Introduction - What is the minipad?
The minipad is a keypad with 2 to 3 keys. The special thing about it? It uses magnetic switches and hall effect sensors making it an analog keypad. This allows us to add features to the keypad no one could ever dream of, since we can accurately measure how far a key is pressed down, unlike with mechanical keyboards where keys are either pressed down (1) or not (0).
This project originated in minisbett's first keypad prototype. They really wanted to try out Wooting's rapid trigger feature but did not want to spend $200 on it - So they made their own keypad! Originally, it was made with some hall effect sensors, glued to the bottom of Wooting's Lekker switches. The hall effect sensors were connected to an Arduino Pro Micro that runs the old legacy firmware.
If you're interested in learning more about it, check about the original Reddit post.
How do I get it?
As of right now (and for the forseeable future), we do not sell the keypad, nor it's components. We are a non-profit open-source project. But we have a team of contributors working and providing PCB files, 3D models for cases, firmware and the configuration software. Our main goal is to make the keypad as accessible for everyone as possible, therefore we are also looking into selling the keypad or it's components to those, that for whatever reason cannot build it together themselves.
With what we provide, you are able to buy the components yourself and put them together - It's really easy! A guide on how to build the minipad together can be found here. If you'd like to know more about the pricing of the components and where to buy them, please checkout this wiki page. In short: You put the PCB in the case, put the lid on top, screw it together, put the keys on and flash the firmware. A guide on how to flash the firmware can be found here.
If need help with something or have any questions, we have a big community on our Discord that happily help you anytime!
Analog features
Due to the functionality of our keypad, using hall effect sensors and magnetic switches making the keypad analog, we can work with an important information no mechanical keyboard can keep up with - We can measure how far the key is currently pressed down, with a 0.1mm or even higher precision. This allows us to implement some already known from Wooting, and some truly unique features!
🎢 Dynamic actuation point
Since we are able to accurately measure how far a key is pressed down, users are able to define the actuation point dynamically! No need to get used to actuation points of any switches ever again - with this keypad the actuation point is under your control.
This allows you to customize the keypad to your needs. Whether you prefer fast actuation, or a high travel distance until the key is pressed down, you'll be able to be satisfied.
The actuation point can be configured in minitility. For more information, please check out the minitility guide.
⭐ Rapid Trigger
Rapid Trigger, Wooting's famous feature that made the osu! community go crazy for almost half a year - now as a keypad! As we have all information about the travel distance of the keys, we can also provide the rapid trigger functionality!
We are trying our best to provide an optimal experience as close to Wooting as possible, however we cannot guarantee that it'll feel the same for everyone. In these matters, check out other people's experience with the minipad.
Rapid trigger can be enabled and configured in minitility. For more information, please check out the minitility guide.
Unique features
We are trying our best to give anyone a good experience with osu!. We are always open for suggestions on what kind of features you'd wish to have!
As of right now, no features are implemented but we already got some ideas!
These ideas include:
- Support for embedding a visualization of the keys' current travel distance in a stream overlay for Twitch streamers
- A mode for the 3-key keypad to have a key only trigger after a certain delay to prevent accidental quick retries or smokes when accidentally tapping the key
If you are encountering issues or having questions, please visit our Discord.
Our team
Our team is the whole community. That said, we do have a team of 8 main contributors, each of them dedicated to a section of this project they are experienced yet. Here is a list of us:
minisbett
mini manages the project, Discord and collaborations. They are also responsible for the firmware of the minipad.
minisbett on Discord • YouTube • Twitch • Twitter • GitHub • osu!
Megii
Megii is our keypad expert. With over 40 keypads built, amongst them keypads for legendary players such as Karcher or Cookiezi, he is a huge help when it comes to PCB and case design and making these two components work together.
megii on Discord • YouTube • Twitch • Twitter • osu!
demura
Demura is our PCB expert. With his expertise he designs the PCBs for the minipad. He was the first person to join the team!
ddemuraa on Discord • Twitter • GitHub • osu!
Bexin
Bexin is our other PCB expert. He is mainly responsible for checking the PCB and making sure it's up to standards meets the quality expectations.
bexin on Discord • GitHub
PlatinumChicken
PlatinumChicken is our case modelist. He has great experience in working with blender and creates the case models for us, as well as some renders and animations.
platinumchicken on Discord • Instagram • GitHub
DeadRote
DeadRote, also known as BTMCs technical manager, is a professional fullstack web developer. He is responsible for minitility, the configuration software of the minipad.
deadrote on Discord • Twitter • osu!
faltri
Faltri, widely known as the person that designed plenty of osu! streamer overlays and mrekk's discord admin, is our asset designer. He helps us by creating designs like our logo for a consistent representation of the project.