Noppoo Choc Mini doesn’t work on OS X El Capitan

paulo paniago

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Oct 4, 2015, 4:20:49 AM10/4/15

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Hello folks, can somebody help?

I can’t use my Noppoo Choc Mini keyboard with mac OS X El Capitan (version 10.11).

I’ve been using Plover on my MacBook with this keyboard and it was working fine with OS X Yosemite before. All I had to do to make my Mac recognize correctly the keyboard was do install a driver from Github developed by Andrew Childs:

https://github.com/thefloweringash/iousbhiddriver-descriptor-override

driver to make Noppoo Choc work on Yosemite

https://github.com/thefloweringash

Andrew Childs page

Unfortunately, after I updated Yosemite to Apple’s just released El Capitan, my keyboard is not working anymore. I believe I can still use the Noppoo Choc Mini with El Capitan doing a USB to PS/2 to USB workaround:

In an explanation from deskthority:

“The Noppoo doesn't work on Mac over USB because of some of the tricks it plays to get NKRO. However, the PS/2 layer works fine with Mac. Since standard Mac hardware doesn't have a PS/2 port, this means converting USB to PS/2 and then back to USB.”

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Noppoo_Choc_Mini

for an illustration:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/NKRO-over-USB_issues

Although it might be a permanent solution, it doesn’t seem an elegant one to me, and I would sure prefer to connect the keyboard directly do my MacBook.

Does anyone know how to contact Andrew Childs from the Github to ask him to make an update of his driver? Or does someone know how to make his driver recognizable to OS X El Capitan?

paulo paniago

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Oct 4, 2015, 7:53:37 PM10/4/15

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By the way,

I finally learned to re-install Yosemite. It was a bad experience and an up graded operational system would have little utility for me without Plover.

But the good side is that I learned the lesson. Now I have two partitions in my Mac. One for my current version, that’s working for me, and the other, a bootable section do try those different “exciting” news”.

But I am still interested in trying to send a message to Andrew Childs. If anybody knows how could I do that… I guess he would like to know that his driver has much more application then enabling a keyboard for games.

Theodore Morin

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Oct 4, 2015, 8:05:02 PM10/4/15

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You can submit a GitHub issue on that repo to let the guy know about your problems with upgrading to EC

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paulo paniago

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Oct 4, 2015, 8:20:29 PM10/4/15

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Hi Ted, thanks for the reply.

I guess that is a good idea. I will search how to post an issue on Github and than I’ll let you know how things had gone.

paulo paniago

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Oct 4, 2015, 9:28:12 PM10/4/15

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Hello Ted, here is the message I send at Github,

Topic:

"Doesn’t work on El Capitan"

Comment:

"I tested with two MacBooks - white and pro - with and without Plover (an open source stenography program). The Noppoo Choc is one of the few gaming keyboards that can emulate a Steno Machine through usb – VERY IMPORTANT DRIVER"

https://github.com/thefloweringash/iousbhiddriver-descriptor-override/issues/23

paulo paniago

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Oct 12, 2015, 8:13:32 PM10/12/15

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Hello;

I want to add here that I brought the USB – PS/2 – USB connectors to do the above workaround, but unfortunately it didn’t made any difference: the Noppoo Choc Mini is still giving wrong outputs.

I thought that, since it was a hardware solution, it would also be a definitive one. But, in fact, it seems that it is still a software problem.

Even thought I’m not attracted to putting all those connectors to my keyboard, I got pretty upset with this because; if in the future, they made the system even more incompatible with the keyboard, and if I wasn’t able to continue with Yosemite, I would have the possibility of using that workaround as a last measure.

Since n-key rollover keyboards are so hard to get in Brazil and the Mac OS is the only system now that works with Plover program adapted to my Portuguese dictionary, I’m dependent on fundamentally incompatible equipments (luckily I still have my Sidewinder as a back up thought).

Andrew Childs have already said he is working on it and I believe he will be effective upgrading this driver to El Capitan. But, I’m still uncomfortable about this situation – related to the long-term viability of my steno skills.

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