deskthority

I wanted to try the new VIA firmware on my model F, so I did the usual process:

I erased the Eeprom with the pandrew xwhatsit utility like usual, and I entered the bootloader with the utility.

I opened up Atmel Flip, selected ATmega32U2, opened the USB port connection, selected the Via zF77 - HHKB Split Shift, everything else ANSI - PrintScr.hex file that Ellipse provided in the QMK firmware package, and after flashing, I had no input on the keyboard whatsoever, and no key input was detected in the tester.

I now have no way to get back into bootloader mode to flash a different firmware, as it seems I flashed the wrong firmware for the keyboard. The pandrew xwhatsit tool no longer shows any devices, and the keyboard combo to enter bootloader won't work in VIA because no input is detected from the keyboard.

Looks like I permanently bricked the keyboard after enjoying it for maybe a week or two. Is there any way to enter bootloader mode by shorting pins on the chip itself? I shorted the two pins labelled Reset on the rear of the controller, but that didn't seem to do anything.

Looks like its back to the old Northgate Omnikey until I fix this somehow.

How much of the latest posts from the original (242-page-long, heh) thread did you happen to read?

Also, if you just did this today, when did you download the ZIP file that had all of the QMK and VIA firmwares in it? I'm guessing much earlier than today, right?

The short version is that the controller boards that have been shipping out with the latest batches of keyboards underwent a slight design tweak / revision. This change requires that the firmware be updated to support this new revision of the controller. Ellipse had previously updated all of the QMK hex files with this support, but had failed to do the same for the VIA hex files up until last Friday.

So the VIA hex files that were being distributed until just a few days ago can not support this revised controller. If you downloaded the ZIP file from the modelfkeyboards.com web site prior to this past weekend, that would explain your issue.

Since the firmware you flashed to the controller cannot detect key presses, the only way to get the keyboard back into bootloader mode in order to correct this is by opening up the keyboard and shorting a couple of pads on the controller PCB together while you plug the USB cable into the host. This procedure is described on https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/manual/ under the Firmware section.

EDIT: I just re-read your post and saw that you tried shorting "RESET". That doesn't do anything other than reboot the controller. You need to short the "PROG" pads. They are on the opposite side of the PCB. You have to unscrew the PCB from its mounts and flip it over to access.

I obviously read every single pixel on a sub-atomic level of the thread (I didn't, oops).

Ah, yep, the firmware I downloaded was out of date by a few weeks. I made sure to download the latest one and cast the old pack to the depths of hell.

Shorting out the PROG pads finally allowed me to flash the firmware in Atmel Flip and end this nightmare. Here I was thinking I needed to buy a new replacement keyboard. Nathan, you saved me endless frustration, thank you very much. Hopefully me being a dumbass doesn't cause any more problems.

You're being way too hard on yourself. And glad to hear you got it back up and running!