RoamyboardA keyboard you wear on your leg

Roamyboard

Type on the move

You know how you think better while you're on the move? Then why do we do knowledge work sitting down at a desk? Roamyboard straps to your legs, so you can type while you walk. A keyboard by nevyn.

  • Easily switch between 5 Bluetooth connections on the fly.
  • Modular: connect any number of columns and other accessory modules.
  • Straps to your legs!!!
  • Built in PDA! And MIDI, because why not‽

Order one → Build your own

Looking down at both halves of a Roamyboard strapped across two thighs, with pink and purple keycaps

Both halves strapped on: their MCU modules meet in the middle, and each half curves around its leg.

Why wear a keyboard?

I think so much better when I'm moving, and I want to code while I walk. I've been chasing that since 2012. The first idea was to sew a keyboard straight into a pair of trousers, which turned out to be exactly as impractical as it sounds. Many prototypes later, it has become a row of printed modules on a strap, curved to fit a thigh.

— Nevyn

How it fits together

A half is a row of modules

A terminator module at one end, any number of key modules, and the MCU module at the other end with the nice!nano, battery and display. A split keyboard is two halves; a unibody keyboard is one.

Modules click together

At each joint, a module's header pins slide into its neighbour's sockets and its guide pins into the neighbour's guide holes, and a tooth on each flap clicks into a notch. No tools, no cables between modules.

The firmware counts the keys

Every key module adds a shift register to the chain, and the terminator module ends it. The MCU module reads the chain, so ZMK knows how many key modules are attached. Pull one off while it runs and the keys move to their new places.

Built so far

Two joined key modules with purple keycaps held in a hand
The first two key modules joined: they mated, clicked and read as a chain.
A finished key module held in a hand, with connector openings along its side
A finished key module.
An open MCU module: battery, power switch, reset button, nice!nano and the socket board
A wired MCU module, open: battery, power switch, reset button and nice!nano.
The MCU module's nice!view showing ZMK's status screen on first boot
First boot: ZMK's status screen through the MCU module's window.

Get one

Order one

Pick the halves, key modules, curve, case colour, switches and keycaps, and see what each part costs. The order goes to Nevyn as an email, and he builds it by hand.

Configure yours →

Build your own

The assembly guide covers printing, soldering, assembling, flashing and testing a half, step by step, with a parts list and 3D views of every module.

Read the guide →

Meet the PDA

The right half's display is a tiny PDA with notes, a clock, a timer, a calculator, a kana drill and games, played on the keyboard itself.

Read the manual →

See the layout

The default keymap, layer by layer, drawn as the two halves of modules that type it. It changes with the number of key modules per half.

Browse the layers →

This is a hobby project, not a shop. Nevyn builds these one at a time, on evenings. Everything is open: the case model, the boards, the firmware and these pages are on GitHub.