NuPhy Air 60 v2 (and the process for VIA mapping)
Picked up the NuPhy Air 60 v2, tweaked with shine-through keycaps (though oddly the set doesn’t include the right “shift” key, so I’m stuck using the old, colorway-mismatched, non-shinethrough cap for just that one key). I opted for the Moss switches, and so far I like them well enough. Anyway, I picked this up as my older Air 75 wasn’t physically compatible with my current laptops (daily drivers are a 2021 MacBook Pro 14" and an M2 Air 13.6"), and since I’ve gotten so used to HHKB layouts normally (several Tokyo 60s and a KeyChron Q60 Max, mostly), I wanted VIA remapping capability so at least I could, e.g., swap '|\' and 'backspace' (muscle memory is a bitch).
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| Air60 v2 on a 2021 14" MacBook Pro |
I got it. I finally got it figured out by actually, you know, reading the instructions. First you have to download a JSON file from Nuphy (is it NuPhy? IDK...), then toggle the Design Tab in settings under usevia.app, then upload the JSON in the Design Tab, and then you can authorize the device and futz with the Configure tool. Anyway, once that was done, I made some relatively lightweight tweaks (I might come back and fully customize this at some point, but for now this is enough to be non-annoying while preserving the Nuphy-specific stuff like displaying the battery level). I also locked the RGB to a solid green color, which I find pleasing.
One tip: With the Air 75 I kind of dragged it down from above the keyboard (closer to the screen) until the top lip “hooked.” With this, I find the best way is to start with the top lip resting gently on the top row of keys (Esc | F1 ... fingerprint reader) and lightly drag it down until the lip catches between the top row and the next row down (Tab ...). The keyboard will overhang the track pad slightly, and accessing the fingerprint reader is kind of awkward (but at least possible). But with those caveats, it fits on top of the MacBook Pro 14" keyboard properly and doesn’t interfere with anything else.
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| Air60 v2 on MacBook Pro showing top row of keys exposed |
So far I like it. I didn’t find myself needing the “extra” keys of the Air 75, YMMV (especially if you’re using something like Eclipse more often than I do).
Hotkeys (etc) I did not remap (from the manual):
- Fn + Q/W/E/R: Bluetooth 1, 2, 3, 2.4 GHz (plug transceiver in after activating 2.4 GHz wireless mode) (short presss to switch between, long press 3 seconds to start pairing)
- Fn + ↑/↓: Backlight brightness
- Fn + ←: Backlight effect
- Fn + →: Backlight color
- Fn + ,</.>: Backlight speed
- Fn + M + ↑/↓: Sidelights brightness
- Fn + M + ←: Sidelight effect
- Fn + M + →: Sidelight color
- Fn + M + ,</.>: Sidelight speed
- Fn + ]}: Sleep mode on/off (after 8 minutes of inactivity)
- Fn + \: Battery level display on/off
- Fn + [{: Long press for 3 seconds to restore factory settings
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