🎉  Happy 13th Birthday Raspberry Pi!   🎂   1,000+ deals in store!   🥳
🎉  Happy 13th Birthday Raspberry Pi!   🎂   1,000+ deals in store!   🥳

Keybow 2040

by Pimoroni

A luxe all-in-one 16 key mini mechanical keyboard with hot swap clicky or linear switches and per key customisable RGB lighting.

Keybow evolves into its final form with a 4x4 grid of keys, and low latency input, high reliability and a super slim footprint courtesy of the brand new RP2040 chip from Raspberry Pi. The RP2040 microcontroller chip is incorporated neatly into the Keybow 2040 PCB, so it's a tidy all-in-one unit. We've added our favourite Kailh Speed switches (now available in clicky, linear or tactile varieties) and smart transparent DSA keycaps that look incredible when lit up with the fully customisable per-key RGB lighting.

You could use Keybow 2040 as a streaming deck for adjusting in-stream audio settings and switching easily between OBS scenes, as a capable midi controller for triggering clips, tracks, or effects in Ableton Live or as a customisable hotkey pad for programs like Photoshop. It's also handy for pasting frequently-used text or code snippets.

Features

  • Powered by RP2040
  • 2MB of flash memory.
  • 16 (4x4 matrix) of low profile keys connected directly to GPIOs
  • Kailh hot-swap switch sockets (for Cherry MX-compatible switches)
  • Per key RGB LEDs driven by an IS31FL3731 PWM LED matrix driver
  • A BOOTSEL button (this can also be used as a user switch)
  • A reset button!
  • Powered and programmable via USB-C
  • Dimensions: approx 76mm x 76mm x 30mm (L x W x H, including switches, keycaps and feet)
  • No soldering required!
  • Comes with CircuitPython pre-installed
  • PMK CircuitPython library
  • Schematic

Includes

The clicky, linear and tactile kits contain everything you need* to assemble your own mini mechanical keyboard with high-quality clicky (Gold), linear (Silver) or tactile (Copper) Kailh Speed switches and clear DSA-profile key caps. The hot-swap Kailh sockets mean that assembly is super simple and there's absolutely no soldering required!

We also have a bare bones edition available, without keycaps and switches, for folks who would like to supply their own. The hot-swap sockets will work with Cherry-MX compatible switches and you'll need ones that have a recess on the underside for surface mount LEDs.

* A USB-C cable is not included, but we sell one here!

Getting started

This tutorial shows you how to assemble your Keybow 2040 - assembly is really straightforward and the only tool you'll need is a small Phillips screwdriver.

We're shipping Keybow 2040 with CircuitPython and all the necessary libraries pre-installed - it even comes set up with an example to get you going! 

Software

Our good friend Sandy has written a swish CircuitPython library which makes it easy to program and customise your Keybow 2040. There are simple examples to show you how to control the LEDs and buttons, as well as fancy ones to show you how set it up as a USB input device or even a midi controller/sequencer.

You can watch Sandy's livestream where he chats about Keybow 2040 and how the library works here.

About RP2040

Raspberry Pi's RP2040 microcontroller is a dual core ARM Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz. It bundles in 264kB of SRAM, 30 multifunction GPIO pins (including a four channel 12-bit ADC), a heap of standard peripherals (I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, clocks, etc), and USB support.

One very exciting feature of RP2040 is the programmable IOs which allow you to execute custom programs that can manipulate GPIO pins and transfer data between peripherals - they can offload tasks that require high data transfer rates or precise timing that traditionally would have required a lot of heavy lifting from the CPU.

25 customer reviews

7 months ago
It's a very nice little gaming console with a decent display and an aluminium case that looks and feels quite sturdy and durable. You can find some games for it on the internet - but the real fun could be writing those by yourself. When I tried I found a reason that makes me write this four-star-only rating. To access the debug pins of the built-in RP2040 you have to open and remove the case. It would have been much nicer if there was one removable panel with those pins behind...
by Thomas about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
7 months ago
Well built, feels very premium. There's a decent little community making games for it, and it can run things like an NES emulator without too much issue. I am not currently a skilled enough C++ developer to make anything worth playing for it, but I did manage some basics reasonably quickly.
by Ed about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
9 months ago
I'm really impressed by what this tiny thing is able to do! I was able to write a simple game in a matter of hours... You can even upload a NES emulator on it.
by Benoît about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
An awesome system based on RP2040. Build quality is very solid and the device has a very nice weight to it. Battery life is also very good. Comes with a nice platformer pre-installed. I haven't made anything with it yet but look forward to adapting my Pico Display games to this one.
by Mircea about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
I am very happy and also surprised, I received all the material in eight days from the order, congratulations! Everything arrived in perfect condition and Pimoroni products are always of excellent quality. Thank you!
by Giuseppe about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Small, cute and very nice hardware. Especially aluminium body is great.
by Anonymous about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Great device but haven't got it working on my linux mint install yet.
by Daniel about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Very clicky buttons, bright screen and looks good in motion. The build feels very solid.
by Matthew about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Very comfortable in hand. Seem sturdy enough to lend it to my small children. I am in the process of porting one of my web game to it. Very easy to program for it, or, if that's not your thing, to load the few available games on it.
by Julien about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Amazing little gizmo. Really well made and feels solid. Need to learn about writing my own games and such for it but the hardware and possibilities are fantastic
by Fiona about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
It’s a nice little handheld with a good sdk though I wish the debug pins were more accessible
by Henry about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Simply amazing! The quality of this product is off the charts! The rest is up me, getting my programming skills to a level where I can make a game worthy of the system.
by Luke about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
The ordering experience was very quick. The delivery to the USA was fairly quick using Royal mail during this time of Covid.
by Gelsomino about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
This is an incredibly well made system. I hope to be able to develop some nice games with it.
by Michael about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
First impression of the RP2040-based tiny game console PicoSystem is really positive. Ridgid build quality, robust FPS and responsive buttons!
by Johannes about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Oh yeah going to get my game programming on. Default games on the Pimironi website are good too. 10/10 would recommend.
by Rohan about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
System works well, instructions are good. I had issues with tool chain on windows for raspberry pico sdk. Once I switched to Debian in virtual box everything worked fine. I recommend using putty and ssh for programming to get copy paste functionality and winscp to copy files. The hardware is very well built and I highly recommend it.
by Todd about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Amazing little video game machine in your pocket where programming is as easy as editing a text file on a USB drive!
by Chipp about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
It looks like a commercial games device, it looks really good. Solid build and I cannot wait to start building games and apps for it.
by Stephen about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
The build quality is extremely good. Especially the aluminium case makes it feel great. The screen has a good quality but it’s pretty small which kind of makes the charm of the PicoSystem. The 32blit SDK is great for developing own games and it has an active community behind it. There are also other SDKs available which I haven’t had experience with yet. Overall the PicoSystem is great for getting into retro game development.
by Anonymous about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
A very cool little device. I love the metallic body and front plate.
by Anonymous about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Great little device! It feels super solid and high-quality, and looks fantastic. The RP2040 is very nice so far, and importantly, both the PicoSDK and the PicoSystem SDK are very easy to use, especially the examples in the PicoSystem repo. If you've dabbled in retro console game dev, the PicoSystem is something like a GBA packed into the size of a GB Micro, and has similar limitations in RAM and ROM, just with a smaller screen (but roughly twice the pixels of the original GB at 240x240 vs 160x144), same button count as the original GB, a much faster CPU, and MUCH better documentation. Highly recommend it; it's a lot of fun.
by Ulises about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Very nice build quality, but the game library is quite lacking right now.
by Anonymous about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Fantastic pocket-ready build, both C++ and CircuitPython ready. 32blit SDK has been great to work with so far!
by John about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
The fit and finish in the PicoSystem is outstanding and the SDK tools provided to get started provided everything I needed to start tinkering.
by Matthew about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io

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