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How to setup Vortex Race 3 keyboard for Mac and move Fn key to Home

How to setup Vortex Race 3 for Mac with latest (on 2020-01-05) firmare V1.02.05.

For better understanding we will use the following naming convention:

  [ L1 ][ L2 ][ L3 ][ Space ][ R1 ][ R2 ][ R3 ]
  1. Reset everything by pressing L3+R1 for 5 seconds. Left LED will blink white color while you're holding the keys. Release them after it stopeed blinking.
  2. Get into one of the programmable layers (R2+RShift) – I like red, the super bright laser LED is the least super annoying in red.
  3. Put the keyboard in Windows Mode (Pn+W), it's the least problematic one.
  4. We start by moving Fn from R2 to Home (it's right of Backspace). Press R2+L3 for 3 seconds, then release and both LEDs will shine blue. Press Home. Now R2 is right_gui, R1 remains Right_Alt.
  5. Check Karabiner EventViewer: L1 should be left_ctrl, L2 should be left_gui, L3 should be left_alt. R1 should be right_alt, R2 should be right_gui, R3 should be right_control.
  6. Now we swap L2 (left_gui) and L3 (left_alt), then R1 (right_alt) and R2 (right_gui). The keyboard can do that for you. Go into programming mode by pressing Home+R3 (not simultaneously, press Home and while holding it press R3), right LED should light up white, then hit the L2 (LED blinks red), then L3 (LED blinks red), then Pn (LED shines white) to finish first move. We're still in programming mode, now hit L3 (LED blinks red), then L2 (LED blinks red), then Pn (LED shines white) to finish second move. Now hit the R1 (LED blinks red), then R2 (LED blinks red), then Pn (LED shines white) to finish third move, now hit R2 (LED blinks red), then R1 (LED blinks red), then Pn (LED shines white) to finish fourth move, then Home+R3 to get out of programming mode (LED goes off).
  7. Check in EventViewer. L1 should be left_control, L2 should be left_alt, L3 should be left_gui. R1 should be right_gui, R2 should be right_alt, R3 should be right_control.

Thanks https://www.reddit.com/user/deathlyschnitzel/ for https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/9apq56/how_to_set_up_a_vortex_race_3_for_macos_and_turn/ which I used initally and adapted for my case.

@T-H-1
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T-H-1 commented Jul 1, 2021

Has anyone had any success updating firmware from Win 10? Device manager recognizes the keyboard, but the KB upgrade doesn't seem to (the Okay key is blanked out).

@arminbw
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arminbw commented Dec 1, 2021

I have successfully updated the firmware to V1.02.05 of my Vortex 3 Race (ISO-DE) using a macbook, virtualbox and a free win10 image.

Now I would like to use the online MPC to remap the FN key.
Using the online MPC I generated a Vortex.cys file. According to the instructions I should copy this file to the keyboard (unplug keyboard and press "Fn+D"). This does not work.

Am I pressing the wrong buttons? Do I need a different firmware? There is a dedicated CORE_MPC firmware…

@arminbw
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arminbw commented Dec 4, 2021

I asked Vortex customer support and they told me that Race 3 doesn’t support MPC and that I should "use the on-board mode to swap keymap". So I finally brought myself to go for the black-insulating-tape-hack… It works better than expected!

I also shamelessly copied this gist and added a few minor notes for myself.

@Pykagamers
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