Chouchou (Japanese for butterfly) is a minimalist unibody keyboard designed to be used with the Taipo layout, but it also can be used as a pretty nice fighting gamepad.
It uses a cheap RP2040-Zero MCU and requires no diodes since the 20 edge pinouts it provides is the exact number of keys Taipo requires. It was created with Ergogen and KiCad. I designed it for my largish hands so if you have smaller hands its probably not going to be comfortable. I might make a more compact version in the future if people request it.
- Send the Gerber file to the PCB manufacturer of your choice
- 1 x RP2040-Zero
- 20 x low profile choc switches and keycaps. Since you're going to be doing a lot of combos, I recommend lighter switches. I use 25g light blue, but 35g pro red is not bad either. You can use 1.5U keycaps for the thumbs, the socket has been rotated 90 degrees to accomodate.
- (optional) 20 x kailh hotswap sockets
- (optional) RP2040-Zero headers
- QMK
- Taipo Keyboard
- PC Gamepad
- Qwerty/WASD Layout
- KMK
- Taipo Keyboard
- Python based with hot reloading so good if you tinker a lot with your layout
- GP2040-CE
- PC or console gamepad
- Note: PS5 requires an adapter like the Wingman FGC
- Solder the RP2040-Zero to the board either directly or using the headers you purchased
- Build and flash the firmware
- You can test the keyboard at this point by connecting the hotswap pads with some metal tweezers before continuing
- Solder the kalih hotswap sockets if purchased or solder the switches directly the board otherwise
- Insert the switches into the hotswap sockets if necessary
- Add your keycaps
Issue: The case gets blocked by one of the screw mounts when using hotswap sockets, its easy enough to cut the side a bit with a knife though.
The screws/nuts are optional, its a pretty tight fit so you might not need them.
- 3D print the case.stl file
- (optional) 8 x Knurled Insert Nuts (M2 x 3mm Length x 3.2mm OD) example
- (optional) 8 x M2 3mm flat screws example
- Use a soldering iron to melt the insert nuts into the holes in the case
- Screw the board to the case
Butterfly image by Freepik