Daidai DD Micro User manual

DD Micro
User Guide
V0.1
Daidai

Product Overview
DDMicro is designed with a compact 50% layout. It can provide the similar portability to a 40%
keyboard, with a better user experience from the two extra columns of keys.
The figure below shows the default layout with default key deification. On the top right corner,
there is a Micro USB port for +5V charging and USB wired connection to computer. This port is
marked in black colour in the figure. Besides the Micro USB port is the power switch (marked
with pink colour). You can switch the keyboard On/Off with it, or choose to charge the battery or
not when USB cable is connected.
There are two predefined function keys. They are configured to have special usage when the
keyboard is powered on, and these configurations cannot be customised. The first key on top
row(red key) is ConfigMode key. Connecting USB cable while holding this key can turn the
keyboard switch into configuration mode for changing key definitions. The last key on top
row(purple key) is Bluetooth Band Erase key. Turn on keyboard power while holding this key
can erase Bluetooth paring record and re-enable pairing mode.
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Battery
The default build-in battery is a 1100mAh Lithium-ion rechargeable battery. We strongly
recommend you to use a battery module with safety protecting circuit. In normal usage, the
battery life can be more than 100 hours for each charging cycle.
We strongly recommend you to always turn off the power before you leave the keyboard for long
time. This will help to save the battery life a lot.
When the battery voltage becomes too low, the keyboard will automatically switch off. Please
connect the Micro USB cable to charge the battery. Don’t forget to turn on the power switch
while charging, otherwise the battery will not be connected to power. The keyboard is designed
in dual modes. Connecting USB cable to your computer, the keyboard will switch to USB mode
automatically. If keeping the power switch on, your battery will be charged at the same time. At
anytime, when the USB cable is unplugged, after type a key, the keyboard will switch to
Bluetooth mode and trying to connect the paired device.
Besides the USB port, there is a red LED indicator. It can show the status of USB connection.
When plugged the keyboard with USB connection, the light is dim. When it is charing the
battery, this indicator will switch to bright red. And then the battery is fully charged, it will be
delighted.
2

Keys Layout
Fully considered the customisation possibilities, so DD Micro is designed to support multiple
layout. You could select different mounting plate to setup your preferred layout. Some plate
may support multiple layout even. Here are some most popular layouts we recommended. And
more layout options will be release later.
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Bluetooth Pairing
1. Make sure the battery has not run out. Turn off power switch, and make sure that USB
cable is not plugged.
2. Hold on the most right key top row, and turn on power switch.
3. Turn on Bluetooth searching action on your host device (smartphone/Laptop/PC).
4. Wait for seconds and a device named as “DD Micro” will show up in the list. Select it to
connect.
5. If the device is not visible after 10 second, please re-do step 1-2, and check your
Bluetooth setup in host device.
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Customize your key definition
DD Micro can support up to eight independent key definitions on every key position. They are
organised based on the concept of “Layers”. One collection of every definition of every key is
called “one layer”, and can be enabled by triggering(pressing) a defined key definition. The key
definitions for DD Micro can not only be actual key codes ( characters, symbols, function keys,
etc ), but also simple micro key combinations ( modifier keys + a basic key, for example Control
+ V ).
To customize your key definitions, you need to download DD Micro configuration application
called “DD Conf” and run it on a Windows computer. It does not require installation or any other
support driver. It is released as a simple .zip package. Uncompress it, you will get three files:
•dd_configuration.txt: key definition file. You could change key definitions by simply
modifying this file in text editor, like Notepad.
•ddconf.exe: a command line tool helping you to download dd_configuration.txt content to
your DD Micro keyboard via USB port.
•hidapi.dll: program library file to support ddconf.exe to run.
The file dd_configuration.txt should be written in a predefined structure, otherwise the
configuration tool cannot parse it correctly. This configuration file is case sensitive, which mean
‘a’ and ‘A’ give different result. And this file is parsed based on each line. One line to present a
case description, or a set of key definitions for a keyboard row. Use TAB mark to separate
description segments or the definition for each key position. Here a screenshot shows the
typical content of it.
The first line is always tagged with “ENCODE” which means the keyboard language layout of
this configuration. Currently support “EN” (US standard layout) and “SV” (Swedish layout). This
is marked in red box in the screenshot.
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The blue boxes in the screenshot are layer declarations. They should start with tag “LAYER”
and followed by a number from 0 to 7. Layer 0 is default layer, which means after power on, or
reset layer, DD Micro will switch to this layer.
The lines marked into orange box are key definition lines. Each line refers to a physical row of
keys on DD Micro. Attention that in this file, all possible key positions should be explicitly
defined. It might be not mounted to a dedicated key on you layout setup, but you have still have
to define it in dd_configuration.txt file. This is because the firmware does not know which layout
you have chosen, so you have to always provide a complete setup. If you don’t want to allocate
a key definition to a key position, or you don’t connect the switch to this key, you could just write
three dots (…) to indicate this is an empty position ( No effect when it is triggered or pressed ).
In each line of key definitions, the layer information is not explicitly declared. This means the
closest layer definition before will be inherited. And the row number will be incremented by one
on each new line.
For how to set the definition for each key position, please refer the “Configuration file reserved
tag list” chapter and “What’s more you should know” chapter.
After you prepare a good dd_configuration.exe file, you could follow the steps below to
download it to your DD Micro keyboard:
1.Turn off power switch, and make sure that USB cable is not plugged.
2.Hold the most left key on top row, then connect USB cable to computer. This will switch
DD Micro to configuration mode. In this mode, you cannot use it to input.
3.Double click ddconf.exe to run the download tool, or type in the application name in
Command Line to execute it.
4.Following the instructions shown on your screen, to start the download progress. You
may need another keyboard to help you press any key to continue.
5.The download progress may take about 2-5 seconds, this is based on how many layers
you have. Please wait for a while.
6.After download progress finishes, DD Micro will switch to normal keyboard mode
automatically. Press any key to exit download tool and time to try with your new key
definitions!
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Configuration file reserved tag list
Tag Name
Tag
Comment
Null
…
do nothing
Change layer
FN_?
replace ‘?’ with 0-7
Stick on layer
FN@?
replace ‘?’ with 0-7
Reset to default layer
FN_X
reset to default layer
Alt
ALT
Control
CTRL
Win/Command
WIN
Shift key
SHIFT
Tab key
TAB
Backspace
BS
Delete
DEL
Escape key
ESC
Space
SPACE
white space bar
Enter
ENTER
Up
UP
arrow key ‘↑’
Down
DOWN
arrow key ‘↓’
Left
LEFT
arrow key ‘←’
Right
RIGHT
arrow key ‘→’
Page up
PGUP
Page down
PGDN
Home
HOME
End
END
Insert
INS
Print screen
PTSC
Pause
PAUSE
F1 – F12
F1 – F12
Function key 1-12
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What’s more you should know
•Because the macro key definitions are supported, so the configuration file is case
sensitive. Which means the definition ‘a’ and ‘A’ will give different output. ‘a’ equals press key
‘a’ on ordinary keyboard. And ‘A’ equals press ‘Shift’ and ‘a’ at the same time.
•If you want to type micro key definition with modifier keys, use a character ‘+’ to combine
them. In micro definition, modifier keys should use their short names. You could combine one
or more modifier keys to one character/number/function/arrow key.
▪Short names: C (Control), A(Alt), S(Shift), W(Win/Command)
▪Example: ‘CR+RIGHT’ means press Control, Alt and right arrow keys at the
same time. Modifier keys’ sequence can be shuffled, this equals to ‘AC+RIGHT’.
•With the micro key definitions, you could define symbol keys individually. Which means
you could map number key ‘1’ with symbol key ‘!’ to different key positions. Firmware will help
you to press ‘Shift’ if needed.
•Because the keyboard typing mechanism applied for computer, the modifier key’s state
will be inherited until all keys are released. So please pay extra attention when typing micro
key definitions. We recommend to leave a clean time between typing micro keys and other
keys. You might saw some wrong characters send out while typing micro keys to fast.
▪Example: When typing key definition ’!’, actually DD Micro send out key
combination with ‘1’ and a ‘Shift’ press. If you type ‘a’ before you release key ‘!’,
the ‘Shift’ key will be automatically inherited by your driver, then you will get an ‘A’
instead. So we strongly recommend you to slow down while using micro keys.
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