DL8MAR's Morse Code Trainer and Keyer Is a Wearable Wrist Accessory for the Discerning Ham Operator
Designed to speed your CW keying, this M5StickC wearable trainer doubles as working key or paddle for a real-world radio.
Radio ham operator "DL8MAR" is working to turn an M5Stack M5StickC Plus development board into a wearable gadget for training in Morse code — with a touch-paddle and continuous wave (CW) keyer mode to boot.
"This project is a versatile Morse code trainer, communicator, and CW keyer designed for the M5StickC Plus device," DL8MAR explains of the work-in-progress wearable. "It is inspired by the Morserino project, but with the goal of creating a much smaller, wrist-mounted device and is programmed from scratch as a programming exercise."
Built atop the M5Stack M5StickC Plus, an all-in-one development kit based on the Espressif ESP32-PICO-D4 module and which comes bundled with a watch-style strap for wearable projects, DL8MAR's project is primarily designed to provide a way to practice sending and receiving messages in Morse code — without having to annoy others on the airwaves.
The tool isn't limited to stand-alone operation, though. The kit's Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio can be used to connect the wearable to a computer as a Bluetooth keyboard, translating tapped Morse code into key inputs, while a custom-built expansion board offers s 2.5mm jack for connecting the M5StickC to an actual radio for operation as a double-sided touch-sensitive paddle or CW keyer. There's even support for Espressif's ESP-NOW, to send Morse code messages over Wi-Fi.
While the project is usable as-is, including both a Koch method teaching program for Morse code beginners and an echo trainer for practice, DL8MAR has ideas for further enhancements — including additional training modes, better battery life, support for external displays, and an improved user interface.
More information on the project is available on DL8MAR's GitHub repository, along with the source code under the permissive MIT license — though at the time of writing schematics for the add-on board had not yet been published.