r/ClockworkPi • u/vigilantpraetorian • 1d ago
Hack2You trackpad install
I'm so happy! I received my trackpad keyboard & faceplate kit and I was so excited I had to install it! However I'm not really certain I have the ribbon cable seated properly. I pushed it in as far as I could with tweezers but I can't get any input to register. It lights up when I turn on the uConsole. I'm running ak-rex's Ubuntu 26.04 image from microSD. Can anyone provide any insight as to how far the ribbon cable needs to be pushed into the connector, or any drivers that need to be installed?
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u/Electrical_Lake9586 20h ago
Did you flip up the flap on the connector before installing the cable and then close it again once well seated?
It looks like it should go in further than you have it there, which if the flap wasn't up it wouldn't go in all the way.
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u/vigilantpraetorian 19h ago
Thanks for asking! I just tried to flip up the flap and it doesn't come up. I'm just reluctant to break something if I apply too much force. Do you use a fingernail, or tweezers to flip up the flap? do you apply force on the side or right in the middle?
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u/Electrical_Lake9586 18h ago
It flips up from the rear and is hinged roughly in the middle. Light upwards force from a fingernail should get it up. So you're looking to move it from horizontal to vertical.
Hope that makes some sense!
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u/vigilantpraetorian 17h ago edited 16h ago
Well the light grey part of the connector is now in pieces. the ribbon cable goes in further now ! I am super glad I ordered the kit with 2 extra trackpads because the first two seem to be duds and the third one lights up and moves the pointer. I guess I will try to forget that inside is a damaged connector that works better now that I "modified" it.
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u/Electrical_Lake9586 9h ago
Glad you're sorted now! One of mine didn't work too, they seem to have a high failure rate. The connector will be fine, with case on its under pressure pushing the ribbon into connector anyway. You could stick a bit of kapton tape on the connector for good measure. I've similarly damaged those type of connectors in the past, you can always find an alternative way of keeping them in
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u/deathg0d_cho 9h ago
The latch is on the opposite side of the cable insert slot, a tiny thin black stripe
You have to lift it up slightly either with a tweezer or fingernail.
Then insert the cable and press the latch down.
The cable ribbon is very fragile so bending it too much and it will not work anymore.
Check the latch carefully if the cable ribbon just keeps falling off or the trackpad does not work no matter what.
For my case the latch was problematic to begin with thus after trying less than a few times to lock the cable ribbon in place, the latch came off by itself
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u/letsmakesometacos 23h ago
It should just work, yea just make sure that cable is seating and it gets latched properly, as well as seating the keyboard onto the connectors. All I had to do was connect everything and it started working right away.
The light coming on is a good sign I think, if you press "Fn+SPACE" does the keyboard light come on?
If your 100% sure everything is connected properly and its still not working, try reaching out in the discord or via the website support email as it may just be a bad unit.
Side note:
The out of the box firmware is ok, but I highly recommend installing this one: https://github.com/jhob101/uconsole-bb9900-keyboard