MonkiiBoard58

MonkiiBoard Keyboards

Hi! This is the home for the MonkiiBoard keyboards, an open little family of boards you can build, flash and print yourself. There are five of them so far, and each one lives in its own folder with the Arduino code, a 3D printable case and a readme that walks you through it. Remember, for every build (aside from MonkiiPad16 and MonkiiBoard58), there will be 2 build pathways you can take, which are either handwiring or PCB-based builds. For starters, I would recommend choosing the handwiring option for certain keyboard builds, as it would make it much more easier to debug and fix using a multimeter and other tools as well!

The boards

MonkiiBoard58

MonkiiBoard58 is the newest and the most ambitious build here! This board packed fifty eight keys in a five by twelve ortholinear grid with a rotary encoder on the left, a ESP23 S3 WROOM U1 (Surface mounted component, not through hole) and no cable to the host at all since it runs wireless off a LiPo battery over Bluetooth (well of course we still have to charge the battery by pluggin the USB_C Receptacle in).

Up to this point, this board only exists as a PCB, no hand wired version, since it carries its own LiPo charger, voltage regulator and a MOSFET power gate for the OLED right alongside the switch matrix. The schematic and layout are finished and the gerbers are ready, but the boards have not gone off to a manufacturer yet, so this is the one board here that has not actually been built in real life.

MonkiiBoard39

MonkiiBoard39 is MonkiiBoard's second build. THis keyboard has thirty nine keys in a tidy ortholinear 40 percent layout, with sticky modifiers on the bottom row and a Windows key that pops the start menu on a double tap.

MonkiiBoard39 has a PCB now too, no diodes on this one since the sticky modifiers never need more than one key held down at a time. The schematic below shows all thirty nine switches wired straight into the matrix, with the Pro Micro footprint sitting right in the middle of the board.

MonkiiPad20

MonkiiPad20 is our first keyboard with a OLED screen implemented. This macropad is a a twenty key macropad with an OLED screen, two switchable layers and a set of animated robot eyes that appear when you stop using it for a while (approximately 6 - 8 seconds). It is also the only board here that uses diodes (so far).

For the MonkiiPad20, we've also made our earliest PCB version 1 for this very macropad (if you choose to go the PCB path instead of the handwiring path)! The image below taken is the PCB, where you can see a silkscreen of our logo, MonkiiBoard, on the front layer.

MonkiiBoard3x3

MonkiiPad3x3 is the first keyboard that we made!! It's a nine key pad that works as a plain number pad until you hold one key (the key "1") to flip it into a macro mode full of arrows and editing shortcuts.

MonkiiPad3x3 got the same treatment, a little PCB with all nine switches and the Pro Micro packed onto one small board, diode free just like MonkiiBoard39.

MonkiiPad16

MonkiiPad16 is our upgraded macropad, with a knob! This macropad has 16 keys and a rotary encoder, so instead of a second board or a held down FN key you just SPIN the knob to pick a layer, a numpad by default and a page of editing shortcuts one turn away.

What is in each folder

Every folder is laid out the same way. There is a firmware folder with the Arduino sketch you flash onto the board, a case folder with the print ready STL plates you can drop straight into a slicer, and a readme that covers the wiring, the layout and whatever that particular board likes to do. MonkiiBoard58 is the exception for now, since it has not been built yet its folder only holds the PCB.

Hand wired or PCB

We designed every board here except MonkiiPad16 and MonkiiBoard58 to be built either hand wired or on its PCB, same firmware and the same layout either way. Hand wiring asks a bit more of you on the materials side, thin gauge wire to run the rows and columns, insulating tape to keep the joints from touching each other, and a steadier hand while you solder everything point to point. The PCB skips all of that since the rows and columns are already routed for you, so it comes down to seating the parts and soldering them to the footprint.

MonkiiPad20 and MonkiiBoard58 are the only boards that need diodes, both 1N4148s, one for every switch. MonkiiBoard39 and MonkiiPad3x3 skip them completely on both their hand wired and PCB builds, and we code the MCUs to enable toggling keys for combinations like Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V instead of holding Ctrl and then press the other button.

A word on diodes

MonkiiPad20 and MonkiiBoard58 both have a diode sitting under each switch, which is what gives them a clean matrix and proper rollover. The other two boards skip the diodes to keep the build simple and cheap, so they are at their happiest when you press one or two keys at a time. Worth knowing before you start soldering, or before you order parts if MonkiiBoard58 is the one you are building.

The PCBs at a glance

Four of the five boards now have a PCB option, all designed in KiCad as two layer boards. Here is how they compare.

MonkiiBoard58 is also the only one of the four running wireless, with its own LiPo charging and voltage regulation on board, and the only one still waiting to actually be manufactured.

Each PCB folder has the full design story, the schematic, the gerbers to get one made, and the raw KiCad project if you want to tune or reroute your own version.

Getting started

Pick the board you want, open its folder and read through its readme. Wire the matrix to match the pins listed there, flash the sketch from the Arduino IDE, print the plates from the case folder, and you have yourself a keyboard.