I followed all 23 steps on the one page assembly manual. I plugged the eight batteries in observing the correct polarity. I screwed on the clear plastic bottom cover. I plugged in the power cord into the power supply, and I plugged the power supply into the 110 VAC wall socket. I then pressed the “circle” key and the “one” key and nothing happened. The small OLED screen above the keyboard lit up but with only four or five entries: increase brightness F1, decrease brightness F2, status “s”, flash “x” but the keyboard did not light up. Pressing just about any other key on the keyboard turned off the OLED display. In reading the troubleshooting section of the operating manual (Chapter 10) the first bullet item says to wait 30 seconds (I did that). The second bullet item says to press the LPC_RST button on the motherboard (I did that). I don’t know what to try next. The laptop batteries were charged since I left the laptop plugged into the main power socket for many hours (eight or more). If anyone can help point me to some thing or some one that can shed some light on this vexing problem, it would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise I have purchased a useless paperweight! Thank you in advance. Have a great day!
Hi! Where did you buy the kit? My hypothesis is that somehow your keyboard was flashed with the wrong firmware (the standalone version does not have entries for system functions), but there may be another fault.
Can you email support@mntre.com? That is the official way to get help for support issues. Thanks!
That would also be my hypothesis. Note that newer keyboard revisions also have a DIP switch to switch between standalone and internal mode. But you still have to flash the appropriate firmware. Good luck!
The DIY kit was purchased through Crowd Supply since I live in the USA.
The first thing I did was to email support@mntre.com and someone with the name of “plom” suggested the best way to get to the bottom of my problem was to sign up and post my question here. Which I did today and it is ironic that “bnys” suggests the opposite! Go figure… grin
I did not invision having to do anything as invasive (my word) as having to flash the keyboard firmware! This is something I have not the faintest idea as to how to accomplish that. I reckon this is something that I will have to investigate further. Any pointers in that direction would be very helpful. Thanks for your response. Have a great day!
Okay, so now there are two votes for flashing the keyboard firmware. Is there anywhere that this process is described? The keyboard in this DIY kit does not appear to be able to exist as a standalone keyboard. In fact the connectors are not standard such as a USB connection. Plus why would the DIY kit ship with an older version of the keyboard? I am very new to this whole effort which appears to have been gaining speed and enthusiasts for several years now. I only happened to come across a pointer to the track ball sub-system while looking for track ball mice some years ago. I stored the link and happened to come across a PDF with the track ball schematic in the past week or two. That led me to the Reform website and from there to Crowd Supply. Please point me to any and all helpful information – please do not assume I am in any way clued into this movement (my word, again). Thanks for your response. And have a great day.
Hi, I’m sorry to hear about your frustrating experience.
The menu items you describe for the keyboard OLED menu indeed suggest that the keyboard had been flashed here by accident with the standalone firmware. Can you remove the keyboard from the laptop and show us some pictures of the keyboard so we can be certain of the version?
I assume that you have keyboard 3.0 with three space bars (and no ALT keys between the space bars). Is that correct? This keyboard normally has a USB-C connector. When the standalone switch on the keyboard is toggled to the “ON” position, it can be connected to another PC and flashed there with the dfu-programmer tool. If you have a US keyboard layout, the correct file to flash would be Artifacts · build (#6302) · Jobs · Reform / reform · GitLab
If you have an older model keyboard, you can only flash it inside of Reform. For that, you will need to turn Reform on without the keyboard. That is a bit tricky, because you would either need USB UART adapter with 3 dupont wires or alternatively flash a firmware version to the motherboard’s LPC that turns the computer on by default when power is applied. But lets identify your keyboard model first.
Thanks. I assume you are talking about section 9.5.1 “Keyboard Firmware” in the operator handbook. This is okay, I guess, if you know a lot about the project and the subject at hand. For me, it is a bit thin on the details that I would need to proceed – no offense, this is my lack of knowledge about the project and lack of history of the development of same over the years. Clearly, I have a lot to learn and absorb – more than I had barganed for when I decided to purchase the DIY kit. Thanks again for the pointer to that section. Have a great day!
First of all, thank you for your very informative and kind post regarding my problem. Much appreciated. That said, what sort of pictures would you need? Top? Bottom? What sort of detail do you need?
Looking at the keyboard with the laptop lid raised I see two ALT keys inbetween two space bars. From the left of that lowest row I see: HYPER, then some sort of zig-zag logo key, then CTRL key, then SPACE, then ALT, ALT again, then SPACE, page up, page down, then left arrow, down arrow, and finally right arrow. It is very hard to read the key labels without any llighted key caps.
It would appear that this is the wrong kind of keyboard. Your final paragraph describing what to do if I have an older keyboard seems like a fairly complex process. Is there a way to purchase the correct new model keyboard as a drop in replacement, or am I stuck with the keyboard that I have now?
Thank you again for your very helpful post. Have a great day!
You can get the newest model keyboard (4.0 with RGB backlight) in our shop, using the “Color: No Case” option for 130 EUR plus shipping: MNT Reform USB Standalone Keyboard - MNT Research Shop We can offer you a free shipping coupon to offset the error we apparently made back in the day.
If you need any help with the reflashing post here as well! Any problems that you have or things that are unclear in the documentation are much more likely to get improved on the next iteration that way, and this is one of the most responsive forums I’ve been on in a long time when it comes to technical help from the community!
The only thing that I found unclear in the documentation (recall this is the DIY Kit) was Step 3 (Display Cable). It mentions the connector has a white dot marking pin one. That is fine. I easily noted that. However, it also said: “the white dot must point in the direction of the display.” Please note that at this point in the assembly the unit is positioned upside down – I didn’t even know there was a display nor where it was!
I thought it might have been a separate item wrapped in shipping paper!
The silk screen on the motherboard should have a pin one indicator, or the 30 pin display cable should be keyed in such a fashion that it could only be installed on the pins of the motherboard in just one way.
You are correct that this forum is robust and very helpful. I think I am getting very close to a solution for my laptop problem. See my next post.
Thanks for your three options. Option number one sounds promising, but I do not know where or what “our shop” means. The most important key feature of a new keyboard (either 3.0 or 4.0) is will it fit and operate with the DIY Kit Reform laptop that I have just put together? In other words, will a new keyboard make the laptop work (as in power up?)?
I don’t know that I need the 4.0 model with RGB backlight. Regular white LED backlight with model 3.0 would be sufficient providing it would be a drop in replacement for the one that came with the DIY Kit.
The link to Crowd Supply in your option number two looks like what I need, provided it work (form, fit, and function) with the DIY Kit Reform laptop that I have which does not run. If you tell me that I can swap out the existing keyboard and replace it with the 3.0 version (all cabling just the same) then my problems are solved == as long as the laptop runs!
Thanks. This is the 4.0 version. Have you any answers for my questions about the 3.0 version? I don’t need the RBG backlighting. The white LED backlighting of the version 3.0 keyboard will suffice for my needs. Since I am located in the USA, I would use Crowd Supply. I am sure the version 4.0 keyboard is an excellent product. Thank you again. Have a great day!
The 3.0 keyboard will work, but you’ll need a computer that can run dfu-programmer to flash the keyboard 3.0 firmware meant for use in the laptop, which will unlock more menu items to power on/off the laptop etc. We can help you with instructions on how to do that.
This is excellent news. But I was hoping to avoid the flashing part…
Before I purchase the 3.0 keyboard (which I was hoping would work in the DIY Kit Reform laptop with just moving a slide switch from “off” to “on”) would the 4.0 version be a better option? By this I mean would the 4.0 version keyboard also require flashing the firmware? Thank you very much for putting up with all my dumb questions. Clearly there is more to this project than I had originally thought. Have a great day!
Okay, once again thanks, but you didn’t answer my question about the v3 keyboard WRT the v4 keyboard. That no longer matters since my new v3 keyboard arrived yesterday. It appears to be almost the exact same size as the keyboard in the DIY kit Reform laptop. Is it meant to replace the keyboard I have (the one with the two ALT keys sitting between the two SPACE bar keys)? Are there instructions on-line about replacing one with the other? Also, there is the outstanding issue of the need for flashing this new v3 keyboard so it will work with this “dead” DIY kit.
Any and all advice and/or suggestions would be most appreciated.
Hi there! Installation of the v3 keyboard is exactly the same as the original keyboard.
You might have the general keyboard instructions already in paper form in the box but here is a PDF version.
I think what you can do in this case is hook it up via USB-C then follow the flashing instructions to build and flash the firmware, then turn the standalone switch into the off position, and use the internal 4-wire cables from your old keyboard to connect it up to your Reform motherboard.
Thanks for the information. First off, I don’t recall installing the keyboard when I got the original DIY Kit. A lot of the laptop was already in place. That being said the new (for me) v3 keyboard has a complete excellent metal case that makes it appear to be a standalone keyboard. The keyboard in the DIY kit had an exposed circuit board (reverse) side where I was instructed to hook up several cables. Maybe this new v3 keyboard can be removed from its nice metal enclosure and installed into the DIY kit laptop – this remains to be seen.
Thank you for the link to the keyboard instructions. It turns out that i alerady had downloaded that PDF when I was having my earlier discussions with folks here several weeks ago.
Let me see if I’ve got this understood: I hook up the v3 keyboard via a USB-C cable like the one that come with the keyboard. I hook this up to another computer with a UBS port. On this other computer I run the software found at the reform2-keyboard-fw URL. Since the keyboard is at this point a standalone keyboard (not yet installed in the laptop) I can use the CIRCLE-X key sequence to put the keyboard into programming mode. Is this correct?
I see no standalone switch (or a switch of any kind) as I look at the v3 keyboard. The only connection is a USB socket located in the back right corner of the v3 keyboard.
I think I am getting close to understanding, but I need just a little bit more clarity before I dive into this flashing procedure.