Resolving VIA Configuration Issues with the NuPhy Air96 V2 Keyboard

If you've recently acquired the NuPhy Air96 V2 and encountered an issue where VIA's "Configure" tab remains empty after importing the official JSON configuration, you're not alone. This issue occurs across different operating systems, including Linux and Windows, and isn't related to the typical udev rule issues commonly faced by Linux users.

The issue stems from the JSON configuration file provided by NuPhy. Specifically, the productId defined in the JSON file does not match the hardware ID reported by the keyboard when connected via USB.

Identifying the Problem

Upon inspecting the JSON file, you'll find a line similar to this:

{
    ...
    "productId": "0x3266"
    ...
}

However, the actual productId, reported by the hardware, should be represented like this:

{
    ...
    "productId": "0x3265"
    ...
}

This discrepancy prevents VIA from recognising the keyboard properly, causing the "Configure" tab to remain blank.

Resolving the Issue

NuPhy may periodically update their JSON configuration file. To ensure you're using the latest version, it is recommended that you always download the official JSON file directly from NuPhy's website and apply the following changes yourself:

1. Open the JSON file downloaded from the NuPhy website in a plaintext editor, i.e. Notepad, Gedit.

2. Locate the productId value ("0x3266").

3. Replace it with the correct value ("0x3265").

4. Save the file and reload it into VIA.

After applying this change, VIA should recognise your keyboard immediately, and the "Configure" tab will function as expected.

A firmware update has also been suggested as a potential solution to align the keyboard's productId with the JSON file. However, this approach has not been verified and may carry a risk of bricking your keyboard if performed incorrectly.

This simple fix should save considerable debugging time and help quickly resolve the configuration issue for other NuPhy Air96 V2 users.