KBC/Vortex Poker 2 Mechanical Keyboard Firmware hacking
Flash tool and firmware files can be found attached to this post: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=50245.0
Brief debugging/firmware file decoding has been done here:
Seemingly doing this decodes the firmware:rotate left 4 bits and invert:
c = (((c & 0x0f) << 4) | ((c & 0xf0) >> 4)) ^ 0xff
Processor is an ARM Cortex-M0 in a NUC122SC1AN:
'Valid' code seems to begin at 0x120. Header is potentially everything before that, Footer is the last 16 bytes. Last 4 bytes look to be some sort of checksum.
▼ No Sacrifice: Even though the New Poker II is 40% smaller than a normal keyboard, nothing has been sacrificed in the shrinking process. The extra keys like arrow keys and the function row are accessible on a secondary function layer. Hold down the Fn key and “3” becomes 'F3', hold down Fn key and “A” becomes “left arrow” etc. I ended up waiting like 2-3 weeks in total then got the refund and went with this. A little bit of a bummer there because I wanted the TKL with arrow keys, but I couldn't wait for a new keyboard for much longer. This one still ended up being like a week shipping which blows my mind a little bit. I recently purchased the ikbc poker2 mechanical keyboard but I can't get used to the Fn+WASD as arrow keys, I am more used to use my right hand for the arrows. After reading the menu, I can flip the DIP 4 to 'on' to turn the button right keys into arrow keys, however, doing this makes the SHIFT key into 'up' and I also used to use the right.
1/30/15 update:I've since picked up a Nu-Link-Pro programmer that should allow me to both see what is on the chip, and program it directly. The hope is that I can decode the firmware format from Vortex using that.
Unlock Arrow Keys On Keyboard
1- Solder leads to my poker (Done!)
2- Use the Vortex tool to flash a known firmware file (Done)
3- Dump said firmware using the Nu-Link-Pro, compare the two firmware files to check for compatibility. :: Apparently the Processor has a 'flash-lock' in place that prevents the tool from downloading firmware. I'm going to try a USB Sniffer to see what actually gets written to the device.
4- If possible and necessary, write a tool to convert the 'dumped' to the Vortex tool format. This would allow for programming WITHOUT the NU-Link, since the version on the chip would be in the 'programmed' state.
5- Begin custom firmware development!
5a- Start with getting IPS mode to work as closely to the Vortex version as possible, since hopefully this would allow us to reuse their tool to program the boards
5b- Attempt identification of keys on board and dip-switches
5c- write base version for key functionality
5d- LEDs? (difficult, since my board doesn't have LEDs installed, might have to solder them on).
Keyboard Arrow Keys Typing Numbers
5e- NKRO?
Keyboard Arrow Keys
5f- More firmware functionality? Programability? Layers? etc?