Mechanical keyboards are virtually a necessity for anybody who spends numerous time typing. Not solely are they way more nice and satisfying to make use of, they will additionally enhance typing efficiency and even cut back repetitive stress accidents. There’s a thriving group of lovers who construct these keyboards and NoSegfault joined in on the enjoyable with their very own customized construct. This Raspberry Pi Pico-based mechanical keyboard contains a built-in joystick and the power to change between configurable layers with none host software program.
Layers are alternate key mappings that customers can change to as a way to change a number of key features directly. The obvious instance for normal keyboards is the shift mapping, which switches characters to uppercase, numbers to punctuation, and so forth. One other instance is the operate layer. Customers also can create their very own customized layers that include no matter key maps they require. One might, as an example, create a layer for working in CAD that turns each key right into a shortcut for a selected software. NoSegfault’s keyboard lets customers change between these customized layers on the fly with an interface consisting of a small OLED display, a joystick, and a pair of devoted keys.
This keyboard’s {hardware} and firmware are each customized. Along with the aforementioned layer interface, the {hardware} consists of a 3D-printed case, customized PCB, LED case lighting, a rotary management knob, Akko Blue key switches, Akko clear translucent blue key caps, and a Raspberry Pi Pico growth board. NoSegfault programmed their very own firmware to run on the Pico in order that they might combine the layer system. That required some programming hacks to make the most of each of the Pico’s processor cores to retailer configurations in flash reminiscence. NoSegfault configured the Pico to look as a normal USB HID keyboard when plugged right into a keyboard, so it can work with any working system with none particular software program.
The Pico-Keyboard is an open supply mission and NoSegfault printed the entire recordsdata on their GitHub web page if you wish to construct your individual keyboard.
