This is undoubtedly the coolest keyboard I have ever seen, so much so I have just comitted to making one for my own setup. The idea of the keyboard has pretty much remain untouched, sure we have macro keys and software that helps out automating tasks, some of the higher end keyboards even have an OLED screen in them. But this keyboard from Hackaday user AnonymouSmst is in a league of it’s own.
http://images.core-electronics.com.au/media/blog/homepage/9912931472230116101.gif
The idea spawned when he heard a talk during a Hackaday meetup in 2014 about how fun it was to hack a keyboard to play snake on it. He went one step further and decided to create his very own keyboard, quoting
“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” - Alan Kay
In his project logs. The logs on the hackaday project are in-depth with every decision point being carefully considered and researched. Take a look here if you want to see those, an interesting read if anything. The basis of the idea was that he wanted a keyboard that was entirely wireless and was loaded with features like bluetooth, wifi etc. And it all runs on an ATMega2560!
The keyboard is backlit using programmable RGB LEDs to drive the lighting (which of course you can program yourself to be whichever color you’d like. The switches are all Cherry MX Blue Mechanical switches, and there is something extremely satisfying about the tactile feedback you get with a mechanical switch. The keycaps are all transparent, giving you a true representation of the RGB color profile you select.
To talk to a PC without wires, AnonymouSmst uses an Adafruit Bluefruit Key for HID bluetooth control. A NFC module was added to the keyboard to pass a Admin password or what ever you like. Wireless capability includes an ESP2866, A HM-11 for Bluetooth and a DRF1278F for LORA. Theres also a 128x64 OLED display onboard so you can display some info there. On each side of the keyboard theres a joystick for mouse/arrow key control too. This thing is just out of this world ridiculous!
This blog post was brought to you by Core Electronics - your home for Sparkfun and Adafruit in Australia!
This blog can also be viewed here
