I just finished my hackpad and shipped it! First time shipping a project, I’m so proud of myself! Here’s some pics of the completed design, it’ll be able to control media, brightness, and volume!
HELLO!! quick devlog update. i’ve given up on the api…i want to ship this project so that i can get some feedback and improve on it. i’ve started making the images for the oled display! coded the switches and encoder already (in kmk), so now i just have the display left, then i’m pretty much ready to ship! super excited for that, we’ll see how it goes!
HELLO!! I am still trucking along, made my main.py file, finished the custom key file for the like function, and created the serial file to send the like command to my laptop. tomorrow, i’ll probably work on the part of the firmware that connects the commands received by the laptop through serial to spotify (API time!! i’m gonna be a spotify developer :’)) i feel like it’s going pretty well, i’m understanding all the code and it’s fun to work with so many connecting files and learn all these skills i haven’t ever done before. stay tuned for this engineer’s first ever time soldering! (hopefully that happens sooner than later)
signing off, vi!!
Hi everyone :))
Took a quick break from the project because I ran a 10k for the 4th of July! Anyways, I started the firmware. My plan of attack is to use the native KMK functions to make the next, previous, and mute functions, then write a separate python script that uses the spotify api and code the custom keys to connect to the separate script where I can make them do things like like the song and show the song playing on the oled. Hopefully it works, I’ve never done something like this! Wish me luck!!
HELLO!! I’m back with a hackpad update. made lots of progress today! i rerouted and rerouted and rerouted my PCB and i think i’m happy with it now! no errors on DRC and it (to my untrained eyes) looks a lot cleaner! if someone sees any major issues with my routing, please tell me, i’m so nervous about it :((. i also almost finished my CAD for the case!! i decided to separate the parts into the top and bottom portions of the case and assemble them together in fusion, which worked pretty well. some things i need to fix tomorrow are the placement of the usb-c port (too high on the cad model relative to the oled display), find out the dimensions of the oled, and add holes for screws. after that, i should be ready to move on to firmware (NERVOUS)! anyways, i’m chugging along, slowly but surely! it is definitely time for me to go to bed, but happy creating, everyone!
HELLO PARTY PEOPLE! I got a lot farther on my hackpad since 2AM, when I first wrote my devlog. I finished the schematic, using matrix wiring for the switches (pretty fun!!) and I added the rotary encoder, OLED display, and RGB LEDs (which I’m not sure I PCB’d correctly, yes that’s a verb now), then moved on to PCB. I first completely did front copper wiring, which was a hassle, then I actually read the instructions and alternated between front and back as needed, which made it much easier. I added a little reference image of the Spotify logo and named my hackpad the Musepad, so it’s official now! I’m gonna move on to my FAVORITE part, CADing the case (i literally LOVE CAD so much) and then my not so favorite part, working on the firmware (but it’ll still be cool! never worked with APIs before!). I’m so excited to eventually hold my Musepad in my hands once I finish! See you guys later!
6/26: first hackpad devlog
Hello to all my fans (total number: 0)! I’ve been working on this project for about a week now, but will probably restart or do some severe editing. Now that I’ve looked at a few examples of what I want to do, I have made a plan. I will either create a hackpad that displays the weather, or one that connects to my spotify and displays the song I am playing along with a progress bar correlating to the length of the song (I like the second idea better). With my switches, I want to be able to increase or decrease volume and skip songs, so I would need four switches. I could also implement a rotary encoder to move within the song, although this would only work for premium. I might give the rotary encoder a different job…maybe changing the RGB colors of the keyboard backlighting or adding an animation or scrolling through long titles. I’ll have to see. I found an API called SpotAPI that I might look into because it says I can use Spotify Free, I just have to see if it’s legal. So far, I’ve created the schematic and moved on to the PCB, although I want to redesign my schematic to add in matrix wiring (just to try and make it cleaner, although I may not need it). Anywayssss, that’s all from me, your favorite engineer that has zero clue what she’s doing!
