A thirty key steno keyboard powered by QMK firmware and Plover.
To build pyaa, all you need is the following:
- PCB (two halves)
- 30 Kailh Choc switches (PG1350)
- 2 Pro Micros (or its derivatives)
- Important: Notices that the Pro Micro's USB must face towards the board on both halves. See the image for reference.
- 2 TRRS jacks (MJ-4PP-9 or PJ-320A)
- and optionally, 2 reset switches (TVBP06)
And keep in mind, you need a TRRS cable and a USB cable to use it. Once you have finished building it, you must flash the firmware onto the keyboard with QMK.
pyaa is powered by QMK firmware and takes advantage of its stenography, combo, and direct pin implementations. Its firmware is available here. It functions along with Plover, a desktop application developed as a part of the Open Steno Project.
There are many other steno keyboards out there, all of which allow you to input text at speeds upwards of 200 words per minute with the magic of Plover! (and of course, a bit of practice) In fact, pyaa is heavily inspired by Georgi, which was developed by g Heavy Industries' Jane Bernhardt and is available at gboards. Other options for steno keyboards can be found on Plover's wiki.
The PCB uses what is known as direct pin matrix, where each key is connected to an I/O pin on the microcontroller and ground. This makes it so that soldering diodes onto the pcb is not necessary as with other keyboards, reducing cost slightly. N-key rollover functionality, which is crucial for stenography, is left intact.