You're running into a problem. You've looked at the troubleshooting articles and followed the steps to solve your problem, but it's not working out, or maybe you still have a question before following the steps. What now?
The best place to ask your question about troubleshooting the kits we sell at splitkb.com is the #help channel on our Discord server. Here are some useful bits to include with your question to get your question answered in a comprehensive and timely manner.
Description
We'll need to know what it is that's not working. Stating that "the keyboard doesn't work" still leaves many options open. Here are some examples of good issue descriptions:
- When I press a key, it won't type the character (see One or more keys don't work)
- When I plug in my keyboard, some of the LEDs won't light up (see One or more RGB LEDs do not work properly or at all)
- I can't seem to flash my keyboard, QMK Toolbox says "There are no devices available" (see I can't flash my keyboard)
For many questions, articles exist that can help you to solve the issue. Questions are always welcome, so if you're unsure of a step in an article, or if you can't find an article that seems related, always do feel welcome to ask. It's better to ask and be on your way to a solution, than to feel frustrated and maybe even inadvertedly make your problem worse.
If you've already tried a few things, it can be helpful to state that too: A key didn't work and I've already replaced the diode and flashed the default firmware to the keyboard, but it still doesn't work.
Photos
If your question is about a hardware issue, you'll want to make one or more photos and post that alongside your question. These photos are often the most useful:
- An overview photo of the backside of your keyboard. If you're only experiencing issues with one side, you generally only need to make a photo of that half.
- A close up photo of the problem area, for example of the microcontroller.
- A close up photo of the microcontroller for some issues.
If possible, try to make sure your photo is well lit and in focus, and when in doubt, more photos don't hurt. We use these photos to see if any of your solder joints need more work, so the details do matter.
Error message
Are you trying to compile firmware for your keyboard, or are you trying to flash it to your keyboard? If you're running into issues, you'll likely get an error message. You'll want to copy and paste the output of your console window or the QMK Toolbox with your question, as the error message is usually the key to what needs to be fixed.
