POK3R keyboard setup

Here are notes on how to program your Pok3r VTG-6100 keyboard.

You will find general instructions first and then more specific recipies after that.

General

First understand how to reset everything to default, for the mess you'll make the first few times

Action	Chord:
Factory reset	Hold both the left and right ALT keys
Reset selected layer only	FN + R until LED under spacebar stops flashing

The POK3R User Manual tells all, below is a reflow of that and the original David Jeni repo this repo was forked from. Review those if anything here is wrong or unclear. Also submit a PR, that would be appreciated.

Switching Layers

The LED color signals the current key layer. The keys on the key dance are those printed on the key on top, top being the printed glyphs closest to the screen.

Press the FN and the layer key and release, on release the colour should change and the keyboard layer selected.

LED color changes.

Layer	Color	Chord
Layer 1		FN+M
Layer 2	bue	FN+<
Layer 3	red	FN+>
Layer 4	purple	FN+?

Programming of layers

The default layer cannot be programmed. During programming, use the keys as labelled on the keyboard, irrespective of any reassignments.

The general recipe is as follows:

Step	Chord	Notes	Visual Feedback
1	FN + RCtrl	Use LCTRL if FN has been reassigned already.	Second LED under space bar is now lit
2	target key
3	new content	can be up to 32 char
4	PN		second LED will blink while programming
5	FN + RCTRL	to exit programming	second LED extinguishes

Say I want to map key i on Layer 2 (Blue) to type my bank password, because that's si very clever, I would type the following:

FN RCTRL i NoMoreMoniezForYou PN FN + RCTRL

Now, when Layer 2 is active (The blue LED is lit) and I hit i, the keyboard types NoMoreMoniesForYou.

Below follows a few remappings that are generally usefull.

Common key bindings

I use zsh in vim mode in the terminal, with PyCharm, spacemancs, and vim. So I want vim keybindings everywhere. To support this I map:

• CAPSLOCK to CTRL
• Map the arrow keys (Printed on the jkli keys) to the standard hjkl keys
• map the FN key to LCTRL (bottom leftmost key) to allow arrow keys in things Like PyCharm.

CAPSLOCK always as CTRL

Follow from left to right. Note you can do all the mappings seperated with PN between and FN + RCTRL at the begining and the end.

Start	Current	New Key	Program	Stop
FN+RCTRL	CapsLock	CTRL	PN	FN+RCTRL
FN+RCTRL	FN+CapsLock	CTRL	PN	FN+RCTRL

Home

FN + I then: FN + H then: PN

Vim HJKL and Page Up/Down

Movement	Current	New Key	Program
Left	FN + H	FN + J	PN
Down	FN + J	FN + K	PN
Up	FN + K	FN + I	PN
PgDown	FN + F	FN + O	PN
PgUp	FN + B	FN + U	PN

Volume controls

Volume	Current	New Key	Program
Mute	FN + X	FN + /?	PN
Vol-	FN + C	FN + ,<	PN
Vol+	FN + V	FN + .>	PN

Move FN to L_Ctrl

HJKL as cursor keys are more ergonomical to reach by moving the FN to the left Ctrl key location. Getting to the ` key is also way easier. Navigating VIM history and PyCharm intellisence dialogs also works out of the box. ALthough its propably better to map them to natibe hjkl anyway, if you can.

• Switch to Layer 2 (or 3, 4); this programming is per layer
• Unplug keyboard
• DIP switch 4 to ON
• Plugin keyboard again, then press FN then: L_Ctrl then: PN then: PN (to leave it in its original location)
• DIP switch 4 back to OFF (no need to unplug)

Good OSX Layer (Red)

Below setup is reportedly good vir OSX users. I have not tried it.

FN + . to switch to Layer 3

• Move FN to L_Ctrl
• FN + R_Ctrl to enter programming
• Common bindings
• Swap Cmd/Opt keys on both sides of space bar:
  • L_Cmd: L_Alt then: L_WIN then: PN
  • L_Option: L_WIN then: L_Alt then: PN
  • R_CMD: R_Alt then: R_FN (Win) then: PN
  • R_Option: R_FN (Win) then: R_Alt then: PN
• FN + R_Ctrl to exit programming

Resulting programming

Good Windows layer (Blue)

Below setup is reportedly good vir Windows users. I would not know as I don't give a rat's arse about Windows, and neither should you.

FN + ,< to switch to Layer 2

• Move FN to L_Ctrl
• FN + R_Ctrl to enter programming
• Common bindings
• FN + R_Ctrl to exit programming

Resulting programming

Sources

The how-to for these mappings is from 2 reddit threads

• r/mk: HowTo program pok3r
• r/mk: HowTo media controls pok3r

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Windows Layout on keyboard-layout-editor.com

OSX Layout on keyboard-layout-editor.com