Pico Keyer
Posted by KD8PZUIntroducing the Pico Keyer!There's no better way to learn something than by diving right in and doing it.The Pico Keyer is a small dongle that plugs into your phone (or computer!) and acts like a tiny keyboard for your real Morse CW key!
This allows you to take the Morse key you want to practice on and connect it directly to apps such as Morse Mania or other software for Morse sending practice and learn on the real deal.Tapping buttons on a screen or clicking keys on a keyboard works when you're just starting out but you'll probably grow out of that pretty quickly, and you'll soon be longing to level up your practice game. The Pico Keyer is just what you need when you're ready to elevate your Morse sending practice!The concept is simple: You have some software that helps teach you how to send good Morse code, and you have a Morse key that you can use to tap out the code you're being taught but the two things can't be connected together. Enter the Pico Keyer! You plug your Morse key into the Pico Keyer via the 3.5mm audio jack that's common for Morse keys, and plug the other end of the Pico Keyer into your device's USB port. The Pico Keyer will be a keyboard that can turn your key into a space bar in straight key mode or '[' and ']' keys for the left and right paddles in paddle mode. Common apps such as the previously-mentioned Morse Mania app already understand these keystrokes by default so the Pico Keyer works out of the box with those apps, no configuration needed.
The Pico Keyer will try to automatically detect if you've got a straight key or a paddle key plugged in based on how the key is wired. There is a switch on the side of the keyer to select either auto-detect (A) or forced straight key (S). Straight keys using a TRS cable instead of a TS cable might be incorrectly auto-detected as a paddle, so if this happens on your key, just flip the switch to straight key mode and it will now work correctly.If you need to customize how your Pico Keyer acts, there is a configuration file that is available by plugging it into a computer and opening the folder that shows up. The Pico Keyer acts like a small flash drive when plugged into a computer, in addition to being a special keyboard. If you need to reset the settings back to default, just delete the configuration file! It will tell the Pico Keyer that you want to go back to the default settings, and a fresh, default configuration file will appear when you plug it back in to the computer.
Please note: If you're using a mobile device with a file browser app and a text editor app installed, these configuration instructions will work for you too!The default configuration is below:
"Left" is the key that is sent when your paddle key's left paddle is pressed. Usually this is your "dit" paddle and is typically wired just like a straight key, so radios that are not told they are being used with some kind of paddle will interpret a left paddle press as a straight key press. Default is left square bracket.
"Right" is the key that is sent when your paddle key's right paddle is pressed. Usually this is your "dah" paddle. Default is right square bracket.
"LED" is the built-in LED's brightness. This can be any number from 0 to 255, with 0 being off and 255 being as bright as it can be. If you don't want to have the keyer light up at all, this can be set to 0. If, instead, you prefer to be blinded, feel free to set this to 255! Default is 128.If you came across this post somewhere other than the store page or the reference in the configuration file and you think this sounds like something you'd like:
Feel free to check it out on Etsy!The hardware used to create the Pico Keyer is open hardware! If you're a maker and want to play around with creating custom software for it, please feel free! At the heart of the Pico Keyer is a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, which has excellent software support. If you'd like more information about this, please feel free to reach out!On occasion, software updates may be released to address bugs or add new features. Any changes will be noted below, with all versions being available for download by clicking on the version in the list.
The simplest way to put the Pico Keyer into firmware update mode is to remove the top by unscrewing the three screws, then while the keyer is plugged into a computer: Hold down the green button, press the red button, then release the green button. A new folder will open up on your computer, which you can then simply drag-and-drop the UF2 file that you downloaded here onto the keyer. When the transfer is complete, the keyer will restart and come back up running the version of the software that you installed.
1.2.0 (2024/11/21) - Initial public release of the firmware. This release adds file-based configuration support. No previous development versions of the firmware before this point are available to download.
This allows you to take the Morse key you want to practice on and connect it directly to apps such as Morse Mania or other software for Morse sending practice and learn on the real deal.Tapping buttons on a screen or clicking keys on a keyboard works when you're just starting out but you'll probably grow out of that pretty quickly, and you'll soon be longing to level up your practice game. The Pico Keyer is just what you need when you're ready to elevate your Morse sending practice!The concept is simple: You have some software that helps teach you how to send good Morse code, and you have a Morse key that you can use to tap out the code you're being taught but the two things can't be connected together. Enter the Pico Keyer! You plug your Morse key into the Pico Keyer via the 3.5mm audio jack that's common for Morse keys, and plug the other end of the Pico Keyer into your device's USB port. The Pico Keyer will be a keyboard that can turn your key into a space bar in straight key mode or '[' and ']' keys for the left and right paddles in paddle mode. Common apps such as the previously-mentioned Morse Mania app already understand these keystrokes by default so the Pico Keyer works out of the box with those apps, no configuration needed.
The Pico Keyer will try to automatically detect if you've got a straight key or a paddle key plugged in based on how the key is wired. There is a switch on the side of the keyer to select either auto-detect (A) or forced straight key (S). Straight keys using a TRS cable instead of a TS cable might be incorrectly auto-detected as a paddle, so if this happens on your key, just flip the switch to straight key mode and it will now work correctly.If you need to customize how your Pico Keyer acts, there is a configuration file that is available by plugging it into a computer and opening the folder that shows up. The Pico Keyer acts like a small flash drive when plugged into a computer, in addition to being a special keyboard. If you need to reset the settings back to default, just delete the configuration file! It will tell the Pico Keyer that you want to go back to the default settings, and a fresh, default configuration file will appear when you plug it back in to the computer.
Please note: If you're using a mobile device with a file browser app and a text editor app installed, these configuration instructions will work for you too!The default configuration is below:
Straight=" "
Left="["
Right="]"
LED=128
"Left" is the key that is sent when your paddle key's left paddle is pressed. Usually this is your "dit" paddle and is typically wired just like a straight key, so radios that are not told they are being used with some kind of paddle will interpret a left paddle press as a straight key press. Default is left square bracket.
"Right" is the key that is sent when your paddle key's right paddle is pressed. Usually this is your "dah" paddle. Default is right square bracket.
"LED" is the built-in LED's brightness. This can be any number from 0 to 255, with 0 being off and 255 being as bright as it can be. If you don't want to have the keyer light up at all, this can be set to 0. If, instead, you prefer to be blinded, feel free to set this to 255! Default is 128.If you came across this post somewhere other than the store page or the reference in the configuration file and you think this sounds like something you'd like:
Feel free to check it out on Etsy!The hardware used to create the Pico Keyer is open hardware! If you're a maker and want to play around with creating custom software for it, please feel free! At the heart of the Pico Keyer is a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, which has excellent software support. If you'd like more information about this, please feel free to reach out!On occasion, software updates may be released to address bugs or add new features. Any changes will be noted below, with all versions being available for download by clicking on the version in the list.
The simplest way to put the Pico Keyer into firmware update mode is to remove the top by unscrewing the three screws, then while the keyer is plugged into a computer: Hold down the green button, press the red button, then release the green button. A new folder will open up on your computer, which you can then simply drag-and-drop the UF2 file that you downloaded here onto the keyer. When the transfer is complete, the keyer will restart and come back up running the version of the software that you installed.
Firmware History
1.2.0 (2024/11/21) - Initial public release of the firmware. This release adds file-based configuration support. No previous development versions of the firmware before this point are available to download.