DexoPad — phone-as-keyboard USB HID dongle (ESP32-S3 + BLE) — Kickstarter live

[Dreamj668]

Hi all,

Plug-style: posting in this board because the rules say it's allowed. I'll take whatever critical feedback you've got — it's how the design gets better.

TL;DR: A USB-C dongle that registers as a generic HID keyboard + mouse on any USB host. The control surface is your phone (iOS at base goal; Android at the $40K stretch) or a desktop client (macOS / Windows / Linux). No driver install on the host. Works at BIOS, on Pi during initial boot, on locked-down kiosk machines, anywhere a real keyboard isn't already plugged in.

Where we are: $13.3K USD / 266% funded / 276 backers / 20 days left. Ships September 2026.

Architecture (short):

• ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 module on a custom carrier PCB (current iteration)
• BLE link between phone and dongle, currently being tuned for typing-feel latency
• Dongle presents as a HID keyboard + mouse to the host — no host-side driver, no companion software
• Key-layout translation (AZERTY / Dvorak / Bépo / etc.) happens phone-side; the dongle just sends scancodes

Trade-off calls, in case anyone wants to argue them:

• Custom dongle vs Pi Pico W + OSS firmware — we landed on custom HW + closed-source FW for reach (non-developer / accessibility / care-facility users for whom flashing a Pico isn't on the table). Already got pushback on this from one engineer on Element14; fair criticism.
• Painted ABS vs raw colored ABS — under re-evaluation pending Stretch 1 (injection-mold tooling). Six-month durability is fine; the five-year question is open.
• AI Voice as opt-in (default OFF) — backer feedback on the marketing framing is pushing us to add an explicit "fully disable" Settings toggle before release.
• GPL audit — earlier demos used a couple of GPL libraries; replaced before final release.

Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/palmblock/dexopad-cross-device-keyboard-mouse-and-macros-anywhere?ref=bp55jn

Happy to answer architecture / hardware questions in this thread. Ready for the critical version of "you should have done X instead."

— MJ (Mengjie), PalmBlock team

[PlainName]

How is this one better than:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.appground.blek

or

https://www.remotemouse.net/