Normpad
Hardware- 3 Devlogs
- 6 Total hours
A simple, normal 3x3 hackpad with one rotatory encoder and a 0.91 inch I2C LCD display and backlight LED's. Uses Keyboard matrix key press recognition. Built with XIAO RP2040 microcontroller.
Finished my PCB
I am finally done with my PCB design. As per my view there should not be any issue with the Final PCB. Main challenge in PCB design is to decide where to place your components
and how to use via to keep the design clean and issue free.
I am now going to start working on the CAD design
Today was the GPIO issue day I suppose.
THE ONE BIG MISTAKE.
That was I forgot about the A and B pins of the Rotatory encoder. One smart girl I am :|
I figure i need more then 14 pins of the XIAO RP2040. I straight up asked chatGPT and as per its suggestions I have now added the MCP23017-E_SP GPIO extender. It has given me total of 16 extra GPIO pins and now. I found and added the Symbol and footprint from a github repo. And thankfully it seems to be working.
I am now learning how to adjust my placements, work with Via and properly manage the wiring in PCB design. I hope I can make it proper soon.
Thats all for today
I started working on a version 1 of the schematic of the Normpad.
I wanted it to be clean and organized. Hence I have properly labeled the
Sections of the schematic.
It took me 2 hours and I have recorded a time lapse using Lookout. But
as I am unable to add the time lapse it self I am adding its picture.
This was the second most tedious task of the day. took me 45min to Find
add and organize the right footprints based on the items provided by the
hackclub to build the hackpad.
Also the XIAO provided by the SEED studio and the care package differ a
lot. Finally I came to the conclusion that the one provided in the care
package works the best.
I am adding the the footprints I have used. Hope this saves someones time in the future.
I have just started with PCB editor of Kicad and I have to figure out
yet that how to design and make the proper traces. I am refering to the
Orpheuspad mentioned in the hackpad guide. Its quite useful but not as
per my requirements. There are no LED’s added in it which I want to, No
capacitors etc.
So I need to figure this out on my own i guess.
The rough PCB is as the following right now.
I would like your advises on the PCB editor, how to use it, any tricks
to use or any references to look into. Anything helpful will be
appriciated.
