There’s a lot to love about the custom mechanical keyboard community, especially when there are major innovations in the underlying technology. One of the most innovative mechanical keyboards is the Emugotchi macropad. It is shaped a little bit like an egg or Tamagotchi, and uses a M5Stack Core2 ESP32 microcontroller that appears to be more like a complete mini computer with a screen, SD card slot, wireless communications and more built-in. The major downside to the Emugotchi is that it is only available in Japan, and all of the instructions and software appear to be in Japanese.
I’ve ordered one despite the language barrier, the Yushakobo shop will ship the Emugotchi outside of Japan. If you are in Japan there are more Emugotchi options available from the Booth shop of the Emugotchi’s designer, including silly easter bunny ears. The Emugotchi was about $60 shipped from Yushakobo and the M5Stack Core2 was about $50. You’d still need keycaps and switches to complete the build.
The designer also has a small ortholinear mechanical keyboard called the AZ-M5ortho with the same M5Stack Core2 microcontroller.
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