Power Reporting to PopOs on a nice_nano v2 Macropad

[pulsar gyro]

Hey everyone! I am trying to get my custom Macropad to report the battery power. I'd like to see the power in PopOs power menu, or by doing upower from the terminal. I am using a nice_nano v2 and running PopOs (fairly similar to Ubuntu).

Following this https://zmk.dev/docs/config/battery I have added CONFIG_ZMK_BLE=y to my conf file. Here is my complete .conf File https://pastebin.com/9QYG7rUu.

According to https://zmk.dev/docs/features/battery I have to enable a sensor by adding it to my .dts file. I dont have a .dts since i couldnt get it to work with it. Pretty much all my configuration is in my .overlay here https://pastebin.com/EmNhtsRg.

A few points that might help you help me:

• I am fairly inexperienced using git, and couldnt really get the zmk-config route to work.
• I cloned the zmk Repo, added my board as a folder there and am builindg locally using the west commands.
• I want to build a custom split keyboard and am using a Macropad as a lil prototype.
• I understood that .dts files are not needed when the keyboard isn't split, so I dont have one but the doc for battery reference the .dts file.
• The Macropad works - It connects to the machine without a problem, the keys/layers work as expected. The Encoder works, it just runs out of power without me noticing haha.

[brazen chasm]

You don't need to do any of this for battery reporting.
The nice_nano_v2 is a board, which you are creating a shield for: https://zmk.dev/docs/faq#what-is-a-board
The board handles the battery reporting: https://github.com/zmkfirmware/zmk/blob/2c50cff891becd70e04152202ee76a1be95089fa/app/boards/arm/nice_nano/nice_nano.dts#L12

You would follow the steps laid out here: https://zmk.dev/docs/development/new-shield

Examining an existing shield in the repo may help: https://github.com/zmkfirmware/zmk/tree/main/app/boards/shields/knob_goblin

You mentioned your eventual goal is to make a split: peripheral battery reporting is still in the works: https://github.com/zmkfirmware/zmk/pull/2045

[pulsar gyro]

That is the guideline I followed, I have created a shield called Marsupad.
The Command I use to build is:
west build -p -b nice_nano_v2 -- -DSHIELD=marsupad
I assume it would bind(?) to this config for the nice_nano_v2 https://github.com/zmkfirmware/zmk/blob/2c50cff891becd70e04152202ee76a1be95089fa/app/boards/arm/nice_nano/nice_nano_v2.dts

But with or without my changes I don't get the power state info into my OS. upower -e Lists only 2 devices:
/org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/mouse_hidpp_battery_0
/org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/DisplayDevice

[pulsar gyro]

The iteration time on my hobby Projects is fairly slow 😄 Maybe that is ready once I have done all the Cad and 3D print work.

[brazen chasm]

Well...best of luck troubleshooting why it doesn't work on your OS/hardware. You might want to try building against that PR to see if it helps.

(Absolutely no sarcasm intended. I'm speaking as someone who just put Fedora on an old laptop only to find out I cannot pair my keyboard to it at all; an apparent regression from Ubuntu 20.04. Different hardware works just fine for others with Fedora, I should point out.)

I don't know how you've got your local git repo setup, but if the zmkfirmware/zmk repo is your origin, you could grab that PR locally with

git fetch origin pull/2045/merge
git checkout FETCH_HEAD

(you can go back to normal with git checkout <name_of_branch>, probably git checkout main)

[pulsar gyro]

Mmh thank you for the encouragement 😄 I dug a very old windows laptop out of the basement, it gets information about the power state so I assume it is something that I'd have to fix on the OS side of things.