Ship #1 Pending review

@Hridum on TAR Macropad · about 1 month ago

I made a macropad with a 9x9 switch matrix, 1 rotary encoder, a 0.91” OLED screen as well as LEDs. I found the hardest part of this project to be designing the PCB, as I had never done that before. On the other hand, the CAD was fairly simple and I just had to remember to space everything properly so that components such as the microcontroller and diodes could fit in the case.

3 devlogs
0h build
Hackpad

Video of Project → See source code →

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@Hridum on TAR Macropad · about 1 month ago

3h 10m 54s logged

Finished CAD for Casing

Cad was pretty simple, added a bottom body, middle plate and top plate to cover everything up

Forgot about the required spacing for components such as diodes and the controller board so I added those as well.

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@Hridum on TAR Macropad · about 2 months ago

3h 0m 36s logged

Since last devlog,

Added rotary encoder, OLED screen, LEDs and re-designed layout to follow scanning matrix layout rather than direct connections for each switches

Because of added complexity as well as additional components, PCB was much more complex and a lot of time was used to make sure no traces were overlapping or spacing issues between components.

LEDs were not through-hole so they could only use one trace side, which made process also much more complex.

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@Hridum on TAR Macropad · 2 months ago

1h 12m 14s logged

Finished basic design for Hackpad PCB

I have never designed a PCB before so it was a challenge, especially routing the PCB and making sure no connections shorted, but the hackpad guide helped a lot.