2.5 KiB
Officially supported microcontrollers
While most CircuitPython devices are great for hand wired keyboards, most keyboards are designed to accept a Pro Micro. The boards listed below either are, or can be adapted to that pinout to use common keyboards already on the market.
nice!nano
Features include
- Pro Micro pinout
- Both USB HID and Bluetooth support
- Can do Bluetooth split keyboards with no wires at all
- Has battery support including charging
Downsides
- $25 USD per microcontroller at most retailers
- Not enough space to run KMK without compiling
Pre-compiling KMK for nice!nano
As the nice!nano has limited flash memory you'll need to compile KMK. To do that you'll need to download and install the compatible mpy-cross for your Operating System. Don't forget to add it to your PATH, test by running mpy-cross from a shell (Powershell, Bash, Fish, etc). Once that's set up, run either make compile (if you have make) or python util/compile.pyto generate the .mpy versions of KMK files. Then copy the whole compiled kmk/ directory to your keyboard.
Common Retailers
ItsyBitsy M4 Express
Features include
- Affordable at $15 USD
- Can run most features of KMK including RGB
Downsides
- Needs adapted to work with Pro Micro pinout keyboards. Adapter can be found HERE
Common Retailers
RP2040
Features include
- Very affordable
- Very powerful for the price
Downsides
- Little support for keyboard kits
Common Retailers
Adafruit ItsyBitsy nRF52840 Express
Features include
- Both USB HID and Bluetooth support
- More affordable than the nice!nano at only $18
Downsides
- Needs adapted to work with Pro Micro pinout keyboards. Adapter can be found HERE
- No battery support without addon board found HERE
Common Retailers
Other microcontrollers
What you'll need to have at minimum
- CircuitPython
- 256KB of flash storage
- HID over USB and/or Bluetooth.