[SOLVED] FW 16 Keyboard backlight

No mention of OS. As procedure fails inder Fedora 40, I’m assuming windows.

It works under Linux as well.
See this post: FW 16 Keyboard backlight - #17 by MJ1

Thanks. Please post the udev rule(s)

The instructions are in a collapsed section, which you can click to show. Sorry, that wasn’t clear. I edited it.

No, initially it was snaps, but I changed to regular deb packages for this

Not brightness, cycles through different breathing speeds. All I want is for the backlight to actually stay on, but so far nothing allows that to happen.

This is really some odd behavior. I activated that breathing by accident just today. There was certainly no VIA app involved. I think I was trying to hit something like pos1 or something when whatever I hit triggered the breathing. Using the VIA website with the udev rules did fix it for me. The question is, what key combination activates that mode in the first place?

That’s odd. Even when I somehow activated it by accident today, Fn + Space was still changing brightness. Maybe @Matt_Hartley or someone else at Framework would be so kind and shed some light on this situation.

Try Fn + C.

I don’t see it listed on the FWL16 hotkey page, but Toggle backlight breathing, BL_BRTG, is on the default keymap under Fn + C. I’m guessing it’s an oversight that it wasn’t listed on the hotkey page.

From the latest keyboard firmware v0.2.9/keyboards/framework/ansi/keymaps/default/keymap.c

    [_FN] = LAYOUT(
        FN_LOCK, KC_F1,   KC_F2,   KC_F3,   KC_F4,   KC_F5,   KC_F6,   KC_F7,   KC_F8,   KC_F9,   KC_F10,  KC_F11,  KC_F12,  KC_INS,
        _______, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______,
        _______, _______, RGB_TOG, RGB_MOD, RGB_HUI, RGB_SAI, RGB_SPI, RGB_VAI, _______, _______, KC_PAUS, _______, _______, _______,
        _______, _______, KC_SYRQ, RGB_RMOD,RGB_HUD, RGB_SAD, RGB_SPD, RGB_VAD, KC_SCRL, _______, _______, _______,          _______,
        _______,          _______, _______, BL_BRTG, _______, KC_BRK,  _______, _______, _______, _______, _______,          _______,
        _______, _______, _______, _______,          BL_STEP,                   _______, _______, KC_HOME, KC_PGUP, KC_PGDN, KC_END
    ),
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Thanks, Fn+C did stop the breathing and now with that stopped Fn+Space does adjust brightness.

Looks like I am late to the party, looks like it is resolved now. Glad to hear you have it sorted.

Just stumbled upon this too when my non-RGB keyboard switched to breathing instead of static backlight. The FN + C key combo should really be listed on this page

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Thank you. This fixed it for me. I’ve had this randomly happen and then vanish.
Follow up: Is there a similar hot key for the num pad?

Yep.
+ is Toggle backlight breathing, BL_BRTG, on the default keymap when Numlock is off.

From the latest numpad firmware v0.2.9/keyboards/framework/numpad/keymaps/default/keymap.c

     /*
     * Extra keys for when numlock is disabled.
     * Numlock keys are passed through to the number layer,
     * and automatically remapped by the OS.
     *         ┌────┬────┬────┬────┐
     *  4 keys │    │    │    │    │
     *         ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
     *  4 keys │    │    │    │    │
     *         ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
     *  3 keys │Home│ ↑  │PgUp│BL  │
     *         ├────┼────┼────┤Brtg│
     *  4 keys │ ←  │    │ →  │    |
     *         ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
     *  3 keys │End │ ↓  │PdDn│BL  │
     *         ├────┴────┼────┤Step│
     *  3 keys │ Insert  │Del │    │
     *         └─────────┴────┴────┴
     * 21 total
     */
    [_FN] = LAYOUT(
        _______, _______, _______, _______,
        _______, _______, _______, _______,
        _______, _______, _______,
        _______, _______, _______, BL_BRTG,
        _______, _______, _______,
            _______,      _______, BL_STEP

    )

It’s not present on the Macropad though.

Fn+C worked for me. Now Fn+space cycles keyboard brightness as intended.
Thank you.

@Matt_Hartley ^ Perhaps you could pass this on, internally?

I don’t have RGB, so I’d remembered the only hotkey concerning the backlight I thought applied to mine. If “FN + C” had been listed just below the “FN + space” hotkey, it would’ve saved me some trouble. :wink:

@Aaron_Baff, the Chromium requirement is presumably due to Firefox’s lack of support for WebUSB.

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Which absolutely I get and understand. I knew that. I’m not saying want to use Firefox. I’m saying I want to use something other than Chrome/Chromium. There’s plenty of Linux USB serial drivers/etc, I want to know if there’s one that’ll work for this hardware to flash this firmware.

You want something other than Chromium for Via point-and-click configuration (keyboard.frame.work) or for flashing firmware? They are very different things. Via doesn’t even do flashing, at all.

For flashing, the RP2040 used in the keyboards make it so easy that you don’t need serial drivers or anything like that. The RP2040 shows up as “mass storage”, like a flash drive, when you trigger bootloader mode, which can be done by holding certain keys during power up. Literally any device capable of moving a file to a flash drive, can flash firmware to a RP2040. Smartphone, tablet, your wifi router if it has a USB port (seriously). You could flash from a toaster, if it had a USB port & you could tell it to move one file.

Once I know the protocol/packets/etc, I can do my own connector, maybe, as a local service and just hack it using websockets or something and redirect the web UI parts through there, instead of the WebUSB.

So you’re looking for GUI configuration, like Via (keyboard.frame.work), not firmware uploading, correct?

The Via protocol will be available. Via used to be closed source, but they finally opened it up some time ago. And the protocol, or enough of it, would have had to be available anyway for it to talk to the open source QMK.

But if you’re looking to go as far as talking to the keyboards over the Via protocol and creating a GUI, I’d suggest just converting your keyboards to Vial/QMK instead of Via/QMK.

Vial offers desktop apps for Windows, Linux, and Mac, in addition to a web option at https://vial.rocks. The desktop apps work fully offline, unlike Via’s electron app. And Vial also has more features than Via. Tapdance, combos, key overrides, and a range of qmk settings. Much better than Via, imo. A community member made a Vial port here, Keyboard: VIA / VIAL support? . Currently, it has the macropad and ANSI keyboards, it wouldn’t be hard to add others. Files that you can just flash over, right away, are here, github.com/spdkils/Framework-macropad/releases.

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