This guide will walk you through the process of upgrading or flashing firmware on your Pikatea device. The QMK_Toolbox runs only on Windows, for Linux (and MacOS) have a look at the pointers at the bottom of this page.

Download Firmware

The firmware download page contains updated firmware files for all Pikatea products. Download the firmware you'd like (.hex file) and remember where it is downloaded.

Download QMK_Toolbox

Download the program QMK_toolbox which is used to flash the firmware file on the device. Go to the download page and get version 0.0.21 located under "Assets" (not the beta or 0.1.0 which seems to have hickups at the moment). 

Configure QMK_Toolbox

After downloading QMK_Toolbox, open it and make sure the following settings are set.

1. Set MCU (AVR only) to atmega32u4. 
2. Set Auto-Flash to checked
3. Click "open" to set the local file to the firmware downloaded earlier (.hex file)

It should look something like this:

Flash Firmware

Connect the device to the computer. Wait for the computer to recognize the device and then press the reset button which is the small button located on the back of the device.

QMK_Toolbox will recognize the device and start flashing the firmware. If you have issues, try restarting QMK_Toolbox and trying again. Don't forget to select Auto-Flash.

If you use linux, try holding down the reset button as you plug in the device instead.

That's it! 

Linux instructions - QMK

As a Linux user you probably want to compile your own firmware. Our forks of QMK and Vial-QMK include the configurations for the macropads. After setting up QMK, you can build and flash the firmware with one command:

qmk flash -kb <my_keyboard> -km <my_keymap>

E.g.: qmk flash -kb macropad1x5 -km default

QMK has loads of cool features and options for customizing you macropad. Have a look at the QMK documentation.

Linux instructions - Vial

In case you want to go straight to Vial and configure your macropad with a convenient GUI, you can download a compatible firmware and flash it directly with avrdude: 

avrdude -p atmega32u4 -c avr109 -P /dev/ttyACM0 -U flash:w:macropad1x5_vial.hex:i

Make sure to enter the correct port and path to the .hex on your machine. Prepending sudo or adjusting the udev rules may be required. You only need to flash the firmware once and can use Vial from then on.