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Research notes

The research/ directory in the repo holds the raw, dated investigation notes, playbooks, SPARC plans, and capture tooling that the reference pages were distilled from. This is the index; the files themselves stay in research/ (not duplicated here) so the wiki reference pages remain the curated, front-loaded version.

🔧 Investigations & playbooks

File What it is
research/2026-07-02-picture-page-banding-investigation.md The overnight banding investigation (proposed the later-retired parity-slip theory; see History)
research/2026-07-03-overnight-custom-qmk-summary.md Custom QMK build session — compiled GREEN, keys+RGB, editable presets
research/custom-qmk-lcd-port-plan.md The verdict that LCD-on-custom is portable from source (C9 enable), no logic analyzer
research/al80-lcd-morning-playbook.md Morning playbook: where the custom firmware stands (enable/baud confirmed)
research/al80-lcd-on-custom-logic-analyzer-plan.md The (now-superseded) logic-analyzer plan for the screen forwarding
research/al80-qmk-hardware-params.md Hardware params extracted from RIPPLE.bin for the custom build
research/al80-feature-map.md Manual → RGB/keymap modification-method map
research/vendor-feature-parity.md Full vendor app feature + payload inventory
research/via-protocol.md VIA raw-HID protocol and how it shares the 0xFF60 interface

📖 Roadmap & design (SPARC)

File What it is
research/al80-dreams-roadmap.md Ideas grounded in the confirmed limits
research/al80-always-on-host-SPARC.md Resident host that owns the LCD HID interface
research/al80-nowplaying-webhooks-SPARC.md Now-playing + webhook alerts design (shipped: now-playing)

📦 Captures & tooling

  • research/analyze_captures.py: verifies the checksum rule against archived captures (4288/4288).
  • research/captures/, research/image_capture/, research/gif_capture/: raw HID captures and test artifacts (test pattern, test GIF, findings).
  • research/mk856-src/: sibling b75Pro + AL80 cert QMK source (the PK_* enum, factory stub).
  • research/source-notes/, research/site_assets/: deobfuscated vendor JS bundle notes.
  • al80-studio (sibling repo): the WebHID control panel that drives all of this. src/protocol.js is the pure, unit-tested packet builder; host/nowplaying-run.mjs is the Spotify host.
  • AL80_KNOWLEDGE_BASE.md (repo root): the canonical single-file KB this wiki reorganizes.
  • docs/llm-friendly-documentation-2026.md: the documentation philosophy this wiki follows.