Japanese shop BreadBoardManiac has come up with a more affordable alternative to Art Lebedev’s Mini Six programmable keyboard. It’s called the Trickey, a swappable and modular keyboard. You’ll have to print or draw the keys’ legends though.
Trickey consists of six key units and a board with six key sockets. You’ll arrange the key units as you please, then assign a key or a key plus a modifier – ctrl+key, shift+key etc. – to each key unit using a complementary program.
Each Trickey also comes with a spare single socket board. You can attach that board as well as other Trickey boards to each other using the built-in connectors…
…and the multiple units will work as one keyboard.
As for the key legends, BreadBoardManiac will set up a website where you can download ready-to-print templates, or you can just make your own.
Perhaps the only downside to this clever keyboard is that even though it’s more affordable than the Mini Six, it’s still quite expensive. You’ll have to pledge at least $139 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Trickey as a reward, and it’ll probably cost more after the fundraiser.
