qmk_firmware/Custom-Quantum-Functions.md

A custom keyboard is about more than sending button presses to your computer. QMK has designed hooks to allow you to inject, override, and otherwise customize how your keyboard responds in different situations. These allow you to control status LED's, write complex macros, or even change a key's behavior based on the keyboard's state.

A Word on Keyboards vs Keymap

We have structured QMK as a hierarchy:

• Core
  • Keyboard/Revision (_kb)
    • Keymap (_user)

Each of the functions described below can be defined with a _kb() suffix or an _user() suffix. We intend for you to use the _kb() suffix at the Keyboard/Revision level, while the _user() suffix should be used at the Keymap level.

When defining functions at the Keyboard/Revision level it is important that your _kb() implementation call *_user() before executing anything else- otherwise the keymap level function will never be called.

void matrix_init_kb(void) and void matrix_init_user(void)

This function gets called when the matrix is initiated, and can contain start-up code for your keyboard/keymap.

You should use this function to initialize any custom hardware you may have, such as speakers, LED drivers, or other features which need to be setup after the keyboard powers on.

void matrix_scan_kb(void) and void matrix_scan_user(void)

This function gets called at every matrix scan, which is basically as often as the MCU can handle. Be careful what you put here, as it will get run a lot.

You should use this function if you need custom matrix scanning code. It can also be used for custom status output (such as LED's or a display) or other functionality that you want to trigger regularly even when the user isn't typing.

bool process_record_kb(uint16_t keycode, keyrecord_t *record) and bool process_record_user(uint16_t keycode, keyrecord_t *record)

This function gets called every time a key is pressed or released. This is where you should define most custom functionality. The return value is whether or not QMK should continue processing the keycode - returning false stops the execution.

The keycode variable is whatever is defined in your keymap, eg MO(1), KC_L, etc. and can be switch-cased to execute code whenever a particular code is pressed.

The record variable contains infomation about the actual press:

keyrecord_t record {
  keyevent_t event {
    keypos_t key {
      uint8_t col
      uint8_t row
    }
    bool     pressed
    uint16_t time
  }
}

The conditional if (record->event.pressed) can tell if the key is being pressed or released, and you can execute code based on that.

void led_set_kb(uint8_t usb_led) and void led_set_user(uint8_t usb_led)

This allows you to control the 5 LED's defined as part of the USB Keyboard spec. It will be called when the state of one of those 5 LEDs changes.

• USB_LED_NUM_LOCK
• USB_LED_CAPS_LOCK
• USB_LED_SCROLL_LOCK
• USB_LED_COMPOSE
• USB_LED_KANA

This is a typical pattern for lighting LED's to match the USB_LED_* state

void led_set_kb(uint8_t usb_led) {
    if (usb_led & (1<<USB_LED_NUM_LOCK)) {
        PORTB |= (1<<0);
    } else {
        PORTB &= ~(1<<0);
    }
    if (usb_led & (1<<USB_LED_CAPS_LOCK)) {
        PORTB |= (1<<1);
    } else {
        PORTB &= ~(1<<1);
    }
    if (usb_led & (1<<USB_LED_SCROLL_LOCK)) {
        PORTB |= (1<<2);
    } else {
        PORTB &= ~(1<<2);
    }
    if (usb_led & (1<<USB_LED_COMPOSE_LOCK)) {
        PORTB |= (1<<3);
    } else {
        PORTB &= ~(1<<3);
    }
    if (usb_led & (1<<USB_LED_KANA_LOCK)) {
        PORTB |= (1<<4);
    } else {
        PORTB &= ~(1<<4);
    }
}