BOB, the Big Orange Button

The keyboard and mouse combination works adequately for the vast majority of computing endeavors, but what if you’d like one big button for performing a certain task? Dmytro Panin, AKA dr2mod on Reddit, notes that he “always wanted my laptop to have a big designated physical key that I can hit and not be afraid I’d break it.” So he designed BOB, the Big Orange Button.

BOB takes the form of cylindrical desktop button, with a roughly hockey puck-sized black base, and an orange section sticking out the top for mashing. Blank components for 3D printing are found here, though he’s also created variations with a nuclear radiation symbol, as well as one emblazoned with “HELP” on the top. A blue (clicky) key switch is mounted inside of the device to receive user inputs and give subtle audio feedback.

The unit uses an RP2040-based Pimoroni Tiny 2040 to interface with a computer, which transmits HID commands over USB. Since it’s emulating a keyboard (or potentially other input devices) no drivers are needed, and it should simply plug in and work, regardless of the OS used. BOB is programmed in CircuitPython, which makes it easy to modify for your own input purposes. Code, along with other build info, is available on GitHub.

You can see the device demonstrated in the Twitter clip below, with Panin playing the jumping dinosaur game on Chrome.