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If the display breaks, the device is not bricked. A screen-reader mode makes ZeroKeyUSB type the current screen contents over USB HID (keyboard), one line at a time, into a focused text field on your computer or phone. You can still enter your PIN, browse credentials and type passwords — blind.
The host types into whatever text field is focused. Open a notes app / empty text box before activating, so the output goes somewhere harmless.

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Activate it

1

Get to the PIN screen

Plug the device in and reach the PIN prompt (the normal boot screen).
2

Hold Center for 10 seconds

Press and hold the Center button for ~10 s. A border fills around the screen over the full 10 s; when it completes, the mode toggles. Release before 10 s and nothing happens.
3

Watch the text appear

The device starts typing the current state into your focused text field, e.g. ZK reader ON then the PIN line.
Hold Center for 10 s again to turn it off.
To make it permanent (useful when the screen is genuinely dead), enable it in Settings → Reader: On/Off. That stores the choice in EEPROM and the device boots straight into screen-reader mode. The 10 s gesture only toggles it for the current session.

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What it types

The device keeps one line on screen, erasing and rewriting it as you navigate: Entering the PIN blind: use Up/Down to change the selected digit (watch >n update), Right to add it, Left to delete, and select the tick (>OK) then Right/Center to unlock — exactly as on screen, but reading the typed line instead of the OLED. When you press Center on a credential, the announcement line is erased and the real value (user / password) is typed — so with a dead screen you can still read a password by pressing Center in a text box.

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Notes & safety

This types your screen contents — including PIN digits and, on Center, passwords — into the focused field. Use it for recovery, into a private text field you control, and clear that field afterwards.
  • It works at the PIN screen even before unlocking, so a broken-screen device can still be unlocked.
  • The Bitcoin seed is never typed by this mode — it is screen-only by design.
  • Typing is deliberately paced, so each line takes a moment to appear.

How it works (audit)

Exactly what it emits over USB — and what it never does.

Navigate the menu

Where the Reader setting lives.

Troubleshooting

Other recovery options.