+++
title = "Replacing xx30 chicklet keyboard with the classic xx20"
date = 2019-08-26

[taxonomies]
categories = ["ThinkPad", "Hardware"]
+++

Starting with the 30 series, ThinkPads - among other things - got a new "modernized" keyboard. As You might have guessed, I do not like it. Do not take me wrong, it is not a bad keyboard, but when compared to the older model, it has a plethora of issues. 

Interesting references:

- [My old talk about ThinkPad modding at LinuxDays in Prague](https://invidio.us/watch?v=60o5ZVQCPcw) (Czech)
- [My updated talk presented in 2019](#) (Czech)

---

## Things wrong with the new keyboard

![Keyboard comparison](comparison.jpg)
*New keyboard on the left, classic keyboard on the right*

The main difference is that the new keyboard has very different "island" keys, or "chicklet" as they call it. The keys are all reparated from each other and form "islands", hence "island-style" keyboard. Those new keys have less travel distance than the old keys.

The worst chnage, in my opinion, is the new layout. Look at the *Delete, Home, Pg\*, End* area on the old keyboard and compare it to the new layout. It has disappeared completely and is now a single row. I am unable to hit the correct keys whilst not looking at the keyboard.

Also, where are my multimedia Fn keys?! Why on Earth would Lenovo decide to move them to the F row?

Actually, some of the new keyboards have backlight. Few people I know quite like this feature, but I prefer the ThinkLight. Fun fact - the 30 series are the only ThinkPads which have both keyboard backlight and ThinkLight.

## Sourcing the keyboard

If you have an older ThinkPad (xx10 or xx20) you can take the keyboard out of that. Otherwise you will have to buy a spare. There are three classic keyboard manufacturers: NMB, Alps and Chicony.

Every keyboard has it's *FRU* - a serial number if you will. It tells you which manufacturer made the keyboard and what layout it has. As I only use ANSI, I go by this table:

Manufacturer|Country|FRU
-|-|-
NMB|Japan|45N2211
Alps|Korea|45N2070
Chicony|China|45N2141

For a ful llist of all FRUs refer to the [Lenovo support site](https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/hr/en/solutions/pd010629).

### Comparing manufacturers

I have tried using keyboards from all three manufacturers and I can safely say that you want to buy NMB. You will have to take my word for it, but this opinion is shared among many people I discussed this with.

Alps is just a mushy mess with no tactile feeling and poor quality. Chicony is fine, but their keyboards are inconsistent and you can end up with a well-feeling piece or a crappy one. NMB has by far the best feeling and build quality. You can even tell by looking at the keys side-by-side. The main difference are the switches:

![Keyboard switches](switches.png)
*From top to bottom: NMB, Chicony, Alps. NMB can be easily recognised by the red rubber domes.*

### Fake keyboards

There have been some "fake" keyboards appearing on eBay. They have weird coating which comes off after rubbing the keys.

![Fake keyboard keys](fake-keyboard.jpg)

- [Video 0](fake-keyboard-00.mp4)
- [Video 1](fake-keyboard-01.mp4)

Videos and images above are sourced from [@kirbychan](https://telegram.me/kirbychan). As he had said:

> I guess it's more of a bait, or some refurbished shit which went wrong and somehow ended up coating the keys with kensur chinks plastic.

Some fake keyboards have a really low quality switches and the printed letters are misaligned. You can tell that you have a fake keyboard by looking at the middle trackpoint button blue points, which are smaller on the fake.

![Comparison of fake trackpoint button](fake-comparison-button.jpg)

The trackpoint dome is also placed below the actual keys on the fake keyboard and therefore is pretty unusable.

![Comparison of fake trackpoint dome](fake-comparison-trackpoint.jpg)

List of confirmed sellers selling fakes:

- Shop3905046 (AliExpress)
- nuflower2009 (eBay)

I have no idea how to avoid these completely except buying used NMB boards.

### Buying keyboards

It is pretty hard to find anything but crappy chinese models. Lenovo even rebranded some Chicony keyboards to *45N2211* (NMB). There are no new NMB keyboards in my experience and I have to buy boards taken out of broken machines.

Look for listings that do not have the generic picture as any other seller, always check the picture for the correct FRU and **Always send a message to the seller asking about the FRU**! That is unless you want Chicony, then go for anything you find really. This goes for both eBay and AliExpress.

## Isolating backlight power

If you do not want your keyboard to start burning, it is necessary to isolate pins which deviler high current to the backlight on the modern keyboards. Since the old keyboard does not have backlight, it will overheat and it sometimes starts to melt. If you are lucky, it will burn in a way which disconnects the pins, but I am not willing to risk that.

![Flex cable folded](flex-folded.jpg)

Disassemble the part holding the cable in place. It is a tight fit, so be careful not to tear anything and do not lose any screws. Pull out the cable sandwich from there. It is necessary to isolate pins *25* and *29* according to a [shematic](#) found on [our favourite forum](https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=121522).

I used a piece of electrical tape and covered pins *25*, *27* and *29* - three pins next to each other. Pin *27* is a redundant ground connection, so covering it does not hurt anything and it makes it easier to isolate the others.

![Flex cable isolated](flex-isolated.jpg)

Put it back together and tighten the asembly back. Make sure you have a good quality tape, because cheap tape tends to slide around during reassembly. Also make sure that you did not cover the neighbouring pins, which will cause the middle trackpoint button not to function. The same may be caused by a thick tape as well.

## Swaping the keyboard

There is a difference in thickness of the front mounting pins. Since the X230 and T430 have different keyboard mounting methods, this section is split for both machines respectively.

![Keyboard pins](keyboard-nubs-compared.jpg)
*Image sourced from [ThinkWiki](https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/File:T410keyboardnubs.jpg)*

The new and old keyboards both use the same motherboard connector, so no modification is necessary there. Be careful though when pulling the connector out of the motherboard - The cable likes to tear! I suggest pulling it by the part shown by the green arrow, not at the red cross.

![Where to pull the cable](keyboard-cable.jpg)

### T430

The T430 has the keyboard secured in the chasis itself and the slots are made for the new keyboard, so a physical modification of the nubs is necessary in order to fit.

![Nub modification](nub-modification.jpg)

I usually take a small dremel and file them down. You will have to get rid of the nub next to the trackpoint keys completely since there is no mounting hole for it. I then paint the filed-down spots with a black permanent marker.

Be careful not to hit any keys, especially the middle trackpoint key. It has two little mounting legs which like to snap off. If you manage to screw it up, take a look at [my article about fixing it](#) (yes, I screwed it up).

You might have read on ThinkWiki that you can buy a palmrest from T420 and swap it in as well. **IT DOES NOT FIT!!!** Do not waste money on this. They recently fixed it on the wiki, but some people still spread this myth.

You might have also read the [Definitive T430 Modding Guide](https://medium.com/@n4ru/the-definitive-t430-modding-guide-3dff3f6a8e2e) where George Kushnir suggests this:

> While most guides will point you towards either taking a dremel to the nubs or replacing the palmrest, you can actually place the keyboard under the palmrest, omit the two screws next to the touchpad, and simply drop in the keyboard and palmrest assembly together for a near perfect fit.

What the fuck?! Just do it properly and avoid this shitty advice. He even mentions the palmrest swap.

### X230

Unlike the T430, you will have to buy a spare palmrest for X220. These two can be swapped and are necessary for a perfect fit. The keyboard does not mount into slots on the chasis, but instead is held only by the palmrest. In case you do not want to buy a new palmrest, you can cut larger holes in the X230 palmrest or file down the nubs as if you would with the T430.

You can either buy an original Lenovo palmrest with propper isolation and other things or you can buy a chinese clone. I must say that the chinese did a nice job with these, but if you want quality, go for the better albeit pricey original.

## Flashing EC firmware

Lenovo changed not only the physical layout, but the software keymap as well. Thanks to this many *Fn* combos are not working properly. This can be fixed by flashing a custom EC firmware with a modified keymap. This is not BIOS flashing as many suggest.

If you would like to know more about this, watch a [talk by Hamish Coleman](https://invidio.us/watch?v=Fzmm87oVQ6c) about how he reverse-engineered the firmware and the keymap. I will not go in-depth about this here.

There are several approaches to flashing the EC firmware, such as using an external flasher and writing directly to the EEPROM. There is a simple method though - booting a premade DOS-based flash tool with the modified firmware. This approach is reccomended by Coleman as well.

### Creating a bootable USB stick

This guide is a rewrite of the [official instructions](://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec#step-by-step-instructions).

Install required libraries.

`emerge -av ...`

Clone the source code.

`git clone https://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec`

Chnage the working directory to the cloned repository.

`cd thinkpad-ec`

Show the list of laptops and USB image file names.

`make list_laptops`

Choose your laptop model from the list, eg. *patched.x230.img* for the X230 and build the patched image.

`make patched.x230.img`

Insert your USB flash drive and determine it's name in the system.

`lsblk -d`

Write the patched image to your flash drive. **This will erase everything on the storage device!**

`dd if=patched.x230.img of=/dev/sdx`

If you mess up the disk names, you will rewrite a different storage device, perhaps even your system! You have been warned.


### Flashing the firmware

First make sure that you have your battery charged and that you have AC pluged in. It will refuse to flash new firmware otherwise.

Reboot your machine and select to boot from USB. My machine refuses to boot with some cheap USB sticks, so try several if you experience this.

You should boot into the DOS flashing utility. just follow the instructions. After it does the flash and reboots, you can boot into your system again. Test the patch by trying to invoke any *Fn* combo such as *Fn+Space* to toggle the ThinkLight.

## Conclusion

![Finished project](finished.jpg)

There you have it, a working classic keyboard on your 30 series ThinkPad. Only thing not working now is the green *CapsLock* LED. Fixing that in software is, according to Coleman, pretty complicated, if not impossible. I have a Caps indicator in my statusbar, so this does not really bother me that much. I will perhaps write about a hardware hack on how to get this working, so stand-by for updates.
