KeyCool KC108 keyboard software
sharkfin identifies and reads the KeyCool KC108. Free and open source. Use it in a Chromium browser with nothing to install, or download the desktop app for Windows, macOS or Linux. Either way it runs entirely on your own machine: no account, and the browser version makes no network requests once the page has loaded.
What sharkfin does with the KC108
- sharkfin will identify this board and read its settings, but it will not write to it. Its command set is not established, and the two protocol families in this hardware share opcodes that mean different things, so a misaddressed write would land on a live register.
- You can help: the app's Contribute tab collects a read-only data bundle to paste into an issue. That is how a board moves from read-only to supported.
sharkfin has no drawn layout for the KC108 yet, so it shows a grid of the board's 128 matrix slots instead. Everything still works; only the picture is missing. You can fix that for everyone: draw the board on the app's Keys page, which checks each key against your keyboard as you go, and send the result back.
KC108 at a glance
| Brand | KeyCool |
| Model | KC108 |
| USB ID | 0461:4003 |
| Device ID | 494 |
| Protocol family | unknown |
| Settings writable | no, read-only |
| Drawn layout | no, shown as a slot grid |
| Onboard profiles | 3 |
A protocol family of “unknown” means sharkfin has not established which command set this revision speaks, which is exactly why it stays read-only.
Connecting
Plug the KC108 in with a USB cable, or use its 2.4 GHz receiver if it has one. Bluetooth has no configuration channel, so a Bluetooth pairing will not do. Settings are stored on the keyboard itself, so everything you change keeps working wirelessly once you unplug. sharkfin never flashes firmware, so there is nothing here that can brick the board. On Linux, both the browser and the app need a one-line udev rule before they can open the keyboard. And if you are hunting for a polling-rate or report-rate setting: there is none in sharkfin, because this hardware does not expose one.
If the KC108 stops responding
It happens: the firmware stops answering and the app says the board needs a replug. Typing keeps working the whole time. In order:
- Close sharkfin, or the browser tab. While either is open it keeps trying to reach the board.
- Unplug the cable, wait ten seconds, plug it back in. The board needs to lose power, not just reconnect.
- Fn + Home turns the lighting back on if the backlight looks dead.
- Fn + Esc, held for about three seconds, resets the board's settings.
None of this touches firmware; nothing here can leave the KC108 unusable.