PocketVault Devlog #3 – Firmware Foundation & Repository Setup

Today I shifted focus from hardware design to software development and project organization.

With the PCB design complete and enclosure designs in progress, it was time to start building the firmware that will power PocketVault.

Firmware Project Setup

I created the initial PlatformIO project for PocketVault using VS Code.

The project is configured for the RP2040 platform and will eventually support:

OLED user interface
Rotary encoder navigation
USB HID password typing
Master PIN protection
Offline password storage

The firmware architecture is kept simple to make future development easier.

Project Structure

To keep the code organized from the beginning, I created separate configuration files for different parts of the project.
Current structure:

PocketVault/
 |── include/
 |      ├── config.h│   
 |      ├── vault.h   
 |      └── settings.h
 |── src/
 |      └── main.cpp
 |── platformio.ini
 |── README.md

File Responsibilities

config.h → Hardware configuration and firmware settings
vault.h → Password entry definitions
settings.h → Future settings menu definitions
main.cpp → Core application logic

GitHub Repository

I prepared the repository for public development by:

Creating a README
Adding a proper .gitignore
Organizing project files* Preparing documentation
The goal is to make it easy for anyone to clone the project and build it using PlatformIO.

Documentation

I also created:

README.md
BOM.md
Wiring.md

These documents cover:

Project overview
Bill of Materials
Wiring information
Build instructions
Future roadmap

Challenges

One issue encountered was PlatformIO board support.

The Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 board definition was unavailable in the current PlatformIO installation, so development is temporarily targeting the Raspberry Pi Pico board definition since both use the RP2040 microcontroller.

This allows firmware development to continue while maintaining compatibility with the final hardware.