A BMW shifter turned into a Bluetooth keyboard #CANbus #Keyboards @tenderlove

Aaron Patterson has built a very novel keyboard: the Initial V. Initial V is a Bluetooth Keyboard specialized for controlling Vim. The key presses sent depend on Vim’s state.

Initial V is a BMW shifter that has been converted to a Bluetooth keyboard. In his GitHub repository are schematics and PCB designs, 3D printing stl filesa Vim plugin, and client software for turning a BMW shifter in to a Bluetooth keyboard that can control Vim.

Think of this project as a very over-engineered Vim clutch.

The BMW handle communicates via CAN bus. The PCB uses an ESP-MINI-1 chip with Bluetooth capabilities, and an SN65HVD230D for CAN bus communication. The handle runs on 12v, a MPM3610GQV buck converter was used to step the voltage down to 3.3v for the ESP.

See more on GitHub.


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