Beyblock20 Is a Modular, Magnetic Keyboard System Based mostly on the RP2040

Raspberry Pi is greatest recognized for his or her vary of single-board computer systems (SBCs), however final 12 months they entered the microcontroller business with the RP2040 used of their Raspberry Pi Pico growth board. The RP2040 is an reasonably priced and really succesful microcontroller that’s now obtainable in lots of growth boards from different producers. One of the vital compact is the Seeeduino XIAO RP2040, which Christian Lo makes use of in every of the modules in his beyblock20 keyboard system.

Lo’s beyblock20 isn’t a definite keyboard or macropad, however fairly a modular system that one can use to create both of these or many different kinds of USB HIDs. That is nonetheless very a lot a piece in progress and it isn’t but prepared for most people, however Lo has printed the entire present information on his GitHub web page. Because it stands, there are three beyblock20 modules. The primary is a fundamental 20-key macropad with hot-swappable key switches, the second is analogous however provides a small OLED display, and the third accommodates a trio of rotary encoder knobs. The modules join to one another magnetically and customers can snap them collectively in any order to type the system that fits their wants.

The important thing to this modular design is I2C communication. The unbounded I2C bus lets as much as 128 particular person modules talk by means of a daisy chain of different modules. That’s doable as a result of every module has its personal Seeeduino XIAO RP2040 growth board. That lets the module monitor its personal keys, encoders, and so forth, then ship the related information down the road to grasp module that connects to a pc. Neighboring modules can talk by means of the magnetic connector or normal TRRS (tip ring ring sleeve) audio cables if the person doesn’t need them to the touch.