RE: DexoPad — phone-as-keyboard-and-mouse for any USB host (ESP32-S3 + BLE, on Kickstarter)

Mengjie — Fri, 29 May 2026 03:19:28 GMT

Hi shabaz — thanks for thinking through this with us.

Your model would work, no argument. Our situation: the software's built end-to-end for closed-source commercial use. Opening it up isn't a config flag — it touches architecture, licensing, and how we'd structure support. Not something we can rewire mid-campaign.

That said, this is worth an actual internal look. I'll take it back to the team.

Best,
Mengjie Zhang
Founder, PalmBlock

RE: DexoPad — phone-as-keyboard-and-mouse for any USB host (ESP32-S3 + BLE, on Kickstarter)

shabaz — Thu, 28 May 2026 17:43:33 GMT

If it were me, I would have done this differently. Why not just share the code for free to convert (say) a Pi Pico W to do this function. Then, just charge a small amount in an app store, for anyone to purchase the software required on the phone, or, if you're doing it all in the browser, just make a small donation possible.

I think $35 (and then shipping, possible taxes) is not attractive, because one is just as likely going to lose the dexopad dongle, as they are likely to lose their wireless USB keyboard/mouse dongle. Whereas, if one lost a Pi Pico W, it's cheap to get another from anywhere in the world almost, at little cost. You'd probably make more from the donations than from the KickStarter, and you'd retain more since you'd not be paying KickStarter a percentage any longer. Personally, I'd pay $10 just for a web app, if it would save me time and effort writing my own.