Description

PixelKey is a small PC board that can be used to add up to 4 programmable buttons to a PC. When plugged into a PC, it acts like a USB keyboard. The buttons are programmable and can be made to press any keyboard key. It is designed to be easily mountable to any enclosure using just 2 screws and a couple of plastic washers. You provide up to 4 momentary push-buttons of any size/color/type you desire and connect them to the board.

Status

Currently working on configuration software for Linux and Apple computers.

What makes this Unique?

While there are other USB keyboard projects out there, I was unable to find one where each button could be easily reprogrammed without having to recompile the source code for the project. PixelKey's buttons are all reprogrammable using the configuration software. This allows you to have different button configurations for different programs. For example, you might want to be able to control video/audio playback using VLC media player while having a different set of keys, say cut/copy/paste, for your text editor. That is what PixelKey was designed for. It allows you to have up to 10 different button groups and switch between them using the configuration software. Checkout ee.pixelbytestudios for more info.

Features

• Supports up to 4 buttons
• Each button is individually reprogrammable via the configuration software
• Each button can be programmed to press one keyboard key + any number of modifier keys (control, shift, alt, winkey)
• Supports up to 10 separate button groups easily switchable from the configuration software
• Updatable firmware
• Programmable button debounce time (in 20ms increments)
• Programmable ID# so that multiple PixelKeys can be used and configured on 1 PC.
• +5V_USB output and +3.3V up to 250mA (note: total output power not to exceed 2.5W)
• Settable delay (up to 100ms) so that the key press can occur after the modifier keys are pressed. This turns out to be necessary for some software packages to properly respond to certain keypress combinations.

Notes

PixelKey configuration app status:

• Windows XP [unknown]
• Windows 7 [yes]
• Windows 8, 8.1 [yes]
• Linux [working on it]
• Mac [working on it]