Varmilo VA87M Mechanical Keyboard Discussions | Drop

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Varmilo VA87M Mechanical Keyboard

Mech Keys

FULL DISCUSSION

randalla

Nov 18, 2014

With regards to Mac compatibility with this board, it turns out that the vendor is correct and the keyboard is not compatible. Through my limited testing with the board (basically, yesterday), it appears that the keyboard it using NKRO in such a way that it is incompatible with OS X. However, there are some weird oddities:
1) The keyboard works when I need to enter my password before the OS boots due to File Vault full-disk encryption. 2) When connected to my Macbook, none of the keys were operational, including performing keyboard only modifications like changing the backlight level. 3) With USB Overdrive, the keyboard presents as two keyboards: one with 48 mappable keys, and the other with 49 (this is probably how they are doing NKRO). 4) The USB Vendor ID is 65535. 5) The board has no DIP switches, and I've tested every key with the FN modifier so there appears to be no way to disable NKRO. 6) Though I don't have proof, it would not surprise me if this keyboard is related to the Leopold FC750R, which is also not compatible with Mac OS X. The FC750R has more function modifiers, though.
Ideas that I've had so far to try and get it working are:
1) Use a USB -> PS/2 adapter with a PS/2 -> USB adapter to force the keyboard into a compatible mode with the Mac. I don't have all the parts to do this, so I can't test it. I'm not even fully sure that the keyboard is capable of PS/2 mode as I wasn't able to get even that working with my PC at work or home. However, I couldn't get any other keyboard I have (rubber dome and mechanical) to work with my PS/2 adapter, so I can't rule anything out yet. 2) There is a USB driver that was made for the Noppoo Choc keyboard (which is NKRO full time) that can be used with other keyboards. It can be found here:
http://thefloweringash.github.io/iousbhiddriver-descriptor-override/
The problem with the above is that you have to build it yourself, and then modify the Info.plist for your keyboard. While to me it doesn't look terribly hard, it might send others running. As I haven't played with that yet, either, I don't know if it might be a solution or not.
I'm still working on all of this, and as time permits I hope to at least play with the USB extension and see if that works.
With all this said, I really appreciate Massdrop lending me this board so that I can test it for them, and this community. If anyone would like to assist me in this, I'm open to any suggestions.