AEPad - Stardance

Ship #1

@aabdullahjaami71 on AEPad · 21 days ago

This is the AEPad, the ultimate macropad for video editors on After Effects. It has 9 functions that are very commonly used in video editing such as copy and pasting, creating new layers, and pre composing videos. This project was challenging since I had to tackle PCB design for the first time, which I’ve done before. I also had to debug with the QMK firmware since it was very unfamiliar to me. Overall, this project was still a great learning experience and it served as the opening pathway for me in PCB design.

5 devlogs
3h build
5.00x multiplier
15 Stardust
Hackpad

Video of Project → See source code →

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@aabdullahjaami71 on AEPad · 21 days ago

2h 7m 42s logged

FINAL FINAL devlog

Okay so I basically added all the macros to the hackpad, and made the oled screen and rotary encoder code. However, the rotary encoder doesn’t work irl because me being a genius accidentally soldered over the pads that the encoder was connected to and now one of the pin headers of the MCU isn’t soldered onto the seeduino bc of that. But with that aside, I got the macropad to work and its very functional.

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@aabdullahjaami71 on AEPad · 23 days ago

56m 13s logged

ITS ASSEMBLED!

Soldered all of the keys, oled screen, and rotary encoder! Just waiting for the case to print and Im ready to ship. W project and a great intro to PCB design. Im lowkey a noob at soldering so I might’ve added too little or too much solder on each joint but the keyboard still works so lucky me ig? Im gonna ship once my case finishes printing so stay tuned

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@aabdullahjaami71 on AEPad · about 1 month ago

4h 32m 29s logged

LAST (maybe) devlog of this project!
I finished the case, firmware, and PCB for this project! I’m pretty proud of what I accomplished and all the hurdles I had to get through. I probably redid my PCB like 5 times it was annoying lol. All I just need to do is complete the github repo, and then I can ship it and get my parts! I’m pretty excited to actually solder and get working on the hardware IRL. This is my first time actually something other than Arduino IDE for firmware so I’ll see how it goes when I’m flashing it onto my seeduino.

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@aabdullahjaami71 on AEPad · about 2 months ago

2h 3m 45s logged

DevLog 2:

Since my microcontroller didn’t have enough pins, I decided to connect my switches in a matrix. This took longer than expected. After searching a few blogs on what this is, I got a grasp on it and succeeded in making it. This gave me the advatage of having more pins, which I used for the rotary encoder and the OLED display. BUT, as I open up the PCB checker thingy, I get hit with a lot of warnings, which I intend to fix next devlog. Otherwise, I feel pretty proud of myself for getting this much progress.

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@aabdullahjaami71 on AEPad · about 2 months ago

1h 50m 9s logged

Creating the AEPad, a dedicated macropad for After Effects Users! This is my first time actually designing a PCB, so most of the time went towards actually going on the HackPad website and learning how to make the circuit board in the first place. This current version isn’t going to be the end product, since I’m thinking of adding a rotary encoder for volume control. The nine keys on the macropad will be in charge of keybinds I mostly use when video editing. Overall, this project could be pretty useful and save a lot of time when editing videos.