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Genesis Preorders Shipping Now, and Rotary Encoders Configurable in Via

by David Hoelscher

We have a few exciting updates: We are now shipping Genesis preorders, and we've made it easier than ever to change the functionality of your Genesis rotary encoders! Update: As of 3/12/2021, all preorders have been shipped.

Genesis Preorders

As mentioned in our last update here, we had received the wrong rubber feet from our supplier, but the replacements have arrived so we can now start shipping!

Assigning Rotary Encoders in VIA

Edit: firmware and VIA JSON last updated 3/16/2021


And as mentioned in another update here, we wanted to make it even easier to modify the encoder functionality so you can change it to operate like a mouse scroll wheel, function keys...you name it! So now we've generated new firmware and a VIA JSON file that lets you dynamically map the encoder rotations to whatever keypresses you want, without having to recompile. To upgrade your Genesis to do this, follow these steps:

  1. Download these two files (right click, "save as" for both): firmware and VIA JSON 
  2. Download and install QMK Toolbox, if you don't already have it
  3. With QMK Toolbox running, plug in Genesis while holding down the top-left key (or pressing down on the top-left encoder, if installed). This puts Genesis into bootloader mode, and QMK Toolbox should then report "DFU device connected"
  4. In QMK Toolbox, click "open" and find the firmware file downloaded in step 1. Click"flash" and wait for the programming process to complete (takes less than a minute).
  5. Open up VIA, go to "File -> Import Keymap", and select the VIA JSON downloaded in step 1. At this point, VIA should now recognize the keyboard as "CUSTOMMK GENESIS REV2", as shown below

 

And that's it! The two keys in the top left of the VIA layout will be virtually pressed whenever the top left encoder is rotated counterclockwise and clockwise and the two keys in the top right do the same for the right encoder. If you only have one encoder installed, you may disregard the keys for the location without an encoder). Layers work as-expected, so you can assign different encoder actions to each layer as well. The default assignment for the encoders as-shipped is volume control.

Please note that going forward, all Genesis orders are being shipped with the new Rev2 firmware installed. However, until VIA is updated, you will need to download the VIA JSON in step 1 above, as well as step 5.

 

Some fun ideas for encoder(s), now that they can be more easily changed:

  • Remap it to mousewheel scrolling for reading through articles and documents.
  • Assign to a lesser-used function key like F14 and use AutoHotKey to respond by running scripts
  • Assign to a function key and then use an Excel macro (with a Excel hotkey assignment to the same key) to map the rotation to execution of the macro, such as incrementing/decrementing the currently selected cell value.
  • If you have two encoders, assign one to up/down mouse movements and the other to left-right mouse movements, and then you can use Genesis as a digital Etch-a-sketch.

 

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