109 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
109 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Planck and QMK"
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date: 2022-10-08T18:35:00+03:00
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draft: false
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categories: [keyboard]
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tags: [keyboard]
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url: /posts/planck-and-qmk/
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author: "Christoph Cullmann"
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resources:
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- name: "featured-image-preview"
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src: "images/planck-final.webp"
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---
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## The Planck Keyboard
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Over the past two years I tried out a few different keyboards for fun.
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I started with common form factors like TKL boards, went over 75% boards like the [Q1](/posts/keyboards-and-open-source/) and then to a 60% [HHKB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hacking_Keyboard).
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For typing feel, the HHKB is really amazing, but unfortunately the programmable features of a stock HHKB board are very limited.
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Now that I went down to 60%, I will give a more extreme keyboard a chance, the 40% Planck ortholinear keyboard.
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This one is fully open-source, you can even produce your own PCBs and Co.
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You find more or less all stuff freely at [GitHub](https://github.com/olkb).
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Given that the Plank designer funded [QMK](https://qmk.fm), too, naturally you can fully customize the Planck boards.
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Unlike for my tries with the Q1, this time I just went the plain QMK route, without any UI like the closed [VIA](https://www.caniusevia.com/) or the open [VIAL](https://get.vial.today/).
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The Planck board offers a nice platform for experiments, given the plain grid layer that allows really to freely shuffle all your keys and experiment with extreme layouts.
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## Install QMK on NixOS
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As I use at the moment [NixOS](https://nixos.org) at home, here the needed steps to get going with QMK on that distribution.
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Install the qmk package. This will install the needed cross compile tool chains, too.
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Ensure the udev rules are setup, e.g. add to your configuration.nix
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{{< highlight nix >}}
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services.udev.packages = [ pkgs.qmk-udev-rules ];
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{{< / highlight >}}
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Run qmk setup, here with some own firmware location
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{{< highlight bash >}}
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qmk setup -H ~/install/qmk/firmware
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{{< / highlight >}}
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Configure QMK to use the Planck as default
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{{< highlight bash >}}
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qmk config user.keyboard=planck/rev6_drop
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{{< / highlight >}}
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Use my github name as keymap name
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{{< highlight bash >}}
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qmk config user.keymap=christoph-cullmann
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{{< / highlight >}}
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Create own keymap based on default
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{{< highlight bash >}}
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qmk new-keymap
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{{< / highlight >}}
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Compile the firmware
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{{< highlight bash >}}
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qmk compile
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{{< / highlight >}}
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Put the keyboard in boot loader mode (e.g. trigger RESET)
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Flash the firmware
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{{< highlight bash >}}
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qmk flash
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{{< / highlight >}}
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Now the keyboard should auto-restart with the new firmware.
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## Have fun :)
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Below the state of a finalized Planck board with some more or less standard first layer layout.
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It even plays a nice startup sound on powering up.
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My current keymap can be found [here](https://git.babylon2k.com/cullmann/qmk).
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As the history of this repository shows, I already experimented if some different layouts.
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## Warning ^^
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Yes, the paper on the left of the keyboard is a printout of the lower & raise keyboard layers.
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My typing speed is still abysmal on that new layout and I guess I need to build as second one for at work, otherwise I will never get used to the layout if I swap daily between this and a HHKB.
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Therefore, if you like to try such a board and are not a lot more experienced with switching between different layouts: you will need some time to get used to this.
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Even just the removed row staggering is confusing the first few days.
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