A new type of key

You don't need
another key.

You're going to get one anyway. Meet flatkey — a straight key, a paddle, and a bug in one flat slab. No brass, no springs, nothing to dust. It runs on the glass you already own.

macOS soon iPhone soon Android soon

Want a tap on the shoulder when it ships? Drop me a line →

decoded
FLATKEY
··−· ·−·· ·− − −·− · −·−−
tap · hold · paddle

It reads your fist back to you. And judges it, silently.

Three keys walk into one slab.

Switch between straight key, iambic paddle, and bug without unscrewing anything or buying a fourth thing for the shelf. Flatkey is flat because there's nothing inside it. Somehow that turns out to be every key at once.

Straight key

Press and hold for your dits and dahs. The 1844 experience, minus the desk it bolted to.

Paddle & iambic

Left for dits, right for dahs, squeeze for iambic. CW Academy approved — no straight keys in class.

Bug

Semi-automatic, the way it sounded in 1940. The character; none of the contact cleaning.

Your key. Base sold separately.

A serious CW key needs a heavy base to stay put — and the nice ones make you buy that base separately. Flatkey is no different. Our base is sold separately too. It's called a phone.

Or a trackpad. Or an iPad. Or a Magic Mouse. Or — yes — an Apple Watch. Pick a flat surface you already own and Flatkey turns it into a working key. Heavier device, better fixation. Just like the real thing.

// some assembly required. you provide the base.

iPhone
Android phone
iPad
MacBook trackpad
Magic Mouse
Apple Watch *

* Yes, the Watch too. No, we won't stop you.

Under the glass

Live CW decoder

Reads your fist back to you in real time — and judges it silently, the way a good Elmer would.

A sidetone you can stand

A tunable oscillator with a tone, pitch, and shape you choose. Not a beeper from 1994.

Haptics that feel like contacts

Taptic feedback under your fingers, so a sheet of glass pushes back like real brass.

It talks to your rig

Send keystrokes into VBand, serial keying to a real radio, or audio straight into the nets.

Like it? Buy me a coffee.

Flatkey is free. I built it because I wanted a paddle I could travel with and couldn't quite justify the real thing. If Flatkey saved you the desk space, drop a coffee in the jar — enough of them and I'll finally buy myself an actual key. I've got my eye on this one.

Coming soon to macOS, iPhone & Android.

Three platforms, one flat key. Builds are on the bench — leave your email and I'll ping you when there's something to download. No list, no spam, just one email.

macOS soon iPhone soon Android soon
[email protected]