Elevator Pitch
Learn how to build your own keyboard with CircuitPython—no hardware experience needed. Make custom tools that boost your productivity, fit your habits, and change how you code—one key at a time.
Description
As developers, we spend hours every day typing code, switching windows, running tests, writing docs, and hunting for that one shortcut that makes life easier. But here’s a question: why are we still using the same keyboard someone else designed for someone else’s workflow?
In this talk, we’ll dive into a fun and practical journey: building your own keyboard using CircuitPython. Not just for the thrill of it (though that’s part of the fun)—but to create a tool that’s custom-fit to how you work.
We’ll explore how a few buttons, a tiny microcontroller, and some Python can completely change how you interact with your computer. Want a macro pad for your dev tools? A launcher for your test suite? A typing interface that’s actually ergonomic? You can build it.
This talk is for any developer or any keyboard user who wants to go beyond software and start shaping their physical tools—no hardware background required. You’ll learn how CircuitPython makes hardware programming beginner-friendly, how keyboard logic works under the hood, and how this tiny project can unlock big improvements in your productivity, focus, and even creativity.
Because in the end, programming isn’t just about writing code. It’s about building tools that make us better at what we do. Let’s start with the one we touch every day: the keyboard.