uConsole trackpad instead of the trackball: keyboard swap in 8 minutes
The trackball is the part of the uConsole that owners complain about most. It sticks, it skips, it moves in one direction and stalls in the other. After a few days some people give up and pair a Bluetooth mouse. The LuLu kit replaces the keyboard board and the front plate with a version built around the optical trackpad from the BlackBerry 9900: you steer the cursor with your thumb like on a phone, and pressing the trackpad is a click.
We filmed the swap: eight steps, one screwdriver, eight minutes. Below is the video, the same steps written out and a few things that come in handy after the swap.
- Why the uConsole trackball is annoying
- What is in the LuLu kit and what changes
- Before you start
- Installation step by step
- After the swap: shortcuts and ZMK firmware
- What to watch out for
- Frequently asked questions
Why the uConsole trackball is annoying
The stock trackball is a ball in a socket with sensors. The factory grease is sticky, the ball picks up dirt, and the sensors lose track of the movement. The ClockworkPi forum has separate threads about it: how to get the trackball to work reliably, stuck trackball fix and the Optical trackpad thread, where one user writes that they tried ten balls from three vendors and none of them worked well.
The workarounds going around the forum: taking the module apart and cleaning the ball and the rollers, roughening the ball with sandpaper, the alternative QMK firmware, pressing the ball harder, or waiting three days for the grease to wear off. It helps some people and not others. Every one of these methods leaves the same ball in the device.
An optical trackpad has no moving parts. The sensor reads the movement of your thumb across the glass, exactly as it did in the BlackBerry Bold 9900 this module comes from. There is no ball, so there is nothing to clean.
What is in the LuLu kit and what changes
The kit was designed by LuLu and goes by "lulu's trackpad keyboard kit" on the ClockworkPi forum. The firmware comes from ZitaoTech's BB9900 keyboard, ported to the uConsole. We sell the complete kit as board V2.1.1 with front plate V2.0, the combination the maker recommends.
- Keyboard board V2.1.1 - Nordic nRF52840 microcontroller and MIT-licensed ZMK firmware. Each switch has its key label printed next to it, visible in the step 2 frame. The switches need noticeably less force and are quieter than the stock keyboard.
- Two BB9900 trackpads - you fit one, the other stays in the box as a spare.
- Aluminium front plate - CNC-milled, anodised, with a ready square cut-out for the trackpad. Black or silver, to match the case.
The keys stay yours: you move the rubber key mat from the old board to the new one. You do not touch the mainboard, the display, the compute module or the expansion boards.
Before you start
- A precision screwdriver for the plate screws, the same one you assembled the uConsole with.
- The uConsole switched off. The back cover and the battery stay in place, you do everything from the front.
- Eight minutes. That is how long the swap took in the video, including moving the key mat over.
Installation step by step
- Unscrew the plate. The screws of the front keyboard plate come out from the front. Keep them together, you will need them when closing up.
- Lift off the plate and the key mat. Lift the plate straight up. The keys are a single rubber mat together with the D-pad and the buttons, so it comes off in one piece.
- Take out the trackball. Pull the ball module straight up with your fingers. This part is retired for good.
- Take out the old keyboard board. There is no cable to unplug. The board connects to the mainboard through contacts on its underside and lifts straight out.
- Fit the new board. Same orientation as the old one, contacts facing the mainboard. Press it down evenly until it sits flat.
- Connect the trackpad. The module hangs on a short ribbon cable. Slide the ribbon into the connector next to the trackpad opening and seat the module in its recess. Do not crease the ribbon.
- Put the key mat and the plate back on. Lay the rubber mat on the new board so that each key lands on its switch and the cut-out in the mat lands on the trackpad. Then the plate.
- Screw the plate down. Same screws, no force. Switch the uConsole on: the system sees an ordinary USB keyboard and mouse, nothing to install.
Steps 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 from our video. The whole swap is in the video at the top of the page.
After the swap: shortcuts and ZMK firmware
You steer the cursor with your thumb across the trackpad glass, and pressing it is a click. It works straight away in ClockworkOS, Kali Linux and Raspberry Pi OS, because to the system it is a USB keyboard and mouse.
- Volume: LFn together with the up or down arrow.
- A, B, X, Y send F21-F24. Map them to whatever you want in the system, for example with evdev or keyd, without touching the firmware.
- Your own key layout: the firmware is ZMK. Fork the uc9900 repository on GitHub, edit the keymap file, and GitHub Actions builds the UF2 file with no compiler on your computer. The RFn + \| shortcut puts the keyboard into the bootloader, it shows up as a USB drive and you copy the UF2 onto it. Key codes and behaviours are described in the ZMK documentation.
- Bluetooth: the firmware has BLE profiles, but they are inactive while the keyboard is connected to the uConsole over USB. There is nothing to set up here in the uConsole.
What to watch out for
- The trackpad ribbon. Short and thin. Slide it straight into the connector, without force. The second trackpad in the box is there in case something does go wrong.
- The stock front plate. It has a round hole for the ball, and the trackpad is square. The first versions of the kit expected you to file the original plate using a template. Version V2 does away with that, which is why the kit includes a plate with the cut-out already made.
- Colour. The silver plate matches the shade of the original silver uConsole case, the black one matches the black. The board and the trackpads are identical in both versions.
Frequently asked questions
Does it fit every uConsole?
Yes, both the CM4 and CM5 versions, including units with expansion boards such as the AIO V2. You only replace the keyboard board and the front plate, everything else stays.
Do I need to solder or install drivers?
No. A screwdriver is enough, and the system sees a USB keyboard and mouse without any drivers.
Are the keys new?
You move the rubber key mat over from the old keyboard. What is new are the switches on the board, lighter and quieter than the stock ones.
What happens to the stock plate and the ball?
They go in a drawer. The trackpad needs a square opening, which the new plate already has.
Can I change the key layout?
Yes. You remap the A, B, X, Y buttons in the system, and you change the full layout in the ZMK firmware and flash it over USB.
Why two trackpads in the kit?
The keyboard uses one. The second is a spare in case the ribbon gets damaged during installation or wears out after years of use.
What next
The kit in both colours is here: uConsole Trackpad Keyboard. If you are opening the uConsole up further anyway, read how to add an NVMe drive (we have the uConsole NVMe Expansion board in stock) and which OS to put on the CM5. The rest of the uConsole add-ons are in the ClockworkPi collection.