Nordic nRF52840

I have 2 of the Nordic tiny dev boards in the USB form factor, NRF52840-DONGLE from Digikey, about $10 each.

They can do Zigbee, which is why I got them and of course have done nothing with so far.

My first project: HID Keyboard

The nrf52840 supports USB, which means I can put CircuitPython on them, I did that then put the "Hello world" app on there and changed it to playback my long and complex password.

Nordic Getting startedguide

Windows driver, none available for Mac.

After getting the board to connect as a mass storage device then I can put Circuit Python onto it. I think for this board, I will need to install their bootloader too.

Once it's all loaded, then I just need to copy the code.py file onto it and change one string. It powers on and becomes an HID keyboard in about 2 seconds and then on each keypress it plays my password. Ta-da!

Other ways I could do this: I could use a Raspberry Pi Pico for $4, I already got it going on an Adafruit Circuit Playground Express $25.

It's about what's in my junk drawer inventory, not what it costs. The nRF is a handy form factor. A Pi Zero for $5 would work but I don't own one and it would require booting Linux so it would be too slow. I did try out the HID keyboard thing on a Pi Zero W. Too complicated