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Support Targets ESP32-WROOM32 Pico2W alt text
Dev Environment Used alt text Arduino IDE
BT Keyboards Tested alt text alt text Rii i8+ mini

K3NG CW Keyer (Modified for ESP32 and Pico2-W)

Based on a 2022 version modifed to run on ESP32-WROOM32 and Pico2W.

Select relevant updates from 2022 to Dec 2025 have been applied. Added BT keyboards, TFT, Touch, LCD displays, GPS, and Compass. Compiles under ESP-IDF for ESP32, or Arduino for either ESP32 or Pico2W. Some limitations apply to BT keyboards on ESP32 under Arduino.

To build under ESP-IDF (preferred) see https://github.com/K7MDL2/K3NG_Keyer_ESP32_BT_Keyboard/wiki/Building-the-Project-with-ESP%E2%80%90IDF

To build under Arduino IDE see https://github.com/K7MDL2/K3NG_Keyer_ESP32_BT_Keyboard/wiki/Building-the-project-with-Arduino-IDE. For the Pico I post a UF2 image file, and image files for the ESP32 for each model display for those who do not want to try to compile their own.

Under Arduino, for ESP32 and Pico only, I automatically detect the board type and set the proper #define for that board, no need to edit the keyere-hardware.h file. If you have a different display, or no display, update the settings in Feature and Options header file. TFT_eSPI library is used for both ESP32 and Pico. Your TFT display needs to be one of the types supported in TFT_eSPI's UserSetup.h file. I have tested displays with both the GT911 and XPT2046 touch controllers. The XPT2046 has built in support in the TFT_eSPI libary. GT911 is an i2c controller and uses a separate library. It should be easy to substitute other touch controllers, just need a 'pressed' event (polled) with x and y values.

From the original K3NG site:

The K3NG Keyer is an open source Arduino based CW (Morse Code) keyer with a lot of features and flexibility, rivaling commercial keyers which often cost significantly more. The code can be used with a full blown Arduino board or an AVR microcontroller chip can be programmed and used directly in a circuit. This keyer is suitable as a standalone keyer or for use permanently installed inside a rig, especially homebrew QRP rigs. It’s open source code so you can fully customize it to fit your needs and also perhaps learn from it or find coding ideas for other projects.

Note

Original K3NG CW Keyer here: https://github.com/k3ng/k3ng_cw_keyer

Documentation is located here: https://github.com/k3ng/k3ng_cw_keyer/wiki

This fork on a ESP32-WROOM32 and Pico2W adds:

  • BT keyboards (Select BLE and BT Classic models)
  • A few different type TFT displays with 320x170, 320,240, and 480x320 resolutions
  • Touch buttons on touch enabled displays
  • Status Bar with Grid, call, WPM rate, and several status icons including T/R status.
  • MCP23017 I2C port expander to add IO to the IO-starved TFT display boards. The Paddles and Straight key are on PA0-2 pins.
  • Using interrupts for all paddle and straight key IO pin, both the port expander and local GPIO pins.
  • Serial GPS can udpate time and grid square to 8 places, and populate a memory with 4 or 6 digits.
  • I2C compass heading values can display in a popup window to help point microwave antennas. Can configure your declination.
  • Backlight timeout with enable/disable to save battery. Configurable timeout. TFT displays are around 270ma, 100ma with backlight off. About 10ma less without BT keyboard feature.
  • User assignable buttons and number of button rows.
  • For ESP32, optionally run GPS, BT, Touch, and Main loop in task. All but Main Loop can run on either Core 0 or Core 1 (as a group move). Lets BT connections and GPS time to run uninterrupted, even during 13WPM and 50WPM keying rates. For Pico GPS and BT connect/reconnect can run on Core 1 (no task requried). When BT is on Core1 it allows connect and reconnect in the background.

Check out the latest changes at the Wiki page https://github.com/K7MDL2/K3NG_Keyer_ESP32_BT_Keyboard/wiki/Change-Notes

Note

Arduino IDE Users with ESP32 see https://github.com/K7MDL2/K3NG_Keyer_ESP32_BT_Keyboard/wiki/Building-the-project-with-Arduino-IDE

See the Wiki Pages for more information about parts supported and configuration. https://github.com/K7MDL2/K3NG_Keyer_ESP32_BT_Keyboard/wiki

This is a 3.5" 480x320 TFT with a single panel of 16 keys. If you press the Mem key, a blue message window pops up diplaying the contents of each memory. You can use Insert Memory macro '\Ix' to insert memories (1-9 only). For example I have memories 7 and 8 programmed with my callsign and grid square.

image

This is a 3.5" 320x480 TFT (Pioc2W) with 4 rows of 4 keys (not counting the Fx key to change rows). Has the identical 16 key assignments.

320x480-K7MDL-Feb-17-2026

This is a 3.2" 320x240 TFT (ESP32) with 4 rows of 4 keys (not counting the Fx key to change rows). Has the identical 16 key assignments.

image

Also seen in the above picture is a 16 port expander (MCP23017) on a I2C bus. The paddles and straight key are on PA0-2.

The ESP and PICO look and act identical with some minor differences around BT keyboard connection behaviors.

3 years ago (2022) SP5IOU modified the K3NG Keyer Arduino code to support an ESP32. This repository is forked from his repository at https://github.com/aimeiz/k3ng_cw_keyer-master_2022. After changing the pin assignments it worked on my ESP32-WROOM-32 dev board. I used the board described in this Wiki page https://github.com/K7MDL2/K3NG_Keyer_ESP32_BT_Keyboard/wiki/CPU-Module

I then integrated a BT Keyboard library from https://github.com/turgu1/bt-keyboard. It is a bit different in that the ESP32 is a HID host connecting to a BT keyboard for input. Most examples just convert a USB or PS2 keyboard to BT to connect to a PC. Later I added several types of TFT displays and touch buttons for certain models. Finally I added support for the PicoW and Pico2W. Only tested on Pico 2W (RP2350 and RP2350B).

ESP32: I am using ESP-IDF to compile. Arduino-esp32 is added as a component. I first tried Arduino IDE but I was not able to get a BT classic keyboard (Logitech K380) to fully connect after it was discovered. My BLE Rii i8+ keyboard worked fine though. My BT_Keyboard test programs behaved the same. I ported it to esp-idf and BT classic works proper as does the Rii. The K380s BLE keyboard works but does not reconnect and required re-pairing after each disocnnect/powerup/reset. You can compile this under Arduino IDE but see this page https://github.com/K7MDL2/K3NG_Keyer_ESP32_BT_Keyboard/wiki/Building-the-project-with-Arduino-IDE for current functionality restrictions. Pico: Using Arduino IDE to compile withteh arduino-pico board package. Supports BT Classic or BLE, but only 1 of them based on a compile time switch. BLE connects and reconnects, No PIN required. BT Classic connects with no PIN also, but requires pushing the keyboard Pair button each connect.

The BT keyboard code translates BT key codes to match the PS2 keycodes and calls into the slightly modified PS2 keyboard function. See the K3NG docs for USB\PS2 Keyboard commands. I have a copy of the BT keyboard commands on this Wiki page https://github.com/K7MDL2/K3NG_Keyer_ESP32_BT_Keyboard/wiki/BT-Keyboard-Key-Assignments. Not all keys on a PS2/USB keyboard are present on these compact BT keyboards. I may alter some of the key assignments over time.

Tested with BLE K380s and Rii i8+ mini keyboards, and the Logitech K380, which happens to use BT classic.

I plan to fork the original K3NG repo then merge my changes into it so that this benefit from the updates to the original. Since this version is currently compiled under esp-idf framework, it is not likely to be accepted into the main repo. You can compile under Arduino but all BT keyboards do not work yet per the above notes.

I have several WIKI pages to show how I set up the ESP-IDF options. The TFT_eSPI, BT_keyboard, and other required components (aka libraries) are included in tis repo so there should be no need to find and download libraries and components unlike in Arduino. For Ardiono build you will need to copy somoe of the libraries to your standard Ardiuno/libraries path. See the Wiki Notes for details.

I provide precompiled firmware files for your compatible CPU board using either of 2 tools so you do not have to compile the code, just upload the binary files and run it. There are Wiki pages about hardware, other info, and how to upload the firmware:

https://github.com/K7MDL2/K3NG_Keyer_ESP32_BT_Keyboard/wiki

  • Mike K7MDL