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Updating the Soarer’s Converter(ATMEGA32U4) to QMK Firmware with VIAL support

I get a lot of emails requesting me to do a tutorial on how to replace/update the old Soarer’s Converter to use the modern QMK Firmware with VIAL support so here’s your lucky day. 🙂

Get Started

Step 1:

First, plug in your Soarer’s Converter adapter to a Windows PC and put it into bootloader mode so you can flash it with the new QMK Firmware by running a command line software called scboot. Download this zip file which contains two files, extract, and run scboot.exe from the command line.

Running scboot will put the adapter to bootloader mode. Make sure your Soarer’s Converter adapter is indeed using the ATMEGA32U4 chip by looking at your Control Panel devices. You should see a device called ATm32U4DFU.

Step 2:

Now that your adapter is in bootloader mode, you’re ready to flash it with QMK Firmware. Download the Atmel Flip software and my custom QMK firmware. Install and run Atmel Flip. Select ATmega32U4 from the target device selection, Press CTRL + U and click Open to connect to the adapter, and Load HEX File from from the File menu and browse for the custom QMK firmware you downloaded. Click Run and that should update the adapter to the new QMK firmware.

Unplug the adapter and plug it back with a keyboard. Now enjoy your adapter with the awesome QMK firmware! 🙂

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Upgrading the tinkerBOY ADB / M0110 adapter to support QMK Firmware with VIA support

I’ve been getting a lot of requests to include realtime keymapping support for my ADB and M0110 adapters, so now I’m going to walk you through the process of upgrading these two adapters. After the upgrade you’ll be able to do a lot keymapping functionalities with your adb/m0110 keyboard.

Windows 10 / 11 Method

Step 1: Download QMK firmware and tools for your adapter

Download needed files for tinkerBOY ADB Adapter

Download needed files for tinkerBOY M0110 Adapter

Create a new folder and extract the zip file in to it. It should contain 4 files.

Step 2: Bootloader mode

You need to put the adapter in to bootloader mode so you can upgrade or flash the firmware. With your keyboard connected to the adapter and plugged in to your PC, press POWER + B on your ADB keyboard or Shift + Option + ⌘ + B on your M0110 keyboard.

Step 3: Flash the firmware

Go to the folder you extracted the zip file to and double click run.bat. Press any key to flash the new firmware. When you’re done you should see something like the screenshot below:

And that’s it! Head on over to Remapping and configuring your keyboard with Via or Vial and enjoy your tinkerBOY adapter with realtime keymapping and configuration.

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QMK Firmware: Remapping and configuring your keyboard with Via or Vial

Via is a feature in QMK Firmware while Vial is a fork of QMK Firmware. Both via and vial enables you to remap keys in realtime. The main difference is that with Via you need to sideload a json file while with Vial it is already built in the adapter and does not need any sideloading.

There are 2 ways to remap or configure your keyboard with QMK in realtime:

  1. Vial – Download the Vial app or use the online app available at get.vial.today.
  2. Via – You can use remap-keys.app or usevia.app but you need the layout file in json format.

If you have my tinkerBOY adapter with Vial support (only XT, AT, and PS/2 converters for now) then you can use any of the two. For Via only adapters like the tinkerBOY ADB and M0110 adapter, use Via method.

Layout files:

tinkerBOY ADB USB Adapter

tinkerBOY M0110 USB Adapter

All IBM XT, AT, and PS/2 USB adapters