UHK 80 Switches to USB Disconnected Mode While Still Connected

[0xTJ]

I've had a recurring USB issue where the keyboard will think that it's no longer connected via USB. It'll show "Disconnected" on the screen, then fade out the LEDs and go dark and unresponsive. It will continue processing macros, and otherwise act as though USB isn't connected, even though it is.

The keyboard will return to normal operation with a USB replug (or KVM device switch) or via a reboot macro.

This only occurs when connected to my work Windows laptop (can't run agent), never with my personal Linux desktop. It seemingly occurs at random, sometimes several times in a row, sometimes not at all for days at a time. It's connected via a (powered-hub) KVM switch (how I switch between the two machines), but I have no other devices experiencing issues.

I also described the issue on the forums at: https://forum.uhk.io/t/keyboard-does-not-work-but-still-the-connection-is-on/2742/17?u=0xtj.

Let me know if there's any further information that I can collect.

[mondalaci]

@kareltucek Should we assign this to Benedek? In any case, should a Zephyr log be captured?

[kareltucek]

Probably yes.

Capturing logs over usb for a usb malfunction scenarios is a bit troublesome, so probably not.

[kareltucek]

@benedekkupper do you have any insights?

[benedekkupper]

@0xTJ here's how you can help us. First, some questions to answer:

1. Which exact device are you using, UHK60 or 80? If UHK80, does it have batteries?
2. What is the type of the KVM switch? Does it keep the UHK powered between switching hosts? After the issue occurs, do you have the chance to switch to another host with agent running, and capture the logs from that machine?
3. Does the issue manifest also when the UHK is directly connected to the Windows host?
4. Was this issue always present, or it appeared with a FW update? Do you have the chance to cross-check previous versions to narrow down the changeset, that caused this?

[0xTJ]

Hi @benedekkupper

1. It's a UHK80, with batteries.
2. Power seems to be briefly disconnected during the switch. I can try to keep agent running on the Linux machine, and see if anything comes up when I switch to it.
3. I'll try this setup as well and report back on if there's any difference.
4. I didn't initially have this issue, but I'm not sure exactly when it started occurring. I believe that it has been 4-6 months. I could try older versions, though each one will take ~1 week to test, to be fairly confident on whether or not it triggers this problem.

Unfortunately, this issue is inconsistent and random. I haven't found a pattern for when it'll behave like this, and I'll sometimes have days with no problems, followed by some with many occurrences.

[Willis1776]

@benedekkupper I'm running into the same issues without going through a KVM switch. I'm connected directly into a Windows 11 PC using an existing USB-C cable I had from my old UHK 60. The keyboard seems to power off as nothing is displayed on the screen. It does not register any key presses. Reseating the USB cable fixes it but that's the only thing I've found that works.

One time when it did this I launched UHK agent which did not detect the keyboard. It actually took quite a while with searching for a keyboard and during that time Windows displayed an alert about an unrecognized USB device or something like that. I think UHK agent might have even shutdown but I can't remember exactly. I'll try to pay better attention.

It doesn't seem like it's a sleep issue because I had it do it pretty quickly after I was using the keyboard and then one time it did twice in the middle of a teams call.

Is there anything I can do for logging or debugging to help out? The keyboard is running 16.0.0, with a battery, a key cluster and trackball attached that are running 15.3.1. It doesn't look like the firmware updates those modules yet as I tried pushing the firmware again with the modules attached and it didn't update them.

Also, I don't know if this happened on previous firmware, I updated the device yesterday to 16.0.0 when I first received it. I'm happy to roll back to a previous firmware if you need me to.

[Willis1776]

@benedekkupper Ok, so it happened again and I had UHK agent opened which disconnected from the device and reported no device detected. Device manager showed unknown USB device and something about a device descriptor failed or something like that. I'll try to get a screenshot next time. I have to unplug the keyboard wait at least 5-10 seconds before plugging it back in for it to recover. I think a messaged popped up briefly on the keyboard that said factory something. I didn't catch the full message.

[Willis1776]

Ok, here's a few screenshots from device manager and event viewer on windows. Don't know if it helps at all.

[Willis1776]

I've discovered something that might be affecting this. I'm currently using a MSI z890 Edge TI for my motherboard. I had the keyboard plugged into a USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gps Type A port on the back. Last week I moved it to a different port which is USB 3.2 Gen 1 5Gbps Type A port on the back. Ever since changing that I haven't had this issue at all.