FIELD TEST
he Pimoroni Keybow is an
easy-to-build mini mechanical
keyboard kit that doesn’t require
any soldering. It’s powered by
Raspberry Pi and includes twelve
beautifully illuminated keys.
You can customise the inputs with a variety of
macros, or just use as a simple keyboard.
Clicky or non-clicky is really the only decision you’ll
need to make when you pick up the Keybow kit. And
unlike many other kits or shields, this really includes
everything – OK, almost everything – you need to get
up and running, even a Raspberry Pi Zero WH. The
only additional item you will need is an SD card,
which you most likely have already. The quality of the
keys and PCB is really good, which is what we expect
from any Pimoroni kit. If you want a self-contained
mini keyboard, this is it. And if you are looking for
something a bit smaller, check out Pimoroni’s 3-key
Keybow kit. It’s just as good as the 12-key, but a bit
less expensive and a lot smaller. It’s a great way to
get user input in a small form factor.
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PIMORONI $60 shop.pimoroni.com ADAFRUIT $ 9.95 adafruit.com
Hackable mini keypads
he Trellis driver PCB assembly
from Adafruit is an open-source
backlight keypad driver system.
It’s really easy to use, thanks to an
extensive tutorial from Adafruit,
and highly customisable. This
Trellis PCB is made to match the Adafruit 4×4
elastomer keypad and has areas in the centre of
each button for customising with 3 mm LEDs.
You will need a microcontroller to control the
Trellis, as the circuitry on the board only handles the
background key presses and LED lighting of the tile.
Any Arduino, or similar microcontroller, can handle
reading of the key inputs and configuring the LEDs.
Our favourite part about the Trellis is its ability to be
expanded and be customised. Each Trellis PCB has
an I^2 C-controlled LED sequencer and keypad reader
already on it. The on-board chip can control all of its
16 LEDs individually. The same circuitry reads any key
presses. You can connect up to eight PCBs together
via their edge connectors. Each board will share the
same power, ground, interrupt, and I^2 C clock and
data pins. This makes building a huge 128-button
matrix really fun and easy! Just remember to pick
up the required matching membrane and LEDs.
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Keybow 12-key Kit vs
Adafruit Trellis Monochrome Driver
Pimoroni Keybow
A great solution
for adding keyed
input to your
Raspberry Pi.
Adafruit Trellis
Customisable,
affordable, and
extensible.
10
10
VERDICT
/ 10
/ 10
Below
A really well-made
and complete kit
Below
Build and modify
the Trellis however
you’d like