My awesome macropad!

It’s been a minute since I last visited this project, so it felt great to finally get some work done. I ended up tweaking the orginal macropad design, finalized the final iteration BOM(hopefully🤞), and started to find the PCB footprints and 3d models for my parts. I also did some research regarding how my PCB should be designed and formatted, while also figuring out the rough dimensions for my PCB. I look forward to finishing this project in the next few weeks. Hopefully next time I write a devlog, it will be about a finished PCB.

Today, I completed looking for possible parts for my macropad. I conducted deep research regarding computer mechanical keys and learned that the world of computers keys is not as simple as it seems. Additionally, I worked on finalizing my design for my macropad and ended up making a few changes to my initial mockup of my dream macropad. Lastly, I made a google sheet for my BOM and formatted it with my parts that I found today. Next up, I will work towards finalizing my BOM, updating my canva whiteboard with the plan for my macropad, and finally start designing the PCB.

I just finished the basic macropad’s tutorial. Then, I started to research online macropads and try to get ideas for my dream macropad as well. I finished brainstorming and created an detailed sketch of what type of electronic components my macropad would have and potentially where I could get them from. I also used the Whiteboard feature in Canva to better help me organize my ideas. Additionally, I finished the final sketch of my macropad and I plan on starting to find the components tmr and the PCB sometime later this week. I can’t wait to build this!

I just finished making my first ever PCB on KiCad. I know it may seem simple, but personally it is a huge milestone in my engineering journey. After designing this PCB, the horizons for my engineering projects have been expanded greatly.