Fully Customizable Mini Deck
Hardware- 3 Devlogs
- 10 Total hours
My Devlog: Designing My PCB Background : Previously I tried designing on EasyEDA, but I scrapped it due to lack of libraries. Now I’m using KiCad to design both the schematic and the PCB. Schematic Design : My schematic looks much cleaner now because I recently learned about Global Labels (I’m not new to hardware projects, but I am new to schematics and similar tools). I used: A 3×3 matrix of key switches A matrix of 9 LEDs (SK6812 MINI-E)A rotary encoderAn OLED displayDue to a lack of digital pins, I left the rotary encoder’s push button out.PCB Routing ChallengesSchematics are done and dusted. But while designing the PCB, I ran into trouble:I was almost done, but auto-save was off — a random power cut (common in my country) wiped my progress.The second time, when I had almost completed routing, the power went off again. This time the entire file was corrupted, but thankfully I had a backup.I rerouted everything, but faced two main issues:OLED power was not specified. I looked at a few repos and most used 3.3V.SK6812 MINI-E LEDs — I didn’t know where to place them. I figured out they were small and decided to place them on the top layer. (I need to reroute this tomorrow.)Current StatusNo DRC errors right now.The PCB is mostly done.Only the case design remains.□ Reroute LED placement on top layer□ Design the case□ Finalize everything for submission
In day 1 I used EasyEDA for designing PCB schematics but now I switched to KiCad which I am not that good, so learnt the basics and made a rough Schematic.