In general, you just need to tap the number key (2-9) containing the letter you’re trying to type. If you get to the end of the word, and there’s a word there that’s not the one you want, just hit the # button. That will cycle through all valid words that match the key pattern you’ve entered. For example, ‘gate’ and ‘have’ would both be available after typing 4-2-8-3.
Hit ‘0’ to enter a space.
Hit ‘1’ for backspace.
Hold ‘#’ to hit enter.
‘*’ is the modifier key. It changes the behavior of all other keys while it is being held. To access punctuation, press the ‘#’ key while holding ‘*’. Pressing repeatedly will cycle through punctuation marks. Hitting the other number keys while holding ‘*’ will simulate multi-tap typing. That’s when you click each number repeatedly to cycle through letters. For example, holding ‘*’ and pressing ‘3’ twice quickly will enter the letter ‘E’.
If you want to use this keyboard in normal numeric mode, hold the 1 button while cycling the power or hitting the ‘Reset’ button. Hold for ~5 seconds. The LED should flash red twice, and then stay that way until you reboot again.
Similarly, you can use this keyboard in “macro” mode, where each of the buttons (‘1’->’#’) will map to the standard function keys (F1->F12). To use this, hold the ‘2’ button while power-cycling the keyboard. Hold for ~5 seconds. The LED should flash green twice, and then stay that way until you reboot again.
You’ll notice that the device shows up as both a keyboard and a flash drive on your PC. If you’re unfamiliar with CircuitPython, those files are the actual firmware for this device. Changing them can break things! If you’re comfortable with Python, feel free to mess around.
There is a file on the flash drive called “priority_words.txt”. This is the list of words that you’d like to show up first, given a matching key sequence. If you find that there’s a certain key sequence that defaults to a word you don’t care about, you can specify the word you’d like to show up here. It will only work for words that are included in the word library.
Click here if you want to upload your own word library to the device! You can download and edit the default one from that web page if you want a good starting point.