ch32v003 VS nanoCH32V305

There are some MCUs that use RV32E also - the CH32V003 [0] comes to mind.

[0] - https://github.com/openwch/ch32v003

Higher interest in the mechanical issue. Kailh box aren't made for 5050-equivalent-sized LEDs so the best I can come up with is placing them on a daughter board with some distance and just accepting losing some light. Probably will use a low-cost microcontroller and R2R leader (current sink) to make them addressable. Alternatively, make use of the 11 bit PWM and LC filter while the ADC forms the feedback loop. Currently unsure if I go with WCH CH32V003 (https://github.com/openwch/ch32v003) or Padauk MCUs. A couple of kHZ PWM should be fine but if I make a PCB I might as well just go all in with PWM-free.

If you are willing to try r/RISCV ones, then nanoCH32V203 (with two Full-Speed interfaces) and nanoCH32V305 (with one Full-Speed and one High-Speed interface) might be enough.

There are dual USB r/RISCV boards with GPIO pins exposed, like nanoCH32V203 and nanoCH32V305.

There are RISC-V MCUs that have two USB interfaces, but those are not supported by QMK yet. I tried some of those boards in kite project.

Kite has standard shortcuts option too, but it runs on dedicated MCU board, not host PC.

RISC-V boards cost $3-$6 depending if you want high speed USB or full speed one.

u/Bounty1Berry is exploring RISC-V nanoCH32V305 board, but it's a new board that is not supported by (Q|T|Z)MK yet, so not really go-to option at this stage.

Their earlier boards like nanoCH32V203 and nanoCH32V305 were more user friendly, one could flash those via USB without WCH-Link.

Muse Lab has MCU boards like nanoCH32V203 and nanoCH32V305.

It runs on nanoCH32V305 dual USB r/RISCV MCU board.