Building custom QMK firmware for the massdrop ALT keyboard from source code.

Build it from source. A setup tutorial for the Massdrop ALT (or CTRL) keyboard using the Massdrop branch of QMK from github. Compiling custom firmware from source for customizing your layout, colors, and keys. I go into custom capslock LED colors at the end.

Massdrop QMK branch

Command to setup qmk first time:

Command to build:
make massdrop/alt:default

Firmware loader:

Command to flash firmware to board:

Hold down Fn + B for a few seconds to get the controller into DFU mode so you can flash firmware

List of QMK keycodes:

Spreadsheet to help you fill in colors:

Big Thanks to @LastContinue and @famguy07 on massdrop forums for the spreadsheets and to know where to start to dig further. Here are their posts for reference:

[corpbx]

Awesome work man, is there a way I can know where you've mapped the keys to increasing the brightness of the LEDs since I've tried the default fn + w or fn + s and it doesn't seem to work?

[SimGunther]

6:38
'/' != backslash; but it is a forward slash. Backslashes '\' make for good line continuations in python and escape sequence definitions in C though...

[taylorwhite]

Hey PleasureTek, Thanks more than a bunch for making these vids and sharing everything. My understanding is that using Massdrop's QMK firmware configurator doesn't allow you to have a range of LED color schemes/presets, modes, or effects. But your massdrop_alt_pleasuretek.bin firmware has switchable schemes, modes, effects coded in, plus your own coded effects. Which is friggin **sick** . The first few mins of your "How To custom multi layer LED" basically convinced me to drop $200 on a keyboard (which is nuts for me) because what you were demonstrating is exactly what I've wanted to get a hold of for years and years.

The thing is I have no experience programming / don't have ubuntu / linux anything like that. But it seems to me that all I would need is MS Visual Studio Code + command prompt?

For now I'm just hoping to edit the color presets/schemes within your massdrop_alt_pleasuretek.bin firmware (and the Fn keys), preserving your effects, modes, etc. So I only need to edit the .bin a bit with MS Visual Studio, and flash with CMD, right? I downloaded MS Visual Studio Code and started editing the Fn keys already, So I think I get the basics of this, just want to make sure I'm not missing something glaring.

(Kind of funny that you were saying that the bitwise code was the hardest part to grasp, that was super clear to me! Sounds like the long number is just a unique identifier for some set of keys, so one number can refer to multiple keys, right?)


Thanks again. Also your visuals videos are awesome. I'll be checking those out later ;)

[EricWestbrook]

Man, this is incredible - thank you. Side note - what are your key caps?! Looking for nice caps with shine-through.

[jbrandona]

Oh man I am really trying to use this to help me get RGB LEDs on my new clueboard but it's just so hard lmao