We’re truly fairly fortunate that keyboard key caps are considerably standardized and interchangeable, as that type of modularity isn’t current in different units. However these key caps are nonetheless printed with static legends, which implies it’s important to both swap them out when you’re altering the operate or take care of keys crowded with additional markings for alternate layers. Whereas that is not an issue for the typical laptop consumer, it may be a critical inconvenience for individuals who change between totally different mappings. To resolve that downside, thpoll designed the PolyKybd mechanical keyboard with an OLED show on each key.
The profit right here must be apparent: the legend on every secret is configurable. So when you change to an alternate key map or layer, the legends can replace to replicate the brand new characters and features. This could, for instance, be useful for gaming. You could possibly swap over to a game-specific map and the important thing cap legends would change to match the brand new features, like „W“ turning into an up arrow or „1“ turning into a well being potion image. The identical advantages would apply to extra critical duties, like video modifying or CAD (Laptop-Aided Drawing) work.
For this to work, each key wants its personal display screen mounted on prime of the important thing cap. That’s loads of screens (72 only for the keys, to be actual). Every display screen is a tiny 0.42″ OLED mannequin that receives alerts by way of SPI. A single SPI show usually requires 4 wires for information and sync, plus two energy wires. There are not any microcontrollers in the marketplace with sufficient pins to attach all the screens immediately — a lot much less the screens and the important thing switches. So the PolyKybd makes use of chained shift registers. That lets the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller tackle and replace every displayas crucial, and in addition monitor the matrix of key switches to detect key presses.
PolyKybd has just a few additional options, along with the important thing screens. It has a spot to connect a rotary encoder, scroll wheel, or mini trackball for switching modes, together with two bigger OLED screens to show details about the present state.
The enclosure was designed in OpenSCAD and is 3D-printable. The customized PCB matches inside that and accepts mechanical key switches. The important thing caps are clear fashions that match over the screens on the keys. This can be a break up keyboard design with an ergonomic structure, which ought to guarantee consolation whereas typing. It runs QMK firmware for max customizability.
PolyKybd continues to be a piece in progress, with just some {hardware} kinksleft to iron out. However the present prototypes look very promising and we’ve each purpose to count on that the PolyKybd challenge will attain completion.
