Article Contents
Background
So I recently purchased my second Varmilo keyboard, specifically the "Varmilo VPT109 Ink Rhyme V3 Gateron G Pro 3.0 - Brown" and I love it. My first Varmilo keyboard "Varmilo VEA109 Ink Rhyme V2 Full-Size/White LED/USB-C/PBT/MX Silent Red" was already great, but the one thing I did not like was the feeling of the silent red switches and when I noticed that the new V3 version of the keyboard was available in a Swedish online store, I ordered one straight away.
Even though I have never really used a keyboard with the Gateron switches (only clicked a few times on a demo-keyboard in a store once), I went for the brown switches and crossed my fingers that the would not be too loud. As it turns out - they both feel great and don't sound too much at all. Overall - I'm happy with my purchase.
Except when I first plugged it in and was met by the default RGB effect.
Default rainbow effect
Not being a big fan of fancy RGB effects in general, I just wanted to change the backlight to a solid color and that turned out to be easier said than done.
The problem
My first thought was to search the box in which the keyboard was delivered in for a user manual, but of course - actual paper manuals are a thing of the past and I only found a sticker with a QR-code on it.
OK - fine, I'll take a look at the online user manual instead...
Nope, invalid website certificate. Not a good start, but I ignored it. Site was however non-resposive so the online manual was out of the question. I thought I was stuck with the default RGB effect for a while and contemplated going back to my old keyboard just so that I get back to work.
Next option was obviously to search for a solution and although I found a couple of related posts on reddit such as this one, I could not find any solutions for my specific keyboard model.
So I had to resort to the old-fashioned approach of simply clicking everything until things happened.
Brute Force Problem Solving
I know - perhaps not the most timesaving way of solving the issue, but I had no real other valid option.
With a few key combinations suggested for other keyboard models already tested I atleast had a few combinations to test. Most of them did not work, but at least I found the option to turn the backlight on and off. The brightness of the backlight was also similar to some of the other models.
Anyway - so I started furiously clicking all keys until things happened. The main takeaway is that everything starts with the [Fn] key.
Eventually I found out that I could change RGB effects with the shift key, but the main find happened after I clicked [Fn] + [SPACE]. Make sure to hold [Fn] as well, or else we are thrown out of the keyboard settings mode.
Select backlight color
The entire keyboard lit up, but not like the default rainbow pattern. Every key had a different color and after clicking one of the keys, that color became the new backlight color. Success!
Key Combinations for V3
With all of that out of the way, here is a small list of key combinations I could figure out during the random clicking my Varmilo VPT109 (V3) keyboard.
[Fn] + [x] = Toggle backlight on/off [Fn] + [↑] = Increase backlight brightness [Fn] + [↓] = Decrease backlight brightness [Fn] + [L SHIFT] = Cycle backlight effect [Fn] + [R SHIFT] = Cycle backlight effect [Fn] + [SPACE] + [ANY] = Change backlight color
I discovered a few other strange things but was never really able to figure them out. I managed to get the [F1] key to start flashing constantly, but it went away as soon as I plugged in the keyboard so I just ignored it. At some point I will be able to access the user manual and figure out how I got there and what it means, but for now I'm happy with my new dark orange backlight.
Key Combinations for V2
While doing the stuff above, I plugged in the old Varmilo VEA109 (V2) keyboard just to verify a few key combinations as well. This keyboard does not have any RGB things to choose between, only white.
[Fn] + [←] = Cycle backlight effect (static or pulse) [Fn] + [→] = Cycle backlight effect (static or pulse) [Fn] + [↑] = Increase backlight brightness [Fn] + [↓] = Decrease backlight brightness
I know this is a lot of text for a small list of key combinations, but I felt like I needed to vent a bit after spending way too much time randomly clicking keys on my brand new keyboard. Anyway - hope this little rant can help someone in the future. :)
