Open source keyboard lets you swap parts like magnetic Lego bricks

Every key is its own module, and its designer tells us the sky's the theoretical limit on the size of the frankenboard you can build

The world is full of different keyboard layouts, but if you want one that's completely customized, down to the individual key, there's a new open source project that uses magnets to hold interchangeable pieces together.

Keybytes is an open source project that allows any ambitious builder to create a fully modular keyboard - and we’re talking FULLY modular here. Each key contains its own RISC-V microcontroller and pogo pins on all four sides, providing power and I2C connections between adjacent modules so users can rearrange the keys into different layouts. The only extra component needed is a controller module, which coordinates the individual keys and handles communication with the host computer. And good news: Despite consisting of two stacked circuit boards, it has the same footprint as the single-key modules that attach to it.

The entire thing was designed by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology freshman named Nathan Alspaugh, who is studying aerospace engineering. Alspaugh has always wanted to design his own keyboard, and who better than an MIT student to go over the top in building the most intricate, overengineered version imaginable?

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“I had always wanted to make a keyboard but I didn't want to be locked into just one design so I wanna make it so that I can rearrange it at any time,” Alspaugh said in the first entry of his project journal, which he’s been keeping since March of this year. “I searched online and couldn't find it anywhere so I decided to make it myself.”

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The main readme in the GitHub project isn’t super detailed, instead mostly describing what the project entails for anyone willing to give it a shot (custom printed circuit boards, Cherry MX switches, 3D-printed cases, and a whole lot of tiny soldered components). It’s Alspaugh’s journal where the depth of the work he did is laid bare for all to see, and boy did he do a lot of work. 

Designing a single-key modular keyboard from scratch is no easy task, and the journal details a number of setbacks that Alspaugh faced, like magnets that wouldn’t stay put, design compromises, and - of course - plenty of board errors that he luckily was able to catch in the design phase before spending a bunch of cash ordering custom components. Alspaugh also had to learn to use a resin 3D printer for the project, and of course multiple iterations and a bunch of manual modifications had to be made to get everything to properly fit together. 

Alspaugh told The Register he’s spent around 100 hours on the project so far. And then there’s the cost: All those tiny custom boards don’t come cheap. 

According to a shopping cart for the board designs included in his journal, the Keybits (the individual key control boards) cost only a couple of bucks apiece, but the Keywords (controller boards) cost $30 a pop. Alspaugh opted to have the manufacturer fully assemble the boards, which is where a good deal of the cost came from: Keybit assembly cost him $69, while Keyword assembly cost him $203.

Alspaugh said that a full-sized keyboard would end up costing around $900, making it pretty cost prohibitive. 

“If I ever make a full one I’ll buy them separately and solder them myself,” he noted in his journal. Alspaugh did tell us that there’s no reason to stop at a full-sized keyboard, explaining that anyone with the desire to build a monsterboard could do so if they had the resources.

Alspaugh encourages anyone who wants to build their own to go for it, telling us that anyone who has the components could probably build their own in a few days, not counting delivery for the PCBs. You could wait, though. 

“I am thinking about selling them in the future once the designs are improved and finalized,” Alspaugh told us, adding that he wants to make a bunch of changes and hardware updates first, plus add some new functionalities. “I’d probably make more key varieties, like ones that have a fingerprint sensor.”

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Interested makers seeking a Halloween frankenboard project can find all the necessary files on GitHub. ®

Correction: Due to an editing error, the original version of this article mistakenly referred to the plural of "Lego" as "Legos." We know better.