Pyra Control Pad DIY

[t40]

I'm just spitballing ideas here, but how hard would it be to solder an arduino, some resistors and leds to a pre-order unpopulated pcb and throw it into the bottom half of a pyra case with a keymat to get a basic usb/bluetooth keyboard? Anyone with a better idea on how the electronic side of things work on the pyra pcb want to chime in here? I'd really like to build a decent arduino driven game controller/keypad for my phone but none of the tutorials I glanced over explain keypads. Plus the pyra keypad is simply better than most.

 

[TrashyMG]

Well the CPU module connectors could be sourced from a major electronics parts store. The keyboard and game controls is a mix of GPIOs used in the game controlls and an I2C chip (TCA8418) that interfaces with the keyboard array. There is likely a good amount of room to fit a small Arduino or other microcontroller.


Early version of the Pyra schematics have already been released. Although it may have changed already.

https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/power-memory-and-schematics.78631/

As for difficulty, that's hard to say it depends on the person doing it, I likely could put together some Frankenstein monster of parts to get it to work, but another could actually make a proper PCB and such.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

I dunno about hardware tinkering, but if you'd like an example of an usb keyboard realized with an Arduino, the keyboardio Model 01's software is OSS - does mouse, too

 

[gpsqueeek]

If you go that way, I'd suggest teensy LC instead of Arduino : smaller, cheaper, more powerful, Arduino-compatible (software-wise) and with pre-configured keyboard, mouse and joystick compatibility. No I do not have any profit in advertising the company (pjrc.com)
I can't say more on the fact that the board would let you do it though, TrashyMG knows more than I do