Macropads are becoming very popular, and for good reason. Anyone who works with software that uses a lot of key combinations quickly learns the value of having common, repetitive tasks mapped to a single key. However, when changing between different applications or profiles on a macropad, it can be hard to remember how you have mapped things. A great solution is to print out keycap stickers, but an even more awesome solution is to put a full-colour LCD behind every key! That’s exactly what the creator of the Open Deck has done.
While this isn’t a new idea, the existing solutions are almost entirely proprietary and quite expensive. They have locked firmware and only support the platforms and use cases they think will sell the most pads. But the Open Deck is fully open source, allowing you to repurpose it, reprogram it, or integrate it into any project you want. This also means that as long as you have the hardware, you’ll always be able to use it — open source software doesn’t vanish when a product is discontinued.
Under the hood, the Open Deck is using an ESP8266 running an Arduino core, meaning it’s very easy to tweak and add features if you want. The computer-side software is written in Python, and while the current version has some features that are only available on Windows, it does work with Mac and Linux too.
If this project piques your interest, make sure to check out the project page and check out the demo video below!
