So I recently got an interest in custom keyboards and came across QMK VIA firmware? Could somebody explain what this is and if this is the best/easiest firmware to use. I also see QMK configurators but does this work with keyboards with VIA?

Thanks in advance

Hi all,

Hope your weekend goes/is going well! I recently got my first* mechanical keyboard, and one of the chief reasons I wanted to get one was to customize it any way I'd like. As a result, I had VIA(L) support high up in my must-haves. About a week into ownership of the same, I think I have settled on a layout that makes sense to me (but of course, I am open to feedback and questions!).

I will document my journey with VIA in this post. Hopefully it proves helpful to someone or encourages them to start using VIA(L). I would also love to see how your layers are setup, so please do share them!

Intro (skip if you know what VIA is)

For those with a VIA supported keyboard (including basically all Keychrons and some Royal Kludge boards!), I would strongly urge you to give it a try as it is super-easy, doesn't even need you to install any application on your computer and will likely make you more productive! All you have to do is go to https://usevia.app/ using any Chromium-based browser (Edge, Brave, Chrome, etc.); since Firefox doesn't give the browser access to the system's HID devices for increased security. All settings you change are automatically applied and saved to your keyboard. The most awesome feature imo is that because VIA can be used as a webapp, one can access it from any WebHID supported browser (check here for support) on any device!

Adding Macros

First order of business was adding macros to speed up my most used keyboard shortcuts. This is how I initially coded M0 to activate Windows' Snipping Tool:

{KC_LGUI, KC_LSFT, KC_S}

This is a "chord" type macro. While this M0 macro worked correctly, I faced an issue with M1 (Win Shift T) and M2 (Ctrl Win V) macros which I also coded as chords in the same way. Whenever activated, the modifier keys of the macros (Win & Shift for M1; Ctrl & Win for M2) would stay active even after I was done activating them, and remained that way till I activated the macro again.

I am not sure if this is the best way to go about this, but coding macros as a combination of keystrokes pressed and released with an amount of delay solved the problem. So, M0 would now look like this:

{+KC_LGUI}{+KC_LSFT}{+KC_T}{10}{-KC_LGUI}{-KC_LSFT}{-KC_T}

I also incorporated these delays for the other macros. Additionally, I added another macro M3 (Win + Period) to be make access to the emoji menu easier.
The annoying thing about adding macros is that on the face of it, the VIA webapp appears to have a perfectly functional macro editor (similar to the one in Logitech G Hub) as below:

However, it doesn't seem to be possible to add commands (unlike the Logitech G Hub Macro editor) through this GUI interface. The record function also doesn't seem to work (at least for the macros I was trying to add) even when in full screen. So, this editing layout appears only once I type the script in the script tab. It is still great seeing a visual description of just what exactly the script does, along with the option to change or remove keys and delay times, but adding a + button to add a key or delay would have made it perfect and much more accessible by making the learning curve much easier.

In any case, learning QMK scripting should be fairly easy, so this is not a big issue. Just something I wanted to put out there in case others have the same issues as me.

That's basically it for macros. I had the option to add as many as 16 (M0 through M15), although you would also need to make sure that all your scripts fit into the board's memory.

Using multiple layers (aka a 2nd "Fn" key)

Perhaps the biggest change you can make for your keyboard habits compared to my last post is learning to use multiple layers. I recently saw this YouTube video in my feed showing how to make the Caps Lock key more useful, which inspired me to remap the Caps Lock key (which I rarely use anyway) on my Bridge75 Plus to a combo Caps Lock and Fn key using QMK's Layer Tap (LT) function in VIA.

So now, if I press the Caps Lock key normally, it acts like a regular CL key. However, if I press it for more than the duration of a tap, it acts as the Fn key! I also much prefer having the Fn key accessible to my left hand, because then I always have access to it (to access keys on the right side, I'd need to remove my hand from the mouse; and shifting hands from left to right side is just inconvenient). I remapped the old Fn key to the Right Ctrl key since I do use it a fair bit.

This facilitated the other big change - I moved all of the keyboard's factory configurable options to layer 2. While holding the Caps Lock key, the Left Shift key is used to access the second layer.

This is how layer 0 (default layer) looks like now:

The function row came with predefined functions for layer 1 (which I think is based on the default Apple layout), of which I modified keys F5-F12. I rarely use the media keys on any keyboard since my I use my G502 (thanks to G-Shift) for that.
Here are the other functions accessed through this layer:

• The += key launches the calculator. Right now, it's only marginally faster than pressing the win key, typing "ca" and hitting enter, but I expect this to improve as I incorporate this into my muscle memory.

• E key: Emoji menu via macro M3 (Win + period)

• T key: M1 for OCR via PowerToys (Win + Shift + T)

• S key: M0 for snipping tool (Win + Shift + S)

• V key: M2 for paste as plain text via PowerToys (Ctrl + Win + V)

• Win key: Right click menu

With the Caps Lock key held, holding the Left Shift key makes layer 2 accessible::

All factory configurable settings (connection mode, RGB controls, debounce time, battery level indicator & switching to Apple layout) have been moved to Layer 2 as I would prefer to have layer 1 for stuff used more often.

That's all of it! While there is another layer (3) available to use, I don't see myself making use of it at least for this keyboard. I imagine it might be more useful on smaller keyboards (40%, 60% etc.).

Most of the changes next are likely going to be trying to make layer 1 even more efficient/productive. If you read all of this, thanks for persevering through and I hope you took away something useful. Happy typing and enjoy the weekend!