
Additionally you can handwire a physical on/off switch if you want to completely cut the power source from the battery to the keyboard.
📣 Can i use my keyboard wired while it is charging the Battery ?
Yes, you can.
📣 How much does it take to charge the 110mah Rechargeable Li-Po Battery with Nice!Nano ?
It takes about 1-2 hours to fully charge the 110mah Rechargeable Li-Po Battery.
Battery charging time ( hours ) = Battery capacity ( in Ah ) / Current supplied ( in A )
Li-Po Battery capacity: 110 mAh = 0.11 Ah
Current Supplied by nice!nano = 100 mA = 0.1 A
110 mAh Battery charging time = 1.1 Hours = 0.11 Ah / 0.1 A
📣 Can i use the master half (by default left half) wired and the right wireless (having a battery connected to the (slave) right half), avoiding this way to have an TRRS cable in the middle ?
Yes, you can have and use it that way. The slave half connects to the master half wirelessly and OS sees it as one wired keyboard.
📣 Can i use Nice!Nano wired with USB-C cable and TRRS, without any battery ?
Yes, you can. You can use a split keyboard with nice!nano wired, having a battery soldered to nice!nano or not. Works in both cases.
📣 How to connect my keyboard with Nice!Nano (or SuperMini NRF52840) Controllers to my host device (PC/MAC/Android etc) wirelessly?
If your keyboard’s controllers came already pre-flashed with the default ZMK keymap/firmware – i suggest to connect both controllers to a charging cable and charge the batteries, because most probably during shipping they drained all the power.
After that, open Bluetooth settings of your host device (PC/mac/iphone/android etc) and add bluetooth device. Your keyboard should appear in the list (for example: Lily58, Sofle, Cradio for Ferris Sweep, Corne for Corne and Chocofi etc).
After connecting your keyboard to the host, wait about 30 seconds for it to register the connection properly and you’ll be ready to use it wirelessly.
📣 How to compile my ZMK Firmware and Flash Nice!Nano (or SuperMini NRF52840) Controllers ?
Here is a step by step guide on how to compile ZMK firmware and flash nice!nano or supermini nrf52840 controllers.
📣 My keyboard with Nice!Nano does appear in the BT list to be connected to my host (PC), but the connection is not successful or it just doesn’t connect.
Try to clear the BT Profiles on the keyboard. More info about this here
For example on Lily58 Pro you need to click Lower layer + ESC, as you can check on the default keymap:
📣 When using wirelessly my keyboard (with Nice!Nanos) slave half doesn’t connect to the master half. What should i do ?
First suggestion is to press reset button on both keyboard halves (press and release one time only) at the same time.
Another thing to check is the battery charge and try to charge it first.
If that didn’t worked, then try this: Build Reset UF2
📣 I still have some doubts. Where can i get more info on ZMK and Nice!Nano ?
- Nice!Nano Documentation
- ZMK Documentation
- Nice!Nano Discord community
- ZMK Discord community
📣 How do i install nice!view screens on my keyboard ?
nice!view installation documentation
Using an existing OLED compatible shield (Ex. Lily58 Pro, Corne Cherry V3, Corne Choc, Sofle V2, Chocofi etc)
- Solder 4 headers into the MOSI, SCK, VCC and GND pins of the n!v.⚠️ Leave CS pin unsoldered.
- Solder the 4 pin Oled Socket into your keyboard.
- Create a bodge wire from the CS pin to the Arduino Digital 1 (D1) Pro Micro pin (P0.06/006 on the nice!nano)
- If the D1 pin is unavailable, you’ll need to override the cs-gpios on the adapter or define your own &nice_view_spi bus without the nice_view_adapter.
- Insert the header into the socket
Using a nice!view native compatible shield
- Solder the 5 pin socket to your shield
- Solder the 5 pin header to the nice!view
- Insert the header into the socket
📣 How do i turn on nice!view screens on my keyboard ?
Add to your_keyboard/build.yaml file:
shield: corne_left nice_view_adapter nice_view shield: corne_right nice_view_adapter nice_view
For example: https://github.com/kriscables/zmk-config-lily58/blob/master/build.yaml
Note: comment back the flags in your_keyboard/keyboard.conf file if you had an oled screen previously, otherwise the firmware won’t compile
# CONFIG_ZMK_DISPLAY=y # CONFIG_ZMK_RGB_UNDERGLOW=y # CONFIG_WS2812_STRIP=y # CONFIG_ZMK_RGB_UNDERGLOW_EXT_POWER=n
📣 Just received my Split keyboard with your Build Service and Oled Screens are not on. Why ? How do i turn them on ?
Oled Screens are off to save from draining your battery during shipping. They can be activated via ZMK anytime.
# Do this in your "your_keyboard_name".conf file # Uncomment (remove #) the following line to enable the OLED Display # CONFIG_ZMK_DISPLAY=y
Also make sure in your build.yaml file you have the following, as for example for the lily58:
include:
- board: nice_nano_v2
shield: lily58_left
- board: nice_nano_v2
shield: lily58_right
ZMK is still very young firmware with many extra fancy functions like Oled Screens and Rotary Encoders are still in developing process and work partially, sometimes with unexpected results. https://zmk.dev/docs/features/displays
📣 My nice!views still don’t turn on. What to do ?
Add at the top of your keymap file:
#include <dt-bindings/zmk/ext_power.h>
Define a key in your keymap to toggle the external power:
&ext_power EP_TOG
compile and flash your controller with the new keymap. Toggle external power on/off and your nice!views should turn on/off.
More info on that, check ZMK firmware: https://zmk.dev/docs/keymaps/behaviors/power
📣 After deep sleep my Oled Screens don’t turn back on. How can i fix this ?
You probably have turned off external power: https://zmk.dev/docs/behaviors/power/ You’d want to turn it back on, but displays may not turn on due to a known ZMK issue. In that case you’d want to wait one minute for the setting to persist to storage, then turn off and on your two sides.