Peripherals Mechanical Keyboards

OK question for the KB techies...

Is it possible to reprogramme a keyboard to enable the backlit my default? My Race defaults to off when first powered on. If it is possible, how do I access/backup/modify keyboard firmware?

 

for the most part you can't. For the most part, you can't very easily get it into the boot loader. Potentially there is some options to do it over serial (isp) but more often than not there will be a bit (as in, a "bit" - like a byte) of security in the firmware, which will make it pretty hard to reverse engineer unless you are a dab hand at software engineering. you probably won't be able to do it without some other bits of kit, some kind of hardware device to do the serial stuff, like an arduino or something.

First challenge would be working out how you can get firmware on and off the board, repetitively and without bricking the board. Second challenge would be successfully decompiling the firmware, and working out what's going on, and changing it and then being able to flash the changed firmware onto the board, as i'm guessing there might be some kind of checksum somewhere - so, you would maybe have to write your own software to actually flash the board.

So basically no

 

Fair enough

It isn't a problem - I'd just like the option to do it or reconfigure a dipswitch to enable it, if it was an easy hack. I didn't know if some KB genius had already figured it out, and it could be accessed by hooking it up to a PC or tablet OTG port and running a handily compiled piece of software; or something equally brilliant and simple.

Cheers Margo.

 

I'm not really too clued up on the race.

I know someone has done it for the CM Rapid-I (whatever the lightup ones called), well, they have broken the firmware and written some of their own with a resilient upload/download method. So it's possible, just takes a software guru!

EDIT: Actually, on reading up on KBT boards they quite often use controllers that are one time flash which means you won't be able to change the firmware.

 

I imagined it belonged to a family of boards that likely shared a common basic firmware, with tweaks for different feature sets

Yeah, I saw the video of someone playing snake on the rapid-i.

 

I just spent ages writing an edit above as someone selfish phoned me up!

KBT seem to use chips that are one time flash, so there is no bootloader or other way to flash them really, so there is no way to change it

The rapid-i uses quite a common feature rich controller which is why it can be exploited like that.

 

Unless you could replace the chip with an EPROM or some such similar bit-o-silicon?

Yeah, well, it was worth asking - I'll be pulling it apart soon to fit it with browns and maybe try that LED SIP mod, so I thought why not go the whole hog.

Where do you buy your white LEDs from? I have one that isn't working and a few that are dimmer than those around them.

 

I only really use 2x3x4 rectanglular LED or 1.8mm dip LED, neither of these are standard LED so you would have to replace them all! The 2x3x4 I get from a seller called bright components on ebay, the 1.8mm LED I buy from a german seller on ebay, until my big order or 1.8mm LED arrives from the far east.

 

Thanks, I'll give em a look over.

So, if I want to replace just a few, I'll need to use the standard round 3mm LEDs?

 

Yeah just 3mm ones, the ones without a collar at the bottom work better.

 

Pro tip!

Cheers, kind sir.

[edit] Ordered a bunch of flangeless ones

 

"Winter Is Coming" BroBot sale is now live!

 

Got my very first Brobot!

Icestrom is next for those who didn't win this round.

 

I won three kings gold and snowmando

 

SWEET! I'm jelly of that Snowmando.

 

Yeha the snowmando is amazing!

I think I have over 10 bros now, maybe 11 with these new two. I think I need 4 more to fill the top row on my hhkb.

 

I MISSED OUT ON THE DAMN SALE! DAMN MY BUSY REAL LIFE!

 

WTF guys, where's the mechanical keyboard christmas spirit!

Merry Christmas everybody!

 

Hotkeys Christmas Sale now live!

 

Found some nice vintage Cherry doubleshots for just €25.
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