• Novatools
• Disclaimer
• Pre-requisites
• Hardware
• Usage
• Matrix

Novatools

This is a collection of tools for reading, patching and flashing the Novatouch TKL firmware.

Disclaimer

This is just a quick hack that has only by tested by me. It is very dependant on a specific version of the firmware and if your keyboard has another firmware things will most probably break. The checksum of the original firmware will be checked before patching. If checksum differs the patching will fail.

It is possible you will brick your keyboard by using these tools.

Make sure you store a copy of your original firmware safely.

Pre-requisites

• MSP430 toolchain
• mspdebug
• Python

Hardware

Connect MSP430 programmer with Spy-Bi-Wire to the GNS, TEST, RST on the Novatouch programming connector (CN2):

    +--------------------+ 
    |CN2                 | 
    ++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
 10  | | | | | | | | | |  1
     + | | + | + + + + +   
       | |   |             
       | |   +-----+ RST   
       | +---------+ TEST  
       +-----------+ GND

Usage

Connect Novatouch to programmer and run the make flash target:

$ make flash

This will fetch the original firmware (main flash only), do some patching, and then flash the patched firmware back to the Novatouch.

The patches done by default are:

• Replace caps-lock with ctrl
• Switch place of the 'backspace' and '\' keys
• Add hook function for entering BSL (bootloader) mode with fn + F1 + F2

Flashing via BSL is not yet tested because the HID driver on OS X promptly refuses to recognize the keyboard when in that mode. "Should" work fine on Linux though :)

Edit the patch.py file to do other key mappings, hopefully it's understandable with the overly commented code.

Matrix

This a table representation of the actual key matrix. The row is the lowest 3 bits of key id and the column is the 4 bits above that (id = xCCCCRRR). I.e. tab = 5 + (2<<3) = 21.

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
0:	2	1	tilde	3	f1	4	6	5	9	8	7	0	ins	-	bkspc	=
1:	alt_l	super_l	ctrl_l		esc		spc					alt_r	left	super_r	ctrl_r	fn
2:					f5				f8	f7	f6	f9	printscr	f10	f12	f11
3:	z		shift_l	x	f4	c	b	v	,	m	n	.		/	right	shift_r
4:	s	a	caps	d	f2	f	h	g	l	k	j	;		'		ret
5:	w	q	tab	e	f3	r	y	t	o	i	u	p	del	[	\	]
6:														up	pause	pgup
7:													home	down	scroll	end