Adafruit Rotary Trinkey - USB NeoPixel Rotary Encoder

The Adafruit Rotary Trinkey is a unique half USB key, half Adafruit Trinket, and half rotary encoder device packed with functionality and creativity. Featuring an ATSAMD21 microcontroller, a NeoPixel RGB LED, and a rotary encoder footprint, this board is designed to plug directly into a computer USB A port for easy rotary input control with colorful programmable illumination.

Inspired by a similar project integrating a rotary encoder soldered onto a QT Py, the Rotary Trinkey provides a compact, keychain-friendly design ideal for numerous applications such as volume knobs, scroll wheels, or zoom controls.

• Built around the ATSAMD21E18 32-bit Cortex M0+ processor running at 48 MHz with 256KB flash and 32KB RAM
• Native USB support compatible with Arduino or CircuitPython enabling serial console, MIDI, HID keyboard/mouse, or USB drive functionality
• Single under-lighting RGB NeoPixel LED for colorful, programmable glow
• Standard 5-pin rotary encoder footprint compatible with PEC11 or PEC12 rotary encoders (rotary encoder is not included and must be soldered separately)
• One capacitive touchpad input
• Reset button for bootloader mode activation
• Small form factor: 32.4mm x 16.5mm x 4.0mm and weighing only 2.1g

Please note: The board does not include a rotary encoder—users must supply and solder their preferred rotary encoder and knob.

This versatile board supports use in Arduino IDE or CircuitPython and comes with free libraries to make rotary, NeoPixel, and capacitive touch input easy to utilize. With a colorful NeoPixel and tactile rotary control, the Rotary Trinkey stands out as an inexpensive and approachable microcontroller board perfect for both beginners and advanced makers to create simple or advanced projects.