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@ierotheos on My awesome macropad! · 24 days ago

Shipping: Hackpad 🚀

A 3-key macropad I designed and built from scratch — PCB, plate, and case.

What I built

A tiny 3-switch macropad, with the switches stacked in a single column. I designed the whole thing myself:

PCB — laid out in KiCad, sized 22.5 × 50 mm, with the 3 switch footprints placed using a layout file (KLE format).
Switch plate — generated from that same layout using an online plate generator, then shaped and extruded in Fusion 360.
Case — fully modeled in Fusion 360. Sized around the PCB with a margin, mounting holes in the corners, a pocket for the PCB to sit in, shelled hollow, and a cutout for the USB cable.

How it went

Most of the work was in Fusion 360, going back and forth between the PCB and the case to make sure everything actually lined up — switch positions, mounting holes, and the PCB pocket all had to match the real board, not just look right on screen. Used KiCad to double check the plate's switch spacing against the real PCB before trusting it.

A few things that tripped me up along the way:

Extruding a shape can make the original sketch disappear from view — it's just hidden, not deleted.
Moving one part can accidentally drag the whole case with it if the wrong selection mode is on.
Centering a part in its slot and actually closing the gap around it are two different fixes.

2 devlogs
0h build
Hackpad

Video of Project → See source code →

Open comments for this post

@ierotheos on My awesome macropad! · 24 days ago

2h 5m logged

Devlog 2

What I did

Originally modeled the case as one single part had to remake it as 2 separate parts because the PCB wont be able to go in
Modeled the 2-part case in Fusion 360
Added my name as engraved text on the case

Open comments for this post

@ierotheos on My awesome macropad! · 24 days ago

2h 52m logged

Hackpad Devlog
A little 3-key macropad, built from scratch.

Built a tiny 3-key macropad — PCB, plate, and case, all from scratch.
PCB — designed in KiCad, three switches in a column.
Plate — generated online, then shaped in Fusion 360.
Case — modeled in Fusion 360: sized to fit the PCB, mounting holes, hollowed out, USB cutout on the side.
Tricky bits — hidden sketches after extruding, accidentally moving the whole case instead of one part, and figuring out that centering a part isn’t the same as closing the gap around it.
What’s left
🎨 Color it
Coming up in the next devlog.
Status
Hardware design: ✅ done