Adding Via & Vial support to the Macropad - QMK tutorial | macro pad part 2

#mechanicalkeyboard #qmk #vial #via
So this is a bit technical I know but I saw so many people missing out on the cool features via and vial offer just because they don't know how to setup their keyboard with qmk & windows. I tried to make this a compact video but ill show you how to setup the macropad I built in the last video with via and vial I also added vial support to my planck keyboard and we are setting this up with windows with qmk msys
🟣 Links
1. Via caniusevia.com
2. Vial get.vial.today
3. QMK msys github.com/qmk...
4. keyboard layout editor www.keyboard-l...
5. QMK toolbox github.com/qmk...
6. Downloads github.com/Jan...
blog.heaper.de...
🟠 Commands
1. generate ssh key
$ ssh-keygen
2. read ssh key
$ cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub
3. clone vial qmk
$ git clone [e-mail]:vial-kb/vial-qmk.git
4. clone the submodules
$ cd vial-qmk/ && make git-submodule && cd ..
5. setup qmk with vial as homefolder
$ qmk setup -H ./vial-qmk/
6. compile default keymap
$ qmk compile -kb janlunge/w3by2 -km default
7. generate vial uid
$ python3 util/vial_generate_keyboard_uid.py
8. compile via & vial keymap
$ qmk compile -kb janlunge/w3by2 -km via
Discord: / discord
Twitch: / janlunge

[@codexrat]

In my opinion, the command "qmk setup -H ./vial-qmk/" was the most crucial step for me. Had been following the official guide from qmk website but got no where. My board was not being detected by Vial. That step did the trick. Thanks a ton man. You saved me from an infinite rabbit hole of chaos. haha.... keep em coming...

[@garyengelman7867]

Wow, this one was way over my head. Pls, more detail and explanations in the future. Thanks

[@MarkusMarkus-x2z]

Yes every guide is missing some crucial information....

[@FrancoisKerisit]

I did not know about via nor vial. Thank you ! The quality of your content and video editing is top notch.

[@majinkeyboards]

This is gonna be fun, already successfully built the first macropad from the last clip!

[@georgedoubleyou4098]

Thanks for this! Worked great. Was struggling a bit in the middle, because my board wasnt ported to VIA, so there was no file to put the raw json in from the Layout Editor. I then copied everything needed from your macropad and changed it accordingly.

[@JanLunge]

very nice, I'm glad that this was helpful

[@abqehobener2636]

what did you change?

[@Lysol_kb]

the best guide to getting/adding vial on to boards. i thanks you for this guide.

[@mr.sousay9011]

Thank you very much, it was only thanks to you that I managed to compile my version of VIAL for BM40v2! 🤩

[@0views372]

Can you do a guide on getting Vial on a board? I can't seem to wrap my head around getting it it work on a macropad that currently has a VIA port

[@firzt0]

There is a missed step at the 2:58 mark because I dont have those vial.json files yet despite following the steps carefully. Given, I'm doing this on my own handwired keeb. I'll tinker around the files you provided to fill in the gaps EDIT: I was able to make it work by editing your files. GREAT TUTORIAL! THANKS A BUNCH!

[@daler5611]

Wow, thanks for the video. A bit fast, but better than the 2 hrs of a MechMerlin stream 🤣 I can always pause. Just discovered your channel today and its great! keep it up

[@nidusa1]

who are the 2 that did not like this. it was so informative.

[@activemotionpictures]

For everyone who is not versed on custom macro keyboards: 4:24 is a chapter BREAK which solely focuses on VIAL.

[@foggytypes]

this video is GOLD.

[@jonasm.6029]

Nice video, didn't know about VIAL! Reason why I'm not using VIA is because they mainly recommend only using 4 layers, because the dynamic layers take a lot more space IIRC. I'm sadly using a lot more than that (8 or 9 with Miryoku on a 3x5), so I was too scared to test it with that many layers :D I'm already on like 85% firmware size without dynamic layers, so the via/vial approach might not the best one for people with many layers. But there's probably a shitton of optimization I don't know about! Might take a look at VIAL tho.

[@adamporter6831]

Could you please make a tutorial on how to use Vial? Particularly on what all the commands in the Layers tab do. I cannot figure it out and I cannot find a tutorial elsewhere.

[@JanLunge]

I guess a tutorial for these qmk key codes might be very useful I'll add it to my list. In the meantime you can check the qmk keycode docs here beta.docs.qmk.fm/using-qmk/simple-keycodes/keycodes#layer-switching-id-layer-switching

[@vr-cs7nw]

How to make the layers on the keyboard switch automatically depending on the active window. I can't find information anywhere?

[@Shahabtanhaei]

Hi jan , shall i add some special codes to the vial.json code that the Vial-UI recognize tap-dance? As i see in your video the tap-dance tab is missing there.thanks in advance

[@JanLunge]

Yes you will need TAP_DANCE_ENABLE = yes in your rules.mk but it adds some space to the firmware

[@crazyboy1011]

Based on the comment you will probably realise this aswell but... im a noob. I bought a cheap chinese macropad fro Aliexpress and the software they provided was flagged by defender so I dont feel comfortable using it... Im just wondering if it is possible to flash unsupported Micro controllers with QMK? The board came with a WCH CH552g micro controller and Im not quite sure what I should do to get it reflashed...

[@ultrasteve9240]

You seem to be quite the expert, hoping you see this! Is there any way to make "looping" macros in VIAL? I'm looking for toggle functionality to continually loop a macro.

[@JanLunge]

Vial has no specific support for this, but you can implement this in qmk directly someone talked about it here www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/5390t7/comment/d7rhxef/ with an example

[@abqehobener2636]

where did you get the vial.json file from?

[@JanLunge]

Usually you get the data needed for that file from the git repo where the qmk firmware for your keyboard is hosted if they made the firmware source available, otherwise unfortunately you need to write them yourself. You can either edit the files I created (which could be slightly outdated by now) or check how they are created on the vial website otherwise looking at existing keyboards with vial support in the vial keyboards repo is always a good inspiration.

[@lukas.kronig]

How do you se the microcontroller in the bootloader mode? My microcontroller doesnt show up in qmk toolbox.

[@nta8032]

there is new qmk update, can you make another video how to convert qmk via to vial?

[@excavate08]

So where do you turn this thing on?

[@danyfry39946]

Would I be able to take a pre-existing numberpad that is programable and do this? My problem is this Epomaker ek21 firmware doesn’t have tap dance or delays in VIA. As well as most macros do not work, it will only perform half of the function. In Vial non of the macros work. So I’m wondering if I can flash it and start from scratch. Thank you

[@JanLunge]

Technically yes but you beed to check what mcu is used to compile for the correct controller, sometimes they also need to turn off features because the controller doesnt have enough sram or flash storage

[@noaag]

trying to get this working on my k2 pro which is not fully qmk supported yet... only have the json and getting burned out trying to setup vial t_t i might just be a via pleb for a while

[@nta8032]

with little bit tweak here and there, i can flash vial in my numpad but.. it doesnt auto detect, do you know why?

[@georgedoubleyou4098]

Tip: When using a more complex layout with bigger than 1u keys and blockers it is necessary to export the json and use that. Not copy it. Otherwise the formatting is wrong and the firmware build will not work.

[@luvpatel4732]

can u please tell me more about it I m not able to solve that, sorry I m not soo good at it

[@jazminebrown4789]

I'm trying to apply this to my murphpad. Only problem I have is the rotation options for the encoder not appearing in vial after compiling and flashing my micro. I have edited the config.h file rule.mk and even vial.json files with their respective codes for encoders. I don't know what bit I'm missing to get this to work. Only time I got the options to show up to edit is when I sideload the vial.json file into vial. But my functions on the encoder still act as if they're trns to layer 0 functions (vol up/dn rather than mouse up/dn and brush size) even after changing them.

[@Jaroslawlysak]

Thanks for the great video! Do you know, if it is possible to add more than 15 Macros in VIA or Vial?

[@JanLunge]

I think 15 macros is the max there but if you just need a modifier key and a letter you can map those directly with something like LCtrl(KC_S) for saving for example so I think almost all most use cases would be fine with this limit but I think this depends on what you want to do with it

[@81karlo]

How can I create a game mode that disables the win button?

[@MatzeMumpitz]

Hallo Jan. Ich wende mich an dich, weil ich Vial auf meinen Mac geladen habe OS 13. Das Programm startet, aber es findet mein Megalodon Triple Knob V2 nicht. Was es eigentlich sollte, wenn ich das aus reddit richtig interpretiere. Hast du eine Idee, was ich tun muss? Beste Grüße, Matze

[@JanLunge]

Hey, hast du schon via probiert? Auf der Produktseite habe ich keinen vial support sehen können nur via support. Mit einer angepassten firmware könntest du das aber auch bestimmt mit vial.

[@MatzeMumpitz]

​@@JanLunge Hallo Jan. Danke dir für den Tipp. Tatsächlich funktioniert es mit Via. "nur" die Tastenbelegung. Die RGB Beleuchtung funktioniert darüber nicht. Die brauche ich aber eh nicht. Von daher: Du hast mir sehr geholfen. Danke.

[@williamgradwell7418]

I think there's a typo in the description? Step 8 should be "qmk compile -kb 3by2 -km vial". Error is thrown otherwise.

[@JanLunge]

This depends on how you named the keymap folder in my source code this is via ( following the docs on the vial page )

[@williamgradwell7418]

@@JanLunge I noticed this after posting! All good. I managed to snap the usb port off my pro micro so I'm waiting for another couple to arrive before I continue my copy of your build.

[@nickglover]

I'm getting an error when trying to set vial-qmk as my home folder. It says "Could not find qmk_firmware." I'm pasting your commands exactly and am in the normal root folder, so not really sure what I'm doing different. Edit: Nevermind, I had to use the full directory path in my case for whatever reason. As a separate issue, though, for step 4 I actually had to separate out the commands for whatever reason. Just running them all at once didn't work properly.

[@EDZ1LLA]

How did you fix this? I have the same error and ma new to this and don't fully understand your explanation.

[@nickglover]

So instead of "qmk setup -H ./vial-qmk/" you would put "qmk setup -H C:/Users/yourusername/vial-qmk/". And for step 4, the "&&" is just a way of combining multiple commands, so instead of that, you'd put "cd vial-qmk" then, on the next line, "make git-submodule" and finally "cd .." on a final line.

[@EDZ1LLA]

@@nickglover Amazing, thank you!

[@luvpatel4732]

ERROR Not including data from file: keyboards/3by2/info.json ERROR layouts.LAYOUT_horizontal: Additional properties are not allowed ('key_count' was unexpected) Making 3by2 with keymap default ERROR Not including data from file: keyboards/3by2/info.json ERROR layouts.LAYOUT_horizontal: Additional properties are not allowed ('key_count' was unexpected) please help me out (after using the 6th command)

[@adammeszaros331]

Same errors. Any progress?

[@luvpatel4732]

@@adammeszaros331 yesss but i already forgot what it was ,ughhhh sorry

[@JanLunge]

I moved the files a bit for the newer version with the rotary encoder but even with this error in the output log it should compile fine, if you want to get rid of this message remove the line with `keycount:` from the info.json in the 3by2 folder

[@luvpatel4732]

@@JanLunge thank you

[@adammeszaros331]

​@@JanLunge Thanks for the quick reply. At this point I don't know what's the problem, the firmware is good hardware also good. But when I press a switch it does nothing :(

[@Abu-Ubayda]

I made a keyboard with Raspberry Pi Pico, it had RP2040 chip. Can I use QMK and Via with it.

[@JanLunge]

That is something qmk might implement fully, you can track the progress here github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/issues/11649 otherwise you can use kmk github.com/KMKfw/kmk_firmware

[@camerasandskate1237]

are you Dutch because could you maybe make a video how to reprogram a numpad in Dutch. I have one but I want to give it other functions

[@Tekay37]

2:31 where do the keyboard config files come from?

[@JanLunge]

The config for this board is merged into the vial-qmk repository so you can find it in the keyboards/w3by2 folder if you want to see my current versions that might not be merged they are here github.com/JanLunge/vial-qmk/tree/vial/keyboards/wlard

[@Tekay37]

@@JanLunge OK, that's your specfic configuration. I was interested in where that config comes from generally. E.g. when I have a Piantor keyboard , where would I get a config for that so I can play around with a configuration before I have the actual product?

[@JanLunge]

Well this really depends on the company, usually they fork the qmk or vial repo and add their keyboard in the keyboards folder and then request a merge into the normal repository but as this is a bit more involved when also shipping updates etc some do not merge it back. The piantor can be found in their repo github.com/beekeeb/vial-qmk-piantor/tree/vial/keyboards/beekeeb/piantor its always good to look for this info in the firmware section of the keyboard documentation. Most users also just look for the precompiled firmware with via or vial support and there are hosted separate anyways. Also depends on what firmware you want to use as now kmk is a viable option as well as zmk so there is now more choose from.

[@Tekay37]

@@JanLunge Well, okay. I now came to the point where the compiler fails because it search for GnuWin32 in "C:\Program Files(x86)" instead of "C:\Program Files (x86)".

[@PatriotAr15]

At 2:30 he mentions pasting keyboard configs into keyboard folder. Does not show you how to get to that folder... nor does he tell you where to get the config files. He really skips a lot of details. I'm unable to proceed, because I have no idea where to get those config files from. I'm using a Raspberry Pi Pico

[@JanLunge]

Well in this case its about upgrading an existing qmk config to vial, if you need to create a new firmware from scratch or are using an existing keyboard config from the qmk repo there would be more info needed on your keyboard i do have other videos that cover creating a firmware from scratch. Now if you are using a pi pico you can even use ‘pog’ a gui tool I wrote to configure the entire keyboard firmware with kmk.

[@PatriotAr15]

​Sweet! Honestly, I've been having way too much trouble trying to get KMK firmware to work with my macropad. Most guides are for people using a matrix, and my macropad only has 8 keys... so I didn't both soldering a matrix. Where do I find the "pog"?

[@JanLunge]

@PatriotAr15 pog.heaper.de and the downloads are in the linked github releases as it is fully open source, if you have issues with it also feel free to check by my discord

[@saifulislampi]

Hi, thanks for the video. But the download link is giving a 404. Can you check it please.

[@JanLunge]

Oh thanks for the info, for consistency I moved all 3D print files over to github where you can now find all my keyboards github.com/wlard/keyboards/tree/main/w3by2%20Raised I will update the link in the description

[@dennistai4192]

Why is it so hard to add macropad

[@stefanzlatanovic7521]

I thought this was a bit simpler. I can't understand one thing. I will have to research a lot.

[@linuxinside6188]

Why switched to Windows ?🤔

[@JanLunge]

actually just because davinci resolve handles the render preview cache more reliable on my windows install. it still is a dualboot win10 and arch machine i just spend a considerable amount of time in my video editor

[@g4egk]

@@JanLunge Have you tried out Kdenlive?

[@JanLunge]

kden live doesnt offer the blackmagic raw support that i need for my camera and i work a lot with overlay graphics for which im working with the davinci resolve fusion editor (similar to after effects). so just the video editor might not be enough to switch to. but thanks for the input

[@oknaromyr]

stuck at 2:30, maybe someone can help me :(

[@iamfyrus]

I made my handwired macro with midi funtion for LR usage ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3nPnY2tedh2m6c ) since ViaL has a tap dance and midi support like QMK, i want to port to ViaL, then problem is i cant understand the steps to make it. Another question, if i port to ViaL, does my QMK disable?

[@dagger6498]

Can you please make a beginner friendly video for those of us who have no idea how to program? "Just do this" is not a proper answer. You skip over a lot of confusing details

[@JanLunge]

Yes the issue is that this stuff gets insanely complicated once you get into the details the video could be hours long, for this im currently developing a software so you dont need to code anything and still configure advanced firmware functions all powered by kmk and and curcuit python. Doesn’t work on all controllers but the controllers are cheaper than the pro micro so that is not a drawback. Tool is called pog and i show a bit of it in my video about the new horizons keyboard and the splaytoraid.

[@dagger6498]

​​@@JanLungeThanks for your reply! I really need to get vial on my ergodash. Quite insane how complicated this all seems for non-programmers. How difficult would it be to use your software on my keyboard then?

[@bryanpratamaputra7637]

Next video how to program rotary encoder please 🥺

[@SmedleyRudolf-w4k]

Martinez William Miller Nancy Hall Barbara

[@gustavofoz1335]

i got this as an error while trying to compile and have no idea to what i have to do to fix it: "json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting ',' delimiter: line 14 column 5 (char 284) make[1]: *** [builddefs/common_features.mk:566: .build/obj_5by2_via/vial_generated_keyboard_definition.h] Erro 1" Here's an image: drive.google.com/file/d/14O07tx133M-5CEC1QlxnW98HOrkF9izU/view?usp=sharing

[@XanaReia]

Why my vial need to load the json first? It's not automatically load the keyboard configuration

[@yriykrylov1776]

$ cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub doesn't work, it says that no such file or directory :-(

[@JanLunge]

the cat command uses a relative path so take care that you are in the home folder you can get there wirh just typing "cd" but your terminal should start with this automatically, this file will be generated when you successfully ran the ssh-keygen command you can check what files got generated with "ls $HOME/.ssh"

[@three36ixx]

​@@JanLunge Same with me. when i try to enter command #2 in QMK MSYS, I am greeted with "cat: .ssh/id_rsa.pub: No such file or directory". A .ssh folder (contains a file called known_hosts), a generic file with the SSH name, and .pub file all have appeared in C:\Users\"Username". The Username folder also contains the qmk_firmware folder. ​ Not sure where to go from here.

[@JanLunge]

Seems like something with the key generation, failed try running ‘ssh-keygen’

[@freewilly188]

make sure to create a folder called .ssh, took me an hour to figure it out