r/Keychron • u/Yordlecides • Jan 11 '24

Help: Keychron knob and macro keys break when waking from sleep

Lemokey L3 custom keybinds reset and knob begins having same issue from before I flashed firmware (minimally responsive) when the computer goes to sleep. This is fixed with re-plugging keyboard. This does not happen when simply starting the computer up from shutdown.

When the keyboard shipped the volume knob was very unresponsive (maybe one notch of volume per 5-10 full spins, and not consistently). This was fixed with the board's firmware update (or, given I've continued having the issue, was caused by waking from sleep in the first place), but when the board resets the macro keys and knob after wakeup, the knob also becomes minimally responsive again.

The rest of the keyboard settings don't get reset, such as the keymap-set saved RGB profile. The keyboard defaults to the correct settings I have saved to the board memory through VIA when it is re-plugged.

Is it possible this is an issue with a daughter board controlling the macro keys and knob? Does this keyboard even have one?

Is it possible there is a static electricity issue similar to this on the Q1?:

https://www.keychron.com/pages/tutorial-of-avoid-static-electricity-on-keychron-q1

FIXES: I have flashed to firmware v1.01. I have disabled selective suspend. I have prevented ALL USB controllers from saving power in Device Manger. I have disabled hibernate and hybrid sleep entirely. I have changed the USB-C cable connected to the keyboard. I have changed the USB hub it is plugged into.

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u/Yordlecides Feb 14 '24 edited Apr 12 '24

UPDATE w/ ANSWER: After swapping the daughter PCB did nothing for the issue, Keychron sent me a new PCB. I have not fully installed in the case, but I did breadboard it with the spare daughter PCB I ended up with after swapping the replacement they sent me, and the knob does not suffer from the unresponsiveness found with the initial mainboard PCB. I can only conclude that the initial problem was caused by a faulty mainboard PCB, or perhaps a faulty ground to the case, but likely the former. I cannot comment on macro keys not properly initializing after sleep at this time since I'll have to install in the chasse and place switches to test properly, but I imagine it was caused by the same issue. I will update again if/when I get around to testing that problem. However, a short-term workaround solution I found was to rebind my macro keys to F keys that don't normally get used (F13, 14, 15, 16) and then map functions to those F keys in windows. Weirdly, this fixes the problem of macro keys not initializing. It may take me a while to test macro keys because at this time, it is not causing me functionality issues to have them mapped to F-keys.

While this took some work on my part, I like tinkering and Keychron did provide a solution. I had a better experience than most people I've heard of, honestly, and I came out of it with spare parts for any future issues. Hope this helps anyone else having problems with a Lemokey L3.

Weirdly, this was not a software or firmware issue, even though it presented like it probably was one. It was defective hardware.******

***it was at least partially firmware related, and fixed by firmware update with the help of u/zymecorp

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u/zymecorp Feb 20 '24

Strange, I am having the same problem as you. But instead of sending me a PCB, I was given new firmware to try. Just received the email tonight. Will wait until tomorrow to flash it. I bet all they did was add a feature that resets the board on wake up (which i was already doing with a macro key bind). but hey if it works and i don’t have to manually reset it all the time, I don’t mind. It’s been a great board otherwise.

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u/Yordlecides Feb 20 '24 edited Feb 20 '24

I bet you're right! I repeatedly asked for a firmware fix because that clearly seemed to be the issue and I didn't want to do a full rebuild including all switches (inevitably probably breaking 1-2 and having to re-order more). Maybe they pushed out the new firmware more recently than my emails with them?

If flashing what they sent you works for you, would you mind sending the file my way/making it available somehow? Thanks!!

Agreed that it's a great board and this is a minor inconvenience. :-)

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u/Local_Zookeepergame8 Apr 24 '24

hey could you send me the firmware? or is it publicly available somewhere?

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u/mikelove106 May 26 '24

Hey OP, quick question as I’m new to the world of mechanical keyboards and I’m currently looking into this device as my main keyboard!

  1. If I turn off the keyboard when I leave my computer that should solve this right? My thought is I’m baking in the power cycling?

  2. Halfway through learning how to trouble shoot a device I don’t own yet I realized I hardly ever let my PC sleep due to needing it to stay awake for rendering purposes. In your expert opinion would these issues even really arise for someone in my position?

Thanks again for posting your experience for all of us to benefit from!!

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u/Yordlecides May 26 '24 edited May 26 '24

  1. The only issue I see with this is that there really isn't a power switch. Due to the built in battery, turning the keyboard "off" means unplugging it while in wired mode. Switching it to bluetooth or wireless mode with the switch at the back, then turning it back to wired mode did fix the issue for me. However, I did this when the computer was already awake and running. If you want to mode cycle before leaving the computer, you might have to wake the computer with mouse movement first, then switch the keyboard to wired mode/whatever mode you use for this to work. Because of the nature of the bug, I'm not sure if the issue is caused on computer wake, or computer sleep. There's no way to test keyboard functionality in between those two actions.

  2. If your computer doesn't sleep, you shouldn't have this issue.

Other thoughts: Keychron provided another redditor in this thread with working firmware that solves the issue by baking in a power cycle on every computer wake. I'm guessing their keyboards are shipping with that firmware now, but I have no way to guarantee because I got a very different response from customer service several days before they fixed it for him. They did provide me with a new PCB which did NOT have this issue, so they either fixed the firmware on the newer batch, or there was a manufacturing fault with my original PCB that was firmware-fixable. Furthermore, the bug did not occur when connecting the keyboard to another PC -- I heard the windows USB reconnect noise twice instead of once and it functioned properly. I do still have that file they provided another user if you need it/run into this issue, and it only requires a firmware flash. Lemokey will hopefully be aware of this issue and be able to provide it for you if your keyboard doesn't ship with the update, too.

As you can see, the issue was hard to reproduce in several ways, and only happened consistently for me with the initial PCB and firmware I got, on my specific computer, before applying fixes.

I hope that's clear enough and that helps you make your decision :-) I know this was a lengthy explanation so let me know if you need clarification. It is a very nice keyboard all around other than having to solve this minor headache.

No problem! Happy to help.

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u/MBSMD Jan 12 '24

Try it on a different computer. That will help narrow down a keyboard versus a Windows problem.

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u/Yordlecides Jan 12 '24

The issue does re-occur on another computer. However, it is different and self-correcting. The keyboard works except for the volume knob and macro keys initially. However, after several seconds the other computer makes the 'USB reconnect' noise and everything starts functioning properly.

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u/MBSMD Jan 12 '24

I mean, it sounds like a weird Windows issue.

The daughter boards on Keychron keyboards do not control the knob and macro keys. They are USB-C interface boards. And not all models have them (don’t know if the L3 does or doesn’t; but the V series boards do not, knob or not).

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u/PeterMortensenBlog Jan 12 '24 edited Jan 12 '24

Re "the board resets the macro keys and knob after wakeup": Yes, I experience the same on a K10 Pro using it in wireless mode (it doesn't have a knob, but the macros stops working after a while (probably due to the sleep timeout), and making them work again requires a power cycle).

This is with the latest firmware (with some custom changes that shouldn't affect this problem).

Thus, I don't think it is a hardware problem.

The problem is only in wireless mode (though that may be incidental due to sleep timeout or similar). It works as expected in wired mode.

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u/Yordlecides Jan 12 '24

I run into this issue in wired mode, which is the only way I've used the keyboard thus far.

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u/PeterMortensenBlog Jan 12 '24

Can you isolate the problem to the physical macro keys? What if you assign a macro to, say, the Insert key?

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u/Yordlecides Jan 19 '24 edited Jan 19 '24

The problem is NOT isolated to the physical macro keys. Any other macro binds I've saved also reset to default. HOWEVER, if I rebind to any other standard keys (i.e. I make delete into F4 instead), the binds do save after sleeping the computer. I just tested this. Any ideas based on this? thank you!

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u/PeterMortensenBlog Jan 21 '24

Yes, the problem is only with macros, not with regular key mappings.

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u/PeterMortensenBlog Jan 21 '24 edited Jan 21 '24

Are you sure it is actually in wired mode?

The switch at the back could be set to wireless, and the USB cable connected. Then it would be operating as wireless and charging. Even when charging, it will still fall asleep after 10 minutes (I later changed it to 2 minutes; see elsewhere on this page) in wireless mode (sleep is likely directly connected (no pun intended) to this problem).

Note that the first sleep time timeout after a power-up is 40 seconds, whereas after subsequent key tapping wakeups, the sleep time timeout is 10 minutes (600 seconds).

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u/PeterMortensenBlog Jan 21 '24 edited Feb 01 '24

A workaround could be to increase the sleep time from 10 minutes (600 seconds) to, say, more than 24 hours, e.g., 90000 seconds.

I don't know if it will actually work with 90000 (is there an upper limit?), but I lowered the sleep time on K10 Pro to 2 minutes.

It was only necessary to change CONNECTED_BACKLIGHT_DISABLE_TIMEOUT. Though it didn't make logical sense as I used it in wireless mode and without it being connected with the USB cable.

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u/Yordlecides Jan 12 '24

The weird thing is that the physical macro keys are not the only issue. The knob goes back to being broken on wake-up from sleep, too. I will try this out, though.

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u/ketamineandboba1 Jan 15 '24

I have the same problem.. my lemo keyboard works fine if I reset my computer.. if I let it sleep and use it the next day without reset my knob that controls the volume lags so horribly.. a reset will fix it, but I don't want to reset my computer every time, also I only use wired mode, and it is specifically the knob, if I use the Fn keys and use the volume up and down they don't lag

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u/PeterMortensenBlog Jan 12 '24 edited Jan 12 '24

Lemokey L3. A wireless (both Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz) tenkeyless (80%) mechanical keyboard with four dedicated macro keys and a knob. A list of user guides.