Flashed wrong Hex files and can't find the correct ones

[morgenanspyrys]

Hi everyone,
a couple of years ago I bought a board called Nexttime 98 /Next Time 98 / NT980 on Ali.
The AliExpress listing has a google drive link for software & firmware, which is unfortunately unavailable and was never archived.
It's a VIA board, but it never worked on browser VIA or the VIA 2.0 desktop app. In the authorization popup its name was "NJ9".
As VIA wasn't working, I decided to flash a new hex file and luckily the board was in the compatibility list (or so I thought), so I downloaded the NT980 hex file and flashed it.
Turns out, that file is for a different keyboard also called NT980, none of the keys work, and I have been unsuccessful in finding correct hex files for any of the names this board goes by that I am aware of.


I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone that still has the old files shared them with me, or if anyone could point me to resources to be able to create my firmware file.
Thanks in advance!

[Zeus501]

If this board uses an MCU I'm familiar with, I could help out and recreate the firmware. If you post a pic of the PCB, that'll help with identifying the MCU and other critical information.

[mareu]

Maybe a silly suggestion but in case you haven't already, just contact the seller on Ali and ask. I've been in similar situations where they've sometimes gotten back to me with just what I needed even when its been over a year since the order.

[morgenanspyrys]

Maybe a silly suggestion but in case you haven't already, just contact the seller on Ali and ask. I've been in similar situations where they've sometimes gotten back to me with just what I needed even when its been over a year since the order.

They first tried to give me the run around (we don't have an order from you, you can order it again if you want [product discontinued btw]), but after I sent them my Ali order via chat they offered to send me a layout .json via email. I told them I needed a .hex but that I'd appreciate the .json, as well (and gave them my email). No response or .json yet and in general communication with China always takes a while due to timezones, but maybe that'll resolve things (I'm kinda doubtful because I specifically asked for "firmware" and ".hex" before and they THEN offered the .json so they might not have it? They don't appear to be the manufacturer so it's possible)

If this board uses an MCU I'm familiar with, I could help out and recreate the firmware. If you post a pic of the PCB, that'll help with identifying the MCU and other critical information.

Thanks for the offer, here you go. It appears to be using an Atmega 32u4. There's also 3 of these smaller chips, I'm pretty sure they're related to the RGB? But that's just a wild guess, according to google it's supposed to be used for 7-segment displays. It's a TM74HC595, the smaller text is 2122FA14-5053JT. If you need more and/or closer up pictures, let me know and I'll get them to you.

[Sup]

Usually these Aliexpress VIA boards aren't merged with the official QMK/VIA branch. Just connecting to VIA won't do you also have to provide a json file to see the mapping in VIA.