IROK - ZN84

Irok ZN84 [($20 on Amazon)](https://www.amazon.com/IROK-Swappable-Mechanical-Customizable-Keyboard-WhiteBlue/dp/B0CZCYYFWQ) or CIY Novice68 (under $30 on Ali Express from several storefronts). Note: if you go for the Novice68 make sure you don't get the Tester68 by accident, the Tester68 is basically identical but wireless-only.

So far as I know these are the only two AA/AAA powered mechanical keyboards available. The ZN84 has almost all the keys of the TKL. It's just missing insert, scroll lock, and menu. Oh, and any programmability. I jelly-taped a VIAL adaptor to mine. https://imgur.com/a/vial-conversion-of-dumb-keyboard-lpfBY90

Looks like it's 6KRO, on all keys. This probably means its USB software only supports the 6 key protocol, which is common on cheap boards because a lot of PC BIOSes don't support the N-key protocol and the manufacturer doesn't want to deal with the customer support issues. If you need more than 6 simultaneous keys down you're out of luck. If you don't want a lithium battery I would suggest a wired model.

By "must be wired" do you mean "must support wired" or "must not have a battery at all"? Irok ZN84 is a minimally featured 75% trimode board that uses AAA cells for batteries and can operate without them, becoming just a wired board... and is available from Amazon for 30-ish. It has no key binding things, it's just a keyboard, but it's actually a pretty good keyboard. The base wired-only Ajazz AK820 has configuration software but it's pretty awful software, if you don't want key binding things it's a good choice. It's usually under 40 on Amazon. For fancier boards I have a whole list of VIA-compatible ones on my [Github](https://github.com/ArgentStonecutter/keyboards/blob/main/via-boards.md). VIA is about the best key binding thing generally available.