Keychron reveals open-source mouse firmware for upcoming Logitech-killer magnetic switch gaming mouse

Keychron has always been more well known for its mechanical and Hall-effect keyboards, but lately, it has also released a number of high-performance gaming mice, like the M7 8K (curr. $69.99 on Amazon) and M6 8K we recently reviewed. 

Following the recent announcement of brand's "open-source" hardware initiative, Keychron just announced a new open-source mouse firmware project that it claims will be more open to the community. The new firmware is known as ZGM and is based on Zephyr RTOS, which is the same base as ZMK, a prominent open-source firmware in the enthusiast keyboard community. ZMG will likely feature similar efficiency benefits to ZMK.

It looks like the new G6 HE gaming mouse — which Keychron plans to launch to challenge Logitech's G Pro X2 Superstrike inductive and haptic tech with its own MagOpt switches — will be the first mouse to sport the new firmware. 

The aim is to build an open platform where developers and hardware teams
can experiment in the open, share improvements, and build gaming mouse
firmware on a maintainable foundation instead of a black box.

Project Goals

• low-latency input processing
• customizable button, sensor, scroll wheel, and lighting behavior
• modular driver architecture for different hardware variants
• a maintainable Zephyr-based firmware foundation
• an open workflow for experimentation, testing, and community contribution
• a path toward reusable building blocks for future gaming mouse products

Keychron has also published a new website dedicated to ZGM, where it claims that the new open-source firmware will deliver high performance and low latency over both wired and wireless connections. 

ZGM is being developed and published on GitHub under the GPL 3.0 license, which allows for remixing, repackaging, and redistributing, even for commercial use. One of the project goals is to be modular and support a wide variety of hardware, including sensors and MCUs. The modular architecture should allow both Keychron and other mouse brands to offer support for multiple different variants of the same PCB design with different internal components for a different feel and performance. 

The modular design could also open up the market to custom, community-designed hardware and hot-swappable internals. The firmware is still in the early stages of development, and Keychron aims to officially launch ZGM in Q1 2027.