[HN Gopher] I Made a Keyboard
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       I Made a Keyboard
        
       Author : freediver
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2023-08-04 15:20 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (dotat.at)
 (TXT) w3m dump (dotat.at)
        
       | D13Fd wrote:
       | It would be nice if there were more alternatives to QMK/VIA,
       | which is "programmable" but only so far without major effort and
       | headaches.
       | 
       | The Micropython implementation used in the M60 KB
       | (https://makerdiary.com/products/m60-mechanical-keyboard-pcba) is
       | really nice and much more easily configurable, but AFAIK it's
       | only used on that one keyboard kit.
        
         | fanf2 wrote:
         | QMK is getting easier with its data-driven configuration. I
         | think everything needed for Keybird69 is just json.
         | 
         | But if you like Python, there's KMK http://kmkfw.io/ which I
         | expect would run very nicely on the RP2040-Tiny in Keybird69.
         | The Pimoroni Keybow 2040 that I used to use was programmed with
         | CircuitPython (Adafruit's MicroPython fork) until I reflashed
         | it with QMK https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/pull/21481
        
         | veidr wrote:
         | QMK is fiddly, but VIA's web app couldn't really be much easier
         | for the common suff.
         | 
         | You just visit https://usevia.app in a modern browser and plug
         | in your keyboard. Remapping keys, creating layers, and creating
         | simple macros is easy using the GUI, and changes take effect
         | right away.
         | 
         | I am curious as to what you can do with the M60 using Python,
         | though. Do you have any example off the top of your head, of
         | things that are hard to do with QMK/VIA?
         | 
         | One thing I have always wanted to do is conditionalize the
         | keyboard's functionality based on external state (e.g. use
         | different RGB color schemes depending on environmental ambient
         | light, or on data returned from some external service). Stuff
         | like that is not generally feasible on a keyboard, but it seems
         | like it might be doable with the nRF52840 in this keyboard(?).
        
           | fanf2 wrote:
           | Recent versions of the VIA electron app have not worked for
           | me for mysterious reasons (mysterious because it does not
           | report errors) so it basically only works in Chrome, which I
           | do not use.
           | 
           | So if I get fed up with recompiling and reflashing QMK, I
           | plan to take a closer look at Vial https://get.vial.today/
        
       | grozmovoi wrote:
       | it's absolutely gorgeous
        
         | fanf2 wrote:
         | Thank you!
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-08-04 23:02 UTC)