Novatools - OSX Modifier Edition

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

Disclaimer

This is just a quick hack that was originally developed by vekkt0r, and only tested by him. I forked it, modified it to make a Mac layout Novatouch, and went on my way. It is very dependent 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.

NSHenry Note: It’s worth mentioning that I bought this keyboard a good year and a half after vekkt0r and my firmware passed the checksum.

Still… 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 - Last released version of osx-launchpad is included since I was having a TON of trouble compiling from source. This version worked for me on OS X El Capitan 10.11.6.
• mspdebug - Comes with above package.
• 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:

• Switch place of the ‘Alt’ and ‘Super’ keys to make it easier when switching between iOS and OS X devices.
• 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.

Nate Note: I’m too stupid to understand the above notation. The formula that works for me is (R(C-1))+R+1. C acts as the last full column and the 1 is set to offset that it starts at row 0.

	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