geekhack Projects > Making Stuff Together!
Need help with bricked keyboard.
guily6669:
Thaks for the replies and yeah, even using AI for Deep search it can't find a single thing about them.
For now I have only this, maybe someone could know similar chips with same exact pins.
Yellow seems some kind of reset pin (Pin 7 on U1), Green on U2 (pin 41) when pulled high seems some kind of debug/Boot mode but doesnt show up on windows anything new, however some keys light up at same exact pattern in a certain rhythm and since its optical if I close the beam on all blinking pattern keys the blinking rate drops massively and blinks slow, but nothing ever shows on windows other then the same normal USB and the 2 broken Text input HID with exclamation mark, it never exposes the bootloader which is vid_2ea8&pid_0001. :(
ps: If can get some good amount of pins right, AI could maybe find a very similar chip that could be the original of this copy or another copy with pineout information, I also already tried mailing some companies that seem associated with this VID and nobody ever replies.
guily6669:
Still nothing sadly, but I found 1 more keyboard that seems to be sold almost nowhere that seem to be the same exact OEM with just different brand and the software is also the same with just different images and same FW with a few differences, but I asked them and they also don't sell the chips and said for me to buy a new keyboard :mad:
I wonder if I buy a new keyboard could I make a dimmer for the ARGB ring of light with just a potentiometer?
Or do I need a full circuitry with like PWM dimming and is that too hard to make?
vvp:
It is hard to tell without a schematic. And they will not give you schematic when they did not give you the data sheets for the two chips.
I think it is likely that the correct resistor(s) at correct place(s) will allow you to lower the brightness. There is a small chance you will damage the board doing this. The first problem is that the brightness change can be highly nonlinear with respect to resistor value change. The second bigger problem is that knowing where to put the resistor(s) is going to be hard without documentation (schematic). This second problem is there also with the custom PWM driving. It is not worth the trouble. It is likely easier to design and make whole PCB & controller yourself than trying to reverse engineer the undocumented hardware you have.
If the keyboard allows you to specify the full color spectrum (instead of only 8 colors) then it is likely the hardware supports control of overall brightness as well. But their firmware may not allow this. That would explain your failure with the "scripts". What cannot be explained is that you managed to damage hardware of the original keyboard by just experimenting with the "scripts". That indicates a serious design flaw of the keyboard.
guily6669:
--- Quote from: vvp on Sun, 17 August 2025, 08:17:42 ---It is hard to tell without a schematic. And they will not give you schematic when they did not give you the data sheets for the two chips.
I think it is likely that the correct resistor(s) at correct place(s) will allow you to lower the brightness. There is a small chance you will damage the board doing this. The first problem is that the brightness change can be highly nonlinear with respect to resistor value change. The second bigger problem is that knowing where to put the resistor(s) is going to be hard without documentation (schematic). This second problem is there also with the custom PWM driving. It is not worth the trouble. It is likely easier to design and make whole PCB & controller yourself than trying to reverse engineer the undocumented hardware you have.
If the keyboard allows you to specify the full color spectrum (instead of only 8 colors) then it is likely the hardware supports control of overall brightness as well. But their firmware may not allow this. That would explain your failure with the "scripts". What cannot be explained is that you managed to damage hardware of the original keyboard by just experimenting with the "scripts". That indicates a serious design flaw of the keyboard.
--- End quote ---
Thanks so much for your insight. It probably allows more colors but it's locked in the FW because the leds are ARGB and at least the keys are full customizable to any color but the rings (keyboard and wrist pad) are pre-set likely deep inside by the FW and it sure can do ARGB all around the rings because there's one effect that goes all around with many colors changing and rotating (they call it snake effect).
And yeah sucks having no reset and bootloader pins anywhere on the PCB...
Anyway I have now 1 of the chips that is the same from a TKL keyboard of the brand and installed the full size keyboard FW into it (bricking the TKL (but can be restored by reinstalling TKL FW) ), however the 2nd chip sadly is different and I'm hopping the whole FW is just in that chip that is the exact same in both keyboards.
It's on a store to replace the chip (Cause I don't have a heat gun, only a 11W JVC iron) and check all the pads on the other second chip cause I kept shorting to try finding anything and the pins are not in the best shape and hope it didn't burn the chip or anything else either.
ps: In the attachments the top one is the keyboard I want fixed and the bottom is the TKL keyboard (the words are in Portuguese it's meant for the repair shop here)...
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