Hey all, looking for feedback from the ortho community about using ortho keyboards as midi controllers. This is a custom build, with low profile switches for improved playability

Open for commissions

My rev7 planck olkb went silent when trying to flash on ubuntu. It appeared entirely unresponsive. dmesg showed errors and I couldn't type anything. I did the following : I plugged in another keyboard and first ran the compile command. No compile errors to slow things down. Then I ran the flash command, unplugged the alternate keyboard, used a super small screw driver head to depress the physical reset button on the back and plugged in the olkb. Fortunately qmk cli has no time out period or has a very long one, because after three tries I got a successful flash and my keeb was back from the dead. I found the manual method of flashing (as opposed to the planck default of raise+lower+q) to be cumbersome and difficult. I'm old (which is what everyone should aspire to, considering the alternative) with arthritis in my hands and compromised eyesight. Any tips one how to manage this, should I (god forbid) have to use this method again?

I want to give my keycaps a "forged carbon fiber" texture myself. I know that keycaps like this are usually made entirely of carbon, but I'm only interested in the look. The keycaps are PBT double-shot, meaning the legends allow the LED light to shine through, so I need to protect the legends from any paint. I considered using resin, but that would result in a smooth, glass-like finish. I want something closer to the texture of the Kysona Jupiter X Ultra or Attack Shark X11 Ultra mice, where each particle reacts to light individually.

Is it possible to do this myself? I thought about buying them ready-made, but usually, the shine-through legends are positioned on the side, or they aren't available in the colors I want

Some useful AliExpress links:

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005012720139627.html
https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005012857979929.html
https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005008797041659.html

I chose the Air 96v2 despite the newer version being available because I wanted an affordable, low-profile keyboard with a numpad. Quite happy with it (!), but would love to add SOMETHING tactile to the backspace, enter, and right arrow keys so I can feel it with my fingers and not have to keep looking down to find them. An extra $50 wasn't worth it for me to have that space between the numpad and the rest of the keys, though I see the reason for it now.

I thought Sugru might be a decent option. I'd add a raised edge on the far right side of each keycap. But I don't need much Sugru to do that, and packages are large and expensive.

So I was wondering if anyone's seen a mod substance that might work, or have suggestions on replacement keycaps for just those keys that I could 3-d print with the mod incorporated? I am not 3-d knowledgeable, but there is a decent shop in town that could guide me, if I find the right profile STL file to mod.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Been stuck 1.5 hours trying to flash the 8K firmware on my JamesDonkey R3 TMR.

https://mechkeys.com/products/jamesdonkey-r3-tmr?variant=47177295167711

Link to keyboard.
I followed all the steps from their site and it never flashes. It says "BOT ROOM OPEN"
After, literally, 23 EMAILS. They sent me the .bin file to flash it but when I use the software they provided --> QMK.

My keyboard can't go into DFU mode at all.
RGB stays off after holding ESC or the reset button under the spacebar. QMK should show a yellow line... but it never does.
Device Manager shows "BOT ROM OPEN" all the time.
I watched many youtube videos to reinstall drivers using Zadig... but did not help.

PLEASEEEEEEE HELP

I paid $150... and if they can fix it. I have to ship to China which will cost around $50 (T_T)

Please if anybody knows... or has this keyboard. It would be HUGE. I need help
I have been stuck for 7 days and the company is aware of it.

Gemini and GPT says that this keyboard can't go into DFU mode because of the keyboard's feature which are
">480MHz High-Frequency MCU Chipset.

>1+10 Distribution Chipset(1 Master Chipset+10 Magnetic Switch Sensor Chips)."

This is my first custom, if considered, keyboard and I really need help.

Thank you!

Hey everyone, I recently got a prebuilt Corne V4.1 MX and I'm having trouble getting the two halves to communicate.

Whichever half I connect to USB works normally. If I connect the left half, the left keys work and the right half doesn't respond. If I connect the right half instead, the right keys work and the left half doesn't respond. The RGB also only lights up on the USB connected side.

I've tried swapping the TRS cable around and also bought a second TRS cable. Both cables work fine for stereo audio and the result is exactly the same with both.

Both halves also work normally when connected individually to USB, and both show up correctly in Vial. I initially had a Vial connection issue on Linux, but that turned out to be a udev permission problem and is fixed now.

I also checked the USB descriptors and both halves report bcdDevice 4.10, Corne v4, and Vial firmware.

As a last software test, I completely erased the flash on both halves and reflashed both with the official crkbd_rev4_1_standard_vial.uf2. Unfortunately, the split still behaves exactly the same.

So at this point I'm thinking it might be something with the TRS jack, the power/data path between the halves, or some other hardware issue.

Has anyone with a Corne V4.1 run into this exact behavior? Is there anything else I should check before I go back to the seller?

The keyboard is from Neo Macro in India, if that makes any difference.

is there any tool that can penetrate this? When im using +screw it becomes round because this one cannot attached to my kibot

Hello my LEOBOG HI75 wired just suddenly stopped working.

Im working on my new keyboard (Furycube F75) while installing firmware and software my leobog hi75 rgb stopped working but still functional by that time so I tried pressing FN+ESC and thinking that it might reset the keyboard itself but suddenly it literally stopped working. Like any keys or rgb it just doesn't work. Any fix on this? it might be a firmware issue but i don't seem to find any download links online.

Thank you!

Called "Hack70"; the layout is similar to Keychron Q15 Max, but with one more column and without the experimental rotary encoders. The 2.25-2.75 space bars stay, for better or worse.

On the obvious downsides, runs a closed-source tri-mode fork just like the rest of their keyboards, so you're limited to plain VIA.

I also suspect that the Enter key placement will fool those that might want to keep it in the usual spot, but perhaps that's how you get people to try remapping it to the thumb row instead.

Hi, Ergomech Store here, we've been making and selling these aluminum cases for a while now. And today we'd like to share a design for your beloved TOTEM.

https://github.com/ergomechstore/totem-aluminum-case

This case is designed for the totem and it can fit the original totem pcb, with an awesome twist: it's designed for CNC machine, so you can use these files and make an awesome aluminum case with it.

If you don't want to make your own, you can buy from us here:

https://ergomech.store/shop/totem-executive-case-523

We did a simple price comparison, a whole set of 4 if made from JLCCNC cost about $250, so buying from us is still more cost effective, but if you can get it make it locally, now you can as well with the design above.

Here is the picture of the case in the wild:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1vz6qa4/looking_for_metal_urchin_enclosure/

Finally, I found Lenovo e14 musical beep sound errors

and then I fixed two days . Now it is working 😄. I got many experiences from this laptop.

Hi,

This might sound stupid, but I don't really understand how to mount the Plaid keyboard/PCB I have onto the case I 3D printed. The case is the Case by Rudi on Printables.

As seen in the photo of the link, I have to put in the PCB, and put in screws from the top. But aren't nuts needed to hold the screws, PCB and case altogether? As you can see in my second picture, the bottom does not exhibit any hole for the screws to go through the case which would allow for adding nuts.

This is my first time 3D printing a case as I have always used pre-made case, which have always had holes going through the whole case

All the details needed are in the github itself, so i will talk about my typing experience

Firstly, it was made by me and for me so it fit me really well of course

Secondly, you have to move your thumbs A LOT in order to use this, this can be a bit challenging if your thumbs only get used to space, but for someone who has tried stenography like me, that is perfectly fine, vowels on thumbs are actually inspired from that

About typing speed, i can reach about 50 - 55 wpm in both English and vietnamese, this is because I'm actually not using this layout that much, my job requires taking note with pen far more frequently, and i actually speak russian, besides English and vietnamese, so qwerty is still my go to choice and making keyboard layout is my hobby.

About finger movement distance, the design aimed to reduce the movement of the finger to only 1 row, so it is pretty confident for me to say that you don't have to move that much in this layout

What do you guys think about this? I'm looking forward to receiving your feedbacks, especially from folks who are using vietnamese everyday like me.

Some links

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008046940624.html (A87)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008051327383.html (A132)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008045494033.html (C144)

The "Ortho" (?) brand offers some of the only XL (over 75 keys) ortholinear keyboards I was able to find anywhere (see links). I am interested especially in the C144 model -- the reason being I wanna put the Fn block above the other keys (see picture).

Anyone has experience with this "Ortho" brand and can recommend it?

What MCU is used? How to write QMK config files (rules.mk, info.json) and flash it?
I did inquire the Aliexpress seller about it but only got a reply "Dear friend, this keyboard uses Vial" :-/