Maker Christian Lo has launched design information and firmware for a compact ortholinear mechanical keyboard 5 years within the making — and that includes an ultra-tall OLED show at its heart: the Loongcat40.
“The Loongcat40 is the end result of 5 years of keyboard design,” Lo explains of the gadget. “Powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040), this 40% mechanical keyboard options a big 2.08″ SH1122 OLED show, a customized 3D-printed gasket-mounted case, and QMK firmware assist. It’s a totally open-source undertaking exploring the intersection of ergonomics and digital aesthetics.”
The Raspberry Pi PIco-powered Loongcat40 is a 40% ortholinear keyboard with a distinction: an ultra-tall OLED show at its heart. (📷: Christian Lo)
In contrast to a standard staggered-column keyboard, an ortholinear format opts to position its keys in an evenly-spaced grid. At 40%, there are significantly fewer of those keys within the Loongcat40 than you’d discover on a standard format — and, as is common for compact keyboards, “lacking” keys like quantity and performance keys are accessed by shifting the keyboard into totally different “layers.”
There are a few options that make the compact keyboard stand out from rivals, although. The primary is within the backside row of arrow keys, which mix cursor and shift performance: these six keys are angled to face the person, making them transfer snug to hit with a thumb whereas maintaining your fingers resting on the house keys.
The second is extra apparent: an attention-grabbing single-color OLED panel, mounted in portrait mode in a spot between the keys dead-center on the keyboard to offer a compact however ultra-tall customizable secondary show. The whole lot is linked to a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller contained in the 3D-printed housing, and powered by a custom-made model of the open-source QMK firmware working on its RP2040 microcontroller.
Extra data on the undertaking is out there on Hackaday.io, with design information obtainable on GitHub below the reciprocal GNU Normal Public License 3; the GPL 2-licensed firmware is out there in a separate repository.
