Hello,
I'm mainly a retro computing fan, so my interest in keyboards have been usually in how to maintain/restore mechanical keyboards from old Commodore Amiga, IBM PCs and Workstations.
Excuse the worthlessness of this filthy casual.
Many months ago, I was given a Vortex KBT Pure Pro 60%. Since it gave no sign of activity and Windows would not detect it at all when plugged in, it was believed to be electronically damaged and was gifted to me for spare parts. Said keyboard was supposed to be burned out by a power loss/surge.
Recently, I took it out of storage to tear if to pieces and give it use. When I disassembled the case, I noticed the jumpers in the back had some damage on the solder points. Once I fixed it and put all four switches on its OFF position, the keyboard lights (all of them, the whole keyboard) started to blink 3 times immediately after plugging it, and Windows manage to detect it as an unknown USB device, before the keyboard shuts down.
On any other position, it does nothing at all, like before.
The reset procedure does nothing (it does not blink no matter how long you keep pressing Fn+R).
I suspect eighter a wrong firmware update happened, or some electric surge corrupted the EPPROM. With all the contacts in the default position, the micro-controller manages to execute enough of its boot sequence to do a LED test and enable the USB port long enough for it to be detected by Windows.
I've found threads with
similar symptoms with bad firmware updates.
---
After finding the Vortex
current web page, I managed to contact them and request a firmware update, since they only have posted POKER 3 and later keyboards in it, and the
old one mentioned in the box and documentation has been down since 2013~14. They answered, but didn't send me a recovery tool, just the binary file.
I suspect that it can't be fixed through USB anyway: they only sent it to me after I asked about some places to plug leads for a microcontroller programmer of some kind (GND VCC RS ICE_CK1 ICE_DAT1).
Also, the firmware they sent me is the same version that the one installed on the keyboard during fabrication (v16), so it sheds doubts about it being the result of a firmware update.
---
Unfortunately, I know the bare essentials of electronics, just enough to test and perform simple fixes with a solder and a multimeter; microcontroller programming is out of my league. I started reading a bit and found several mentions in this forum about firmware hacks of Vortex's POKER PRO, 2 and 3 keyboards (
POKER-PRO,
POKERII,
POK3R)
*
https://reverseengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/5945/finding-the-actual-thumb-code-in-firmware*
https://github.com/erichkeane/poker2firmwarehackingStill, said firmware hacks seems to be installed through the firmware update application, which requires the keyboard to be detected as a keyboard device (mine does not).
The threads mentioned how all Vortex keyboards use a
NuvoTon micro-controller unit (MCU) based on the Cortex M0 (limited ARMv2 thumbcode compatible) CPU, with 32KB of flash ROM. Said specs matches the file I was sent.
NuvoTon shells
development kits and boards for their micro-controllers, including a programmer-debugger, the
Nu-Link, with limited and full debugging capabilities (Nu-Link and Nu-Link Pro). The problem it is the cost of the manufacturer's programmer plus post would cost nearly as much as a new, current Vortex keyboard model in Amazon (over 100$). That should kill this project in the water.
BUT, apparently
Baite Electronics sells a clone of the
Nu-Link, the
Bu-Link. It seems to be a good enough clone that it seems to run the NuvoTon dev suite, and cheap enough to justify the expense (11$), even if ends failing.
So, my question is:
- Has someone managed to install the firmware with a programmer?
- Does it really require the brand/clone programmer, or any generic TTL programmer could do it?
- Once I receive my own in about a month, could someone guide me to install it?
Thanks in advance
----
My keyboard:
Cardboard Box:
Brand: KB talKing (KBT)
Model: 60% Pure Pro (blue)
Distribution: Spanish
Color of Keys/LED: Black/Purple
Keyboard back-plate:
Backplate brand: Pure Pro
S/N: Y130**********
Model Name: PXK-7000
Circuit board:
Circuit board: IKBC?-POKERPRO-K67A-2-02-06 2013.01.26
MCU factory firmware: (Adhesive label over MCU)
S1914V16
CS:F905
