Edit A Keymap

NOTE: If you don't have Arduino support installed yet, you should work through those instructions first. If you want to switch to Dvorak or Colemak, you should work through this page, and then look at this page.

Editing a keymap is core to what Kaleidoscope (the firmware that powers your keyboard) is about, and probably one of the first things to try. For this example, let's imagine you want to map ESCAPE to the PROG key in the default keymap, as the QWERTY G-ds intended.

Step One: Edit

1. Open the Arduino IDE. In the “File” menu, click on the “Examples” submenu. Scroll down to ‘Model01-Firmware’.

There is a lot going on in this file. By all means, read through the code and the comments and get familiar with it if you like. Or you can just breeze past it for now and skip down to the keymaps:

2. Scroll down to this line:

enum { QWERTY, FUNCTION, NUMPAD }; // layers

That's where the keymaps section begins. It tells you that there are three layers:

• QWERTY is the default, or zero layer
• FUNCTION is layer 1
• NUMPAD is layer 2

The QWERTY keymap itself is a little further down, and looks like this:

  [QWERTY] = KEYMAP_STACKED
 (___,          Key_1, Key_2, Key_3, Key_4, Key_5, Key_LEDEffectNext,
  Key_Backtick,  Key_Q, Key_W, Key_E, Key_R, Key_T, Key_Tab,
  Key_PageUp,    Key_A, Key_S, Key_D, Key_F, Key_G,
  Key_PageDown,  Key_Z, Key_X, Key_C, Key_V, Key_B, Key_Escape,
  Key_LeftControl, Key_Backspace, Key_LeftGui, Key_LeftShift,
  ShiftToLayer(FUNCTION),

  M(MACRO_ANY),   Key_6, Key_7, Key_8,     Key_9,      Key_0,         Key_KeypadNumLock,
  Key_Enter,      Key_Y, Key_U, Key_I,     Key_O,      Key_P,         Key_Equals,
                       Key_H, Key_J, Key_K,     Key_L,      Key_Semicolon, Key_Quote,
  Key_RightAlt,   Key_N, Key_M, Key_Comma, Key_Period, Key_Slash,     Key_Minus,
  Key_RightShift, Key_LeftAlt, Key_Spacebar, Key_RightControl,
  ShiftToLayer(FUNCTION)),

It's a map of your keyboard's layout. The top block that starts with "(___," and ends with "ShiftToLayer(FUNCTION)," is the left half of the keyboardio. that first "___," represets the PROG key. It is a transparent key in the keymap, free to be mapped to anything you like.

At the end of the fourth row is "Key_Escape," which corresponds to the ESC key on your keyboard. That means "Key_Escape," is the keycode for the ESC key.

3. Replace "___," with "Key_Escape," in the first row, so your keymap now looks like this:

 [QWERTY] = KEYMAP_STACKED
(Key_Escape,   Key_1, Key_2, Key_3, Key_4, Key_5, Key_LEDEffectNext,
 Key_Backtick,  Key_Q, Key_W, Key_E, Key_R, Key_T, Key_Tab,
 Key_PageUp,    Key_A, Key_S, Key_D, Key_F, Key_G,
 Key_PageDown,  Key_Z, Key_X, Key_C, Key_V, Key_B, Key_Escape,
 Key_LeftControl, Key_Backspace, Key_LeftGui, Key_LeftShift,
 ShiftToLayer(FUNCTION),

 M(MACRO_ANY),   Key_6, Key_7, Key_8,     Key_9,      Key_0,         Key_KeypadNumLock,
 Key_Enter,      Key_Y, Key_U, Key_I,     Key_O,      Key_P,         Key_Equals,
                      Key_H, Key_J, Key_K,     Key_L,      Key_Semicolon, Key_Quote,
 Key_RightAlt,   Key_N, Key_M, Key_Comma, Key_Period, Key_Slash,     Key_Minus,
 Key_RightShift, Key_LeftAlt, Key_Spacebar, Key_RightControl,
 ShiftToLayer(FUNCTION)),

4. Save the file.

5. While holding down the prog key, click on the right arrow in the sketch window menu bar to compile compile and install.

Your keyboard's LED's will red flash across the board as the firmware is installed, and then the "LED" key will glow blue.

Now when you press the PROG key it will send an ESCAPE to your computer.