Rust on the Ferris Sweep
6 comments
·March 31, 2025MathiasPius
VexorLoophole
The custom keyboard bubble is really deep and filled with many, many different kind of setups which makes research not really easy.
To get you started:
- QMK is probably the most mature firmware for non-wireless devices and widely used. Probably the best starting point to get in touch with all the different concepts of keymap layers, one-shot modifiers, hold-tap-mechanics, ... - Via/Vial is based on QMK and simply tries to provide a GUI for instant and live configuration of the keyboard, instead of doing it by code. - ZMK is also very stable and designed for wireless usage (battery consumption) but also REALLY complex because of the toolchain (at least in my opinion) - RMK, KMK, ... are all different kind of firmwares trying to do something different or better or just in a different language like rust or python. Most of the time these kind of firmware expect some kind of "basic knowledge". So I would start with the classics QMK or ZMK.
MathiasPius
Thanks for writing all this down! I've written a lot of Rust, which was why I was drawn to RMK initially, but ran into a lot of the same headaches as the author, but without the perseverance to resolve any of them.
I did manage to get QMK working eventually, but without VIA/L the prospect of having to flash the two parts of my Ferris Sweep every single time I wanted to fine tune it, and having already spent a lot of time just getting that far, completely burned me out on the project.
kjuulh
I feel the pain, I had so much trouble setting up QMK to my handwired keyboard. I had to give up on VIA and VIAL and just config my keys in text.
It basically took the same amount of time 3d printing my case, soldering it (Dactyl Manuform) etc. As it did configuring it. Massive pain, and quite unclear documentation on how to actually set up a handwired keyboard. Next time will be smoother, and I probably should document what I did ;) I honestly, felt like a rookie programmer over again, good fun, but super challenging.
lawn
Ah, I had some trouble adding my own custom keyboard to QMK (with a trackball too). Annoying, but as you say fun and rewarding.
I documented my process on my blog[0], both the hardware prototyping, soldering, and QMK setup.
[0]: https://www.jonashietala.se/blog/2024/11/26/building_my_ulti...
null
I tried the same about a month ago and was unable to get anywhere, probably due to being very new to the custom keyboard scene and having only a very vague understanding of how qmk/rmk/vial/keymaps fit together. Thanks for writing this up, I might give it another go now!