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lucas_g

@lucas_g

Joined June 20th, 2026

  • 5Devlogs
  • 3Projects
  • 1Ships
  • 15Votes
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@lucas_g on DeskGuy

1h 43m 44s logged

So i am almost done with my schematic. I just need to do some finishing touches and check the ERC. then I can start with my PCB!

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@lucas_g on Dum-E — Iron-Man-style robotic arm

2h 59m 56s logged

Dum-E is my Iron-Man-inspired robotic arm: 3 axes plus a gripper, 4 servos in total. This week I opened KiCad for the first time and designed the full schematic for its custom control board. The brain is a Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 running CircuitPython. It talks over I2C to a PCA9685 16-channel driver that runs all the servos. For manual control there are 4 potentiometers and 3 buttons, powered by a dedicated 5-6V supply with a 1000uF cap to smooth out servo current spikes. ERC is now fully clean. Next up: footprints and the PCB layout.

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@lucas_g on LG Hackpad

I made the LG Hackpad — a 9-key mechanical macropad with a rotary encoder and an OLED display, built around the Seeed XIAO RP2040.

I designed the schematic and the 2-layer PCB completely from scratch in KiCad (my first PCB ever) and the case in Tinkercad — an open tray design with the XIAO exposed and an anti-flex support grid under the board, printable without supports. On the software side I built CircuitPython firmware where the encoder browses through profiles on the OLED, and a desktop configurator app (Python + CustomTkinter) that lets you assign a key combo or a custom script to every one of the 9 keys.

Most challenging: hand-routing a 2-layer board without crossing nets while keeping a clean GND pour, and fitting everything under 100x100mm. I'm proud that I designed the whole hardware myself as a first-timer.

To check it out: the repo has the full README, BOM, KiCad files, gerbers, the case as STL + STEP, the firmware and the configurator app. The demo link shows the 3D case model in Tinkercad.

Video of Project → See source code →
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@lucas_g on LG Hackpad

7h 4m 7s logged

Finished my LG Hackpad! 🎉

This is a 9-key mechanical macropad with a rotary encoder and an OLED display, built around the Seeed XIAO RP2040.

What I did:

  • Designed the schematic and the 2-layer PCB completely from scratch in KiCad (my first PCB ever!). Hand-routed the switch matrix with per-key 1N4148 diodes, added a GND pour and fitted everything under 100x100mm (final: 68x99.68mm).

  • Designed the case in Tinkercad: an open tray design with the XIAO RP2040 exposed, an anti-flex support grid under the PCB, USB cutout and 4x M2 standoffs - printable without supports.

  • Built the firmware (CircuitPython): the encoder browses through profiles on the OLED, and each of the 9 keys is freely configurable via a JSON config.

  • Made a desktop configurator app (Python + CustomTkinter) to assign key combos or custom scripts to every key.

Biggest challenge as a first-timer: hand-routing a 2-layer board without crossing nets while keeping a clean GND pour. Super happy
with how it turned out!

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