pentoxide is an 18-key macro pad designed for creators and developers, blending design language and function. quick note: this project was a part of the JOURNAL.md migration from outpost to stardance - the order of the devlogs is a little messed up, so the second and first devlogs are swapped around :)
the entire time was spent figuring out rendering and editing, so enjoy!
got really inspired by the style of watchdogs 2 as i was editing them - so hopefully some can recognize it!
entry time - 2 hours 55 minutes
total time - 8 hours 16 minutes
strap in! i spent a lot of time in this session locked in!
so, i first started by downloading the 3d model of the (old) pcb from kicad so i could insert into a new onshape project
i then went on grabcad and found a 3d model of a 128x160 lcd that i could find easily on aliexpress and i found this!
but i was unsure of the clearance between the screen and switches - and i found out that the switches clipped the display.
so i spent some time on kicad removing one of the switches on each side so now theres 18 macro keys instead of 20!
so, once that was fixed - i made a plate to house the keys and display!
and then after i put everything into place in the main assembly, i designed a case around the plate. (note. the big mounting holes are for m4 inserts to hold the pcb and plate in place)
and then, i got a cherry mx switch model from grabcad, bolts from onshape’s content library, and put everything together in the main assembly - and it looked like this. ugly right?
so i changed the colours up a bit and added cherry profile keycaps i found on grabcad and voila, the final product!
entry time - 2 hours 56 minutes
total time - 5 hours 21 minutes
before starting pcb design, i hopped on excalidraw to try and make a layout that would be good to use.
i first created the keyboard schematic since i already know how to wire a keyboard matrix.
i then researched the type of leds that i want to use in the keyboard.
turns out sk6812mini-e’s are a standard led that are supported by qmk - so i decided to use those
looked for a pinout online and wired everything up.
i decided not to hook any gpio pins up yet, because i want to make the connections as clean as possible.
i then found a 1.8 inch lcd screen that i want to build around, so i found the pinout for that and wired it up.
finally, i assigned footprints to each of the components, and am ready to begin pcb routing!
and here is the final schematic!
entry time - 1 hour 2 minutes
total time - 1 hour 2 minutes
this ENTIRE TIME was spent placing components, routing traces and making a board, because there are so many components to be placed and its going to be hell soldering all of them :)
entry time - 1 hour 23 minutes
total time - 2 hours 25 minutes
