Merlin, I'd like to say that you are my favorite person on the planet at this moment. Your tutorials on this are so clear, concise, and helpful. I was struggling to figure this stuff out on my own, but you just swooped in and saved me on my first custom keyboard build. Thank you.
Thank you so much! What an exceptionally chill vibe you set in this video, you know exactly what someone needs who is frantically searching for help with flashing a board.
Came into this subject expecting some hard to follow video content, or drawn out long content that could have been a blog post - but instead found this wonderfully produced succinct guide. Major props, really helpful video; naturally I hit a few keyboard specific extra problems along the way, but having this solid backbone helped me explore those issues without feeling I was drowning. Thanks so much.
MechMerlin is a national treasure!!! The #1 resource for figuring out QMK woes... Thanks man! Your work to educate us on QMK is always highly appreciated!
My Rama U80 just completely stopped working overnight, pressing escape before connecting the keyboard worked perfectly, 2 years on this video is still helping folks.
Thank you thank you thank you! The instructions I've read for QMK were so complicated, I can't believe how simple it actually is to do this! My first keyboard build is truly mine now.
OMG. Thank you so much. My keyboard wasn’t working and I didn’t know what to do until I saw this video and now it works. Made it super easy for first timers. Thank you !!!
Damn, thank you for making this whole series. For those of you with a recent KBD75v2 (circa 2020), the third method (hold ESC while plugging in) worked for me.
Merlin, I know its been 2 years since this video, but I want to thank you so dang much. I didnt know how to use via and my escape and space button didnt work because of something I did. I almost cried but you saved me, Merlin the Superman!
honestly i dont know how this doesnt have more veiws, this is an insanly detailed guide thank you so much for helping us new folks out! also it doesnt assume anything it also helps windows and macos users aswell as making a step by step guide so you cant get lost thank you so much
It's gone thru several iterations, the previous videos have a ton more views. I'll take that as a sign that people are getting more accustomed to the process!
Dude, I was honestly not even gonna flash my keyboard cause I had no idea how and it seemed complicated. Went though the entire video (minus the Windows section) and it worked PERFECTLY! Thank you so much
My friend, early in the evening I wanted to update my Keychron Q1 Firmware so that I would map to the encoder knob--Here I am at 3AM, about to give up when you saved the day! Project Complete!
Knew I had found a great tutorial on this a few years ago when I first built my custom board, and for the last few weeks some keys had been remapped for some reason making it really frustrating to use. Thankfully I found this video again and it got me sorted! Thank you!
Thank you a lot for this tutorial, just built my first custom 40% and had no idea how to use QMK to customize it, with your instructions it was super easy.
Thank you!!! It was extremely hard trying to figure this out myself and this video said exactly what I needed to know without a bunch of unnecessary fluff.
I will say, if you have flashed your keyboard but nothing still happens, Restart your computer with the keyboard still connected. I found this method works for my situation. Thanks again.
You are da man! The last method (pushing the button on the PCB) did the trick. Now I have the latest firmware on my Mode Sonnet and my Macros are super fast. Thanks!
there was a link from Keychron directly referencing my keyboard and it says to use atmega32u4 so I doubt that that is the issue. i dont know what could be causing this other than it being a .hex file rather than .bin however you replied to another comment saying that both should work.
@MechMerlin thank you so much! I followed the tutorial on creating a firmware file, and then used this video to flash my keyboard. Finally! My keyboard is working again! I appreciate your videos so much. My KBD8x kept disconnecting a few seconds after plugging it in, you've solved my problem!!!
Alot of stress and anxiety but the space + B option worked for me. I dont know if all the previous steps were necessary but they definitely were not working for me. QMK was saying i needed a .bin file for the dz60 which i could not find anywhere. I started losing hope but i decided to stop and think and as i was researching i realized that bootmagic wasnt really something you download and in fact my keyboard already had it so in a leap of faith I unplugged my keyboard and held space b. I knew it worked when the lights went to rgb instead of the solid purple that i kept it on. all in all i can tell that this is a helpful tutorial and thank you!
Thank you very much!! I panicked super hard because the keyboard was only 3 months old and I thought it broke! This is a perfect guide for fixing my kbd67lite to be working again! I have liked and subscribed just because it video was so easy to follow.
no flash button ever was available despite the rest being viable. so much time gone such a bummer it almost worked. thank you for the tutorial regardless.
@@MechMerlin Took me a while to figure it out and I oly just now returned to this for some reason but i realized the red herring was at 3:45 your "flash" input is able to be toggled. But is never the case with my board. so when you get to 5:38 i'm still trying to figure out why "Flash" is not even available like it is for you. but even upon watch through, I was still confused bc at that point I hadn't reset my board. After I while I tried a different protocol and realized the minivan and a couple other boards i have all you have to do is simply reset and then make sure autoflash is enabled. I wish it was made clear that this can be the case. flash never has to be selected for some boards and allow your board to do the flashing for you. turns out was the most simple solution ever I just was really really thrown off by the fact that flash was never available throughout the setup like it was for yours
Extremely helpful thanks for the walk through. I was frustrated with my Drop Sense75 because the default firmware wasn’t remembering settings when unplugged the keyboard Every time I would undock/redock my laptop I would have to reset settings using two key combos then re-do my lighting Now with QMK I no longer have to reset the keyboard every time it’s connected/disconnected 🎉 All settings stick including lighting 🙌
I have an ongoing series that shows how to program a new board into QMK/VIA: ua-cam.com/play/PLZlceRZZjRuhgztKmHPFdnpfbnEf1dqzk.html You can also catch the live streams of Porting with Ports where I do this in real time. I have a year's worth of these posted on this channel.
I used this tutorial to first flash my keyboard when I originally got it and the tutorial worked great, but I wanted to reflash my keyboard and it would not work. I kept getting the error message that no device was present and the keyboard remained in bootloader mode. If this happens to you just re-install drivers by selecting tools and then selecting install drivers. Thanks for the awesome video!
@@Opium2720 I actually had a similar issue. I found it was because not all the keys' pins were in good shape with some of them being too short and thus not connecting. Once I swapped those out things were fine.
Just want to thank you for putting this out. 3 years after posting this, it still helped a keeb hobbyist. I millmaxed my pcb last night and after, it would no longer post/work. I thought it died and I thought to I'll try to flash just to try so I found your vid for it. After follow your step by step guide, I was so surprised that it actually worked lmao. I'm now typing on it as I put this comment down. Not sure if you'll still see this or if anyone can still read this, it seems like my pcb is no longer recognized by VIA which is my main app for customizing my boards. Can you tell me how to fix this? Did do something wrong? Thanks.
@MechMerlin, thank you very much for this tutorial. I was able to fix my new keyboard following this. Just wanted to tell you i appreciate your work here. Cheers
Hello i have the gmmk 2 and i cant seem to flash it and when i reset the board by B + space all the lights turn off but it doesnt show DFU device connected : (
There's no actual video on showing it step by step, but there are coding streams I did that do the process every time. The syntax has changed since then though because of QMK CLI, but the old commands should still work
@@MechMerlin Sounds good, thanks! Makes me feel better about having flashed it about 5 times the past 24 hours. I think I am finally good now, just got a bit paranoid each time I hit the reset button :)
Merlin, do you have an updated guide from Step 6 Select the MCU (AVR only)? I have a Feker IK75 and I'm trying to find the right setting for this. I'm getting conflicting information too online, and the github directory does not have that setup as in the video anymore.
This is so great i want to come back here but unfortunately they skyloong gk87 white/red wired optical switch version i found the json file. But there is no compiled firmware so would i have to be the one to compile it?
Weird question, but maybe you know. I've previously flashed my Tragicforce with QMK Toolbox, and when I booted the utility, it would show up in in blue as "Tragicforce" by name, confirming it sees my Keyboard before I even move on to resetting it. I had to make an update to my layout the other day, so I flashed it, and everything still works, but it no-longer identifies my keyboard in QMK Toolbox, now just showing as "Standard USB Input Device." Any idea if I missed something? Last time I did the flash that had the identifier was ages ago.
The rules of my keyboard - the "MonsGeek M1 QMK" is "intentionally left blank", I'm not super tempted to open my keyboard up again just to find out about the model name. Is there any other way of finding out which MCU I should be using?
you need to specifically flash a VIA enabled firmware on the board, and also ensure that VIA actually supports your board officially or that you have the VIA json file.
Merlin, I'd like to say that you are my favorite person on the planet at this moment. Your tutorials on this are so clear, concise, and helpful. I was struggling to figure this stuff out on my own, but you just swooped in and saved me on my first custom keyboard build. Thank you.
You're very welcome!
@@MechMerlin how can i know whether my keyboard is qmk compatible or not
@@zeeshanrabbani8125 The manufacturer/vendor should have it specified in the specs/feature list of your board.
Thank you so much! What an exceptionally chill vibe you set in this video, you know exactly what someone needs who is frantically searching for help with flashing a board.
Came into this subject expecting some hard to follow video content, or drawn out long content that could have been a blog post - but instead found this wonderfully produced succinct guide. Major props, really helpful video; naturally I hit a few keyboard specific extra problems along the way, but having this solid backbone helped me explore those issues without feeling I was drowning. Thanks so much.
Glad it was helpful!
MechMerlin is a national treasure!!!
The #1 resource for figuring out QMK woes... Thanks man!
Your work to educate us on QMK is always highly appreciated!
You made something complicated look so simple and clear, thank you !
Glad it helped you!
My Rama U80 just completely stopped working overnight, pressing escape before connecting the keyboard worked perfectly, 2 years on this video is still helping folks.
Every time I forget how to use QMK, I look for you cause you make this so simple!
Thank you thank you thank you! The instructions I've read for QMK were so complicated, I can't believe how simple it actually is to do this! My first keyboard build is truly mine now.
OMG. Thank you so much. My keyboard wasn’t working and I didn’t know what to do until I saw this video and now it works. Made it super easy for first timers. Thank you !!!
High quality tutorial. Covered every problem that came up. I find so many software tutorials just assume everything will go well
Damn, thank you for making this whole series.
For those of you with a recent KBD75v2 (circa 2020), the third method (hold ESC while plugging in) worked for me.
Thank you
Merlin, I know its been 2 years since this video, but I want to thank you so dang much. I didnt know how to use via and my escape and space button didnt work because of something I did. I almost cried but you saved me, Merlin the Superman!
honestly i dont know how this doesnt have more veiws, this is an insanly detailed guide thank you so much for helping us new folks out! also it doesnt assume anything it also helps windows and macos users aswell as making a step by step guide so you cant get lost thank you so much
It's gone thru several iterations, the previous videos have a ton more views. I'll take that as a sign that people are getting more accustomed to the process!
Dude, I was honestly not even gonna flash my keyboard cause I had no idea how and it seemed complicated. Went though the entire video (minus the Windows section) and it worked PERFECTLY! Thank you so much
No problem, so happy it worked well for you!
Seriously love coming back to this video when I forget the smaller steps. Makes it soooo easy. Thank you MechMerlin!!
My friend, early in the evening I wanted to update my Keychron Q1 Firmware so that I would map to the encoder knob--Here I am at 3AM, about to give up when you saved the day! Project Complete!
Glad I could help!
Knew I had found a great tutorial on this a few years ago when I first built my custom board, and for the last few weeks some keys had been remapped for some reason making it really frustrating to use. Thankfully I found this video again and it got me sorted! Thank you!
I need to update it for 2024, but I guess the process hasn't changed too much, so it's still helpful!
Thank you a lot for this tutorial, just built my first custom 40% and had no idea how to use QMK to customize it, with your instructions it was super easy.
Awesome and congrats!!
Merlin, thank you for this very detailed series for using QMK. As a QMK n00b, it really helped!
Glad it helped!
THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH, I'VE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE THIS OUT FOR LITERALLY YEARS.
Glad you found it helpful!
That music is incredible at 3:23 Lauch QMK toolbox, who knew learning could be so easy and tranquil! hahah
Thank you!!! It was extremely hard trying to figure this out myself and this video said exactly what I needed to know without a bunch of unnecessary fluff.
I will say, if you have flashed your keyboard but nothing still happens, Restart your computer with the keyboard still connected. I found this method works for my situation. Thanks again.
Yeah that's one of those things that randomly works sometimes
Fantastic video. Exactly what I was needing to know with a relaxing delivery. What a find.
I'm terrible with anything technical but my board stopped working and this video save it! thank you so much for the help!
Lifesaver man, my redox wasn't registering with the initial qmk layout so this was the solution, thanks a lot!
Excellent video! I don't code, have never used github before and just figured out everything from your brief video. Thank you!
Awesome glad I was able to help!
48 WPM and after the QMK flash to my Tokyo 60 not I am at 113 WMP! Thank you mech merlin! It also removed my stabilizer rattle!
Thank you. You saved me from going insane!
Glad I could help!
amazing vid. covered absolutely everything that is needed in order to flash the keyboard. thank you so much.
You are da man! The last method (pushing the button on the PCB) did the trick. Now I have the latest firmware on my Mode Sonnet and my Macros are super fast. Thanks!
there was a link from Keychron directly referencing my keyboard and it says to use atmega32u4 so I doubt that that is the issue. i dont know what could be causing this other than it being a .hex file rather than .bin however you replied to another comment saying that both should work.
@MechMerlin thank you so much! I followed the tutorial on creating a firmware file, and then used this video to flash my keyboard. Finally! My keyboard is working again! I appreciate your videos so much. My KBD8x kept disconnecting a few seconds after plugging it in, you've solved my problem!!!
Hurray!
Thank you for making this video. I was able to configure my keyboard quickly due to it. Keep up the content, already subscribed.
This was a massive help in flashing my new neo65 kb, cheers man :)
Glad I could help!
Alot of stress and anxiety but the space + B option worked for me. I dont know if all the previous steps were necessary but they definitely were not working for me. QMK was saying i needed a .bin file for the dz60 which i could not find anywhere. I started losing hope but i decided to stop and think and as i was researching i realized that bootmagic wasnt really something you download and in fact my keyboard already had it so in a leap of faith I unplugged my keyboard and held space b. I knew it worked when the lights went to rgb instead of the solid purple that i kept it on. all in all i can tell that this is a helpful tutorial and thank you!
Which previous steps are you talking about?
Thank you, your video helped me to successfully flash my keyboard's firmware. I am new to mechanical keyboards and would have never figured this out.
just used this to flash my first qmk board (preonic rev 3) and it seemed a lot of people ran into problems but it just worked for me. thanks merlin!
Awesome, glad it worked out for you!
this is literally the only video that actually fixed my issue thank you
Awesome! Glad it helped!
Super helpful. Thanks!
Heeey thanks for dropping by, I've seen a few of your vids!
Thank you very much!! I panicked super hard because the keyboard was only 3 months old and I thought it broke! This is a perfect guide for fixing my kbd67lite to be working again! I have liked and subscribed just because it video was so easy to follow.
Thank you for your support!
when you say restart your machine, 2:58 , do u mean computer or keyboard
Ty 4 the tutorial Merlin. Very helpful
Thank you so much man seriously, I thought I was never going to be able to fix my keyboard
Glad I could help!
ily so much, this helped me setup my board, very good clear and simple video. you deserve my sub
Glad it helped!
no flash button ever was available despite the rest being viable. so much time gone such a bummer it almost worked. thank you for the tutorial regardless.
It only shows up if the preceding steps are followed precisely.
@@MechMerlin Took me a while to figure it out and I oly just now returned to this for some reason but i realized the red herring was at 3:45 your "flash" input is able to be toggled. But is never the case with my board. so when you get to 5:38 i'm still trying to figure out why "Flash" is not even available like it is for you. but even upon watch through, I was still confused bc at that point I hadn't reset my board. After I while I tried a different protocol and realized the minivan and a couple other boards i have all you have to do is simply reset and then make sure autoflash is enabled. I wish it was made clear that this can be the case. flash never has to be selected for some boards and allow your board to do the flashing for you. turns out was the most simple solution ever I just was really really thrown off by the fact that flash was never available throughout the setup like it was for yours
thanks! qmk was a bit complicated so i flashed it to via and i works! thanks!
Perfect tutorial - step by step, clear and everything works as described. Thanks so much for this!
Thanks for this video! Everything was clear and made it super easy for me to flash my first custom keyboard. thanks man!
This is awesome. How do you compile QMK configurator (0.2.2) .hex files from (c, h, config, info and rules.mk)?
You are a wizard Harry! lol Thank you for the professional walkthrough!
My pleasure!
Extremely helpful thanks for the walk through.
I was frustrated with my Drop Sense75 because the default firmware wasn’t remembering settings when unplugged the keyboard
Every time I would undock/redock my laptop I would have to reset settings using two key combos then re-do my lighting
Now with QMK I no longer have to reset the keyboard every time it’s connected/disconnected 🎉 All settings stick including lighting 🙌
Interesting what was the default firmware called
Are you planning on making a guide on how to add a custom QMK board (hand wired, etc.) to VIA?
I have an ongoing series that shows how to program a new board into QMK/VIA: ua-cam.com/play/PLZlceRZZjRuhgztKmHPFdnpfbnEf1dqzk.html
You can also catch the live streams of Porting with Ports where I do this in real time. I have a year's worth of these posted on this channel.
Also maybe a tutorial on making custom graphics and settings for boards with LCD screens?
@@KDP2009 That requires actual computer science and knowledge of the C programming language. That's beyond the scope of this series.
@@MechMerlin so no chance of ever knowing how to do that? :( Maybe as a stand alone video that isn't part of an existing series?
@@KDP2009 Do you have a computer science background?
I get an error message when trying to flash. Says "Error reading line 1" when it tries to flash from the file
What file are you flashing from? You should only be flashing using QMK Toolbox and flashing the files from either of the 3 ways I outlined.
@@MechMerlin yeah I figured it out . It was because of bin
That you very much for your video. Helped another distraught person trying to save their keyboard.
I used this tutorial to first flash my keyboard when I originally got it and the tutorial worked great, but I wanted to reflash my keyboard and it would not work. I kept getting the error message that no device was present and the keyboard remained in bootloader mode. If this happens to you just re-install drivers by selecting tools and then selecting install drivers. Thanks for the awesome video!
This guy is a life savior!
Thanks! I couldn't get it to work on my Window box (the driver wouldn't install) but it worked like a charm on my Mac. Thank you so much.
Thanks MechMerlin, very good tutorial! Appreciate it ✌
This is a great video and you really helped me understand how to set up my keyboard.
Glad it helped!
Built my first board and this was immensely helpful in getting it set up. Thank you very much :3
i have a question some of my keys arent responsive and i built it barebone keychron v1. any suugestions?
@@Opium2720 I actually had a similar issue. I found it was because not all the keys' pins were in good shape with some of them being too short and thus not connecting.
Once I swapped those out things were fine.
Perfect! Thank you!
Just want to thank you for putting this out. 3 years after posting this, it still helped a keeb hobbyist. I millmaxed my pcb last night and after, it would no longer post/work. I thought it died and I thought to I'll try to flash just to try so I found your vid for it. After follow your step by step guide, I was so surprised that it actually worked lmao. I'm now typing on it as I put this comment down.
Not sure if you'll still see this or if anyone can still read this, it seems like my pcb is no longer recognized by VIA which is my main app for customizing my boards. Can you tell me how to fix this? Did do something wrong? Thanks.
Ay I literally never comment on vids but this helped me out a lot so thank you
I finally got it, thank you bro, you're awesome
No problem! Glad I was able to help!
@MechMerlin, thank you very much for this tutorial. I was able to fix my new keyboard following this. Just wanted to tell you i appreciate your work here. Cheers
Glad it helped!
Hi i have successfully gone into bootloader mode but i cant press flash
Thanks man this is really helpful!
This was a huge help. Thank you very much for making this video.
No problem!
my qmk toolbox's flash button is grayed out. What should I do?
Hello i have the gmmk 2 and i cant seem to flash it and when i reset the board by B + space all the lights turn off but it doesnt show DFU device connected : (
Hi, I can't seem to find your video on how to compile firmware from source code!
There's no actual video on showing it step by step, but there are coding streams I did that do the process every time. The syntax has changed since then though because of QMK CLI, but the old commands should still work
whats the song in the background?
You are my hero! First time I'm doing this and it works like a charm. Thanks very much!
Hurray!
I keep changing my mind about my keyboard layout after flashing. Is it bad to for the board to re-flash it a few times?
@@jclsuli yeah each flash reduces its lifespan, but you could flash a 100 times a day for the next 10 years and you'd be fine.
@@MechMerlin Sounds good, thanks! Makes me feel better about having flashed it about 5 times the past 24 hours. I think I am finally good now, just got a bit paranoid each time I hit the reset button :)
My pc does not detect my rk84 and it the rk84 does not turn on could this help fix it?
Super helpful video. Thank you!
Can you do this process before having the keyboard put together?
Yep!
Bravo, my friend! awesome job, thanks for the help
Glad it helped!
It says that Only firmware files in .bin format can be flashed with this bootloader. Help plz
Then you need to create a firmware file that is in .bin format. Usually the error here is that you have selected the wrong keyboard from the list.
Came back to this video again thanks lol
Thanks for the video, super helpful guide, wish my keyboard had as good instructions!
Hi, My board (the tofu 65 ]2.0) has a uf2 file that i cant find in qmk toolbox, also idk what the micro controller is
what was the reason for resetting the device?
You have to reset the device to enter bootloader mode
Came here from the discord. Thanks man!
Absolute legend, thank you so much
Tnx for video!
You open qmk for me 2 month ago!
Cheers mate, this really helped me, thank you.
Thanks man, this is a good noob friendly primer on flashing QMK keeb. Designing board with RESET and BOOT buttons, hope I won't need to use them!
is it possible to flash firmware onto a qmk compatible keyboard and then use it on the iPad? even macro keypads with knobs?
i couldnt seem to find the same file where it has MCU for monsgeek m1 v3
Might be able to find it in the spec sheet!
Merlin, do you have an updated guide from Step 6 Select the MCU (AVR only)? I have a Feker IK75 and I'm trying to find the right setting for this. I'm getting conflicting information too online, and the github directory does not have that setup as in the video anymore.
I was unaware that the Feker IK75 was even supported by QMK. Not every board can be supported as it requires a specific hardware configuration.
Hugely helpful recovering my DZ60RGB V2!! Thank you! BTW, hold escape while plugging in the USB C cable puts this board into recovery.
what was the issue? I'm having a code 43 where it wont recognise the keyboard all of a sudden
Thanx MM for the second time
Is the rk84 compatible with qmk? My keyboard stopped working entirely after installing the software. This is urgent.
I'm not sure if an rk84 is compatible with QMK. QMK Firmware is a custom keyboard firmware for select hardware.
@@MechMerlin I ended up fixing it
@@hex697 Awesome!
This is so great i want to come back here but unfortunately they skyloong gk87 white/red wired optical switch version i found the json file. But there is no compiled firmware so would i have to be the one to compile it?
How do I get my keyboard into bootloader mode if it stops working?
If the board itself is broken, there's no getting it into bootloader mode no matter what option you pick
Weird question, but maybe you know.
I've previously flashed my Tragicforce with QMK Toolbox, and when I booted the utility, it would show up in in blue as "Tragicforce" by name, confirming it sees my Keyboard before I even move on to resetting it.
I had to make an update to my layout the other day, so I flashed it, and everything still works, but it no-longer identifies my keyboard in QMK Toolbox, now just showing as "Standard USB Input Device."
Any idea if I missed something? Last time I did the flash that had the identifier was ages ago.
The rules of my keyboard - the "MonsGeek M1 QMK" is "intentionally left blank", I'm not super tempted to open my keyboard up again just to find out about the model name. Is there any other way of finding out which MCU I should be using?
thank you so much... this tutorial very helpful...
Glad you found it helpful
I've done the steps, but keyboard still not showing in VIA
you need to specifically flash a VIA enabled firmware on the board, and also ensure that VIA actually supports your board officially or that you have the VIA json file.