Step-By-Step Guide To Configuring Your Planck Using QMK, VIA and Vial on macOS
Some time back I built my very first mechanical keyboard. If you are curious, it was a Planck, a 40% ortholineal keyboard.
One fof the first things to do with a new custom keyboard is installing and compiling QMK the firmware that runs the keyboard. The Planck comes installed with OLKB’s QMK for Planck and compiling locally allows for user customizations which I have a bunch (what’s the point of a programmable keyboard otherwise?).
Compiled you say?
Why do we need to compile the firmware? Well, I assume the keyboard takes a program in machine code only (don’t know anything about firmware!), so QMK allows users to build the final version of the code to run on their keyboards.
And why do we need to change the firmware of the keyboard you ask? Well to update the keymap (aka the binding of physical keys on a keyboard to commands).
Beyond compilation
But compiling QMK from the source won’t always be needed. Once we have done the initial setup there are visual tools that might make our life’s easier.
See A Detailed Overview of QMK, VIA, and Vial Visual Configurators for Mechanical Keyboards for more details.
Setting up QMK and other visual configurators
This is a three part series:
- Part 1 — QMK: Setting up QMK for the Planck on macOS
- Part 2 — VIA: Setting up VIA for the Planck on macOS
- Part 3 — Vial: Setting up Vial for the Planck on macOS
Resources
Here are some links that helped while trying to make sense of all this.