From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

Theo wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Theo wrote:

The 500/500+ keyboards run QMK on a RP2040.

I keep meaning to try that on my Durgod K320, but it never feels like a
good day to potentially brick my keyboard ...

Backup keyboards are available...

Well, yesterday I spilled half a pint of water* into my keyboard, so I
had to disassemble the Durgod (which was a real bastard involving half a
dozen lolly sticks and four credit cards) to dry it out.

Before re-assembling it, I decided to risk flashing QMK, I have to say
it was one of the least friendly flashing processes of any device I've
ever done, but I got there in the end, without bricking it.

The end result is impressive, it now allows me to do all the things I
wished the Durgod customisation would have allowed at the time I bought
the keyboard, but turned out to not be pssible. The customised "layers"
are all stored natively within the keyboard, not using any runtime o/s
driver.


[*] actually a salty electrolyte drink, which I figure could do worse
things to the PCB than even a sugary drink?
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On 18/11/2025 17:39, Andy Burns wrote:

Theo wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Theo wrote:

The 500/500+ keyboards run QMK on a RP2040.

I keep meaning to try that on my Durgod K320, but it never feels like a
good day to potentially brick my keyboard ...

Backup keyboards are available...

Well, yesterday I spilled half a pint of water* into my keyboard, so I
had to disassemble the Durgod (which was a real bastard involving half a dozen lolly sticks and four credit cards) to dry it out.

Oh. many years ago I left a computer by an open window in Johannesburg.
And a thunderstorm soaked it through.
I simply let it dry out for a day.

Before re-assembling it, I decided to risk flashing QMK, I have to say
it was one of the least friendly flashing processes of any device I've
ever done, but I got there in the end, without bricking it.

The end result is impressive, it now allows me to do all the things I
wished the Durgod customisation would have allowed at the time I bought
the keyboard, but turned out to not be pssible.  The customised "layers" are all stored natively within the keyboard, not using any runtime o/s driver.

[*] actually a salty electrolyte drink, which I figure could do worse
things to the PCB than even a sugary drink?

Ah, so not water then?

In such cases simply submerge the thing in reasonably fresh water.,
shake it a bit and leave it to dry...
.
Water doesn't harm electronics that are not switched on...
--
It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house
for the voice of the kingdom.

Jonathan Swift


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

In such cases simply submerge the thing in reasonably fresh water.,
shake it a bit and leave it to dry...
Water doesn't harm electronics that are not switched on...

I wasn't convinced that washing a nice-ish mechanical keyboard would do
the keyswitches much good ...
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On 18/11/2025 17:56, Andy Burns wrote:

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

In such cases simply submerge the thing in reasonably fresh water.,
shake it a bit and leave it to dry...
Water doesn't harm electronics that are not switched on...

I wasn't convinced that washing a nice-ish mechanical keyboard would do
the keyswitches much good ...

It's a funny thing, but people associate water with rust, and rightly so.,
But it takes a lot of water AND air to do rust.

Iron in oxygen free water does not rust. One of the experiments we did
at school...

Key switches are gold plated bronze most likely. Washing is fine...just
the springs to worry about...
--
In todays liberal progressive conflict-free education system, everyone
gets full Marx.

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On Tue, 18 Nov 2025 17:39:08 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

... but turned out to not be pssible.

Good moaning, Officer Crabtree!
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On Tue, 18 Nov 2025 18:09:05 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Iron in oxygen free water does not rust.

How do you make some? And how long does it stay oxygen-free?
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> writes:

Well, yesterday I spilled half a pint of water* into my keyboard, so I
had to disassemble the Durgod (which was a real bastard involving half
a dozen lolly sticks and four credit cards) to dry it out.

Before re-assembling it, I decided to risk flashing QMK, I have to say
it was one of the least friendly flashing processes of any device I've
ever done, but I got there in the end, without bricking it.

Interesting. How do you like your Durgod? I've been thinking about
getting a keyboard with QMK firmware. I've only learned of its existence recently and played with it on an 8-key mini keyboard. I'm interested in
having some macros in the keyboard in a convenient way. My current
fnatic one requires macros to be typed in.

I managed to put in some self-defined macros in that mini-keyboard but
those went right into the firmware. So just curious, do you have macros
in your Durgod with QMK? The kind you can just easily copy-paste in and
just as easily remove when not needed any longer?
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On 18/11/2025 23:49, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 18 Nov 2025 18:09:05 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Iron in oxygen free water does not rust.

How do you make some? And how long does it stay oxygen-free?

Just put some iron in it and seal the container.

John
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On 25/11/2025 15:46, John R Walliker wrote:

On 18/11/2025 23:49, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 18 Nov 2025 18:09:05 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Iron in oxygen free water does not rust.

How do you make some? And how long does it stay oxygen-free?

Just put some iron in it and seal the container.

The way we did it in school chemistry was to put the nail in the water,
boil the water and seal the test tube with beeswax.

The control was a nail dropped in tap water and not sealed

A pretty definitive experiment. My school didn't teach science, it
reproduced every one of the most significant experiments of the last 400
years if it was practicable. Science was never taught as 'true' It was
taught as 'what people thought after doing this experiment'

John

--
“A leader is best When people barely know he exists. Of a good leader,
who talks little,When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,They will say,
“We did this ourselves.”

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

Anssi Saari wrote:

How do you like your Durgod?

Pleased with it, physically it feels good, I have the TKL version to
save space.

I've been thinking about
getting a keyboard with QMK firmware. I've only learned of its existence recently and played with it on an 8-key mini keyboard. I'm interested in having some macros in the keyboard in a convenient way. My current
fnatic one requires macros to be typed in.

After the initial load of the QMK firmware (bit of a learning process involving opening it up, shorting a couple of tracks while plugging-in,
then loading zadig driver, rebooting it into firmware loader mode) you
have two ways to create the config files for it

either a web GUI that allows redefining each key, on multiple "layers"
with certain hotkeys to swap into those layers, that results in a new
binary file to flash into it, the procedure being much simpler after the
first load.

or you can customise a keymap usimg a programming language, compile then
load it the same way, I think you'd need to use this method if you want
to make multi-character macro strings per key (with e.g. Fn as the
trigger for them).

I haven't needed to use the compiler yet, just the GUI, e.g. without a
numpad I couldn't enter Alt-codes, so I've added a layer to allow
substituting number0-9 as numpad0-9m I've also mapped the media play/pause/stop/ff/rew keys.

I managed to put in some self-defined macros in that mini-keyboard but
those went right into the firmware. So just curious, do you have macros
in your Durgod with QMK? The kind you can just easily copy-paste in and
just as easily remove when not needed any longer?

I think it can only write to the keyboard's flash when you put it into firmware mode, so probably not as easy as that ...



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

Andy Burns wrote:

I think it can only write to the keyboard's flash when you put it into firmware mode, so probably not as easy as that ...

Perhaps QMK could partition the flash,to allow storing the macro
translations separate from the firmware/keymap?

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> writes:

Andy Burns wrote:

I think it can only write to the keyboard's flash when you put it
into firmware mode, so probably not as easy as that ...

Perhaps QMK could partition the flash,to allow storing the macro
translations separate from the firmware/keymap?

Yes, I thought that would be a way but I haven't found any mention
anywhere that something like that is supported. Partitioning probably
needs support from the flash itself too. Another way would be to store
them in RAM but I suppose a lot of these microcontrollers used on
keyboards are really limited on the amount of that. And they'd be
volatile then and RAM probably isn't accessible from USB directly so
that'd need some support at both ends of the USB cable. Then again, in
this day and age volatile storage has an appeal.

I kinda thought macros are a popular feature. My particular interest is
in putting wifi passwords into things that support a USB keyboard but
aren't really computers. I thought online gamers might use text macros
too since some keyboards have this macro feature but I guess gamers
mainly use voice.
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