Show HN: A Truly Modular Keyboard
- ID
- 39566
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 25 Oct 2026, 11:47 AM
- Fetched
- 26 Oct 2026, 10:39 PM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://github.com/notaroomba/keybytes
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 3.2
- Created
- 26 Oct 2026, 10:40 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developers
What happened
A Show HN project called keybytes publishes a fully modular keyboard design where every key is its own 19.05mm x 19.05mm PCB carrying a CH32V003 RISC-V microcontroller, with pogo pins on all four sides for 3.3V, GND and I2C so keys can be rearranged and chained. A separate main board (STM32WB55RGV6, Bluetooth plus USB-C, 2MB W25Q16JV QSPI flash, BQ25895 charger, TPS631000 buck-boost) programs the key firmware over those pogo pins, and magnetic cases hold modules together. Hardware is designed in KiCad with STEP case files, MIT licensed, and the repo has 223 stars; the HN thread drew 220 points and 70 comments.
Why it matters
This is a design reference, not a product: there is no price, no availability date, and no typing-latency or power-consumption data in the text, so nobody should plan a purchase or a build around it yet. The reusable idea for builders is the architecture choice — one MCU per key plus an I2C pogo-pin bus and central programming — which trades a much larger BOM (dozens of CH32V003s and per-key PCBs) for rearrangeable layout and per-key firmware; if you are considering anything similar, that cost/complexity trade is the decision to make explicitly.
Discussion angle
Compare one-MCU-per-key against a traditional key matrix: at what key count does the CH32V003-per-key approach stop being worth the BOM and firmware-flashing overhead, and how would you actually flash and address 50+ keys over a shared I2C pogo-pin bus?