What is SpaceFN and why you should give it a try
The SpaceFN concept - setting up your space key as a layer switch when held - is probably one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby. Let me explain how it works. My SpaceFN article on kbd.news made some rounds recently - quite surprisingly given the age of this concept. This piece you're reading is a condensed version of the full post. If you're left with unanswered questions, you'll most likely find the info you're looking for in the original write-up. On my imaginary top list of the most useful keyboard features, tweaks and hacks, SpaceFN would deserve a podium finish for sure. But what makes it so special? In short: SpaceFN is easy to implement, easy to learn, costs nothing, can be used with any keyboard, and can improve your productivity instantly. I will list its benefits below, but can state right at this point that the SpaceFN concept, setting up your space key as a layer switch when held, is clearly one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby....
Apr 30, 2024
and then played around with Automator enough so that * drumroll *
YOU CAN NOW DRAG AND DROP BIN FILES TO LOAD THEM ONTO THE BOARD! (yes, this is Mac only, sorry, but I uploaded all of the source. Also you still need to hit the reset button 😝)
https://github.com/LastContinue/ctrl-info/releases/tag/v0.2
Downloading this will give you two files, a bootstrapper (will download everything you need to just load Bin files from the configurator) and a loader, called CTRL-LDR.
See my notes in the release about "un-trusted developer" warnings.
Here's some screenshots
Oh you might also see "cd: no such file or directory: /Users/<your name>/Desktop/CTRL" as an error in the terminal. That just means you need to bootstrap first! 😉
I hope this helps people and I had a fun time building it!
This allows for jumping directly to flashing mode via key combination instead of pressing the hardwired reset button.
I saw in one of the earlier versions of either QMK or MD's fork, there was some code for reset, https://github.com/LastContinue/qmk_firmware/blob/master/keyboards/massdrop/ctrl/keymaps/default/keymap.c#L203-L210 but I couldn't get it to work.
I see why now. Seems to be quite a bit of linkage to get it work.
I need to pull this down and run a diff to see exactly where your magic lies. Will definitely tinker around with it and report back.
Which is driven by: https://github.com/DarkMio/qmk_firmware/commit/054e32c000240a83dd490e468609bbd580651466