Duskpad

What’s New?

I finally(almost) got the case for my macro pad modeled in CAD. The case uses a sandwich style mount where the PCB sits between a top and bottom plate that is screwed together at the corners. One interesting thing I decided to add is a hole so you can see the microcontroller directly to give it a more diy feel and just cus I like looking at cool electronics.
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Goddamn was it a struggle

I spent like an hour and a half and at least 8 attempts just trying to figure out how to get my switch plate to center properly without messing its dimensions up. I kept trying to set the distance between the switch plate dxf and the side of the case but it would always move just the line on the side of the file instead of the whole object. I ended up having to select the whole file to manually move it exactly into position because for some reason dxf files don’t import as one single selection.
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What’s next?

The main things I have to do are lower the plate, fillet the sides and make sure the USB on the micro controller can actually be accessed in the build. I also need to make some other aesthetic upgrades, namely trying to match the Aula F75(my current keyboard) in the way that its top and bottom plates meet.

Just got done with the schematic and PCB design for Duskpad :D , which is a 16 key tri-mode macro pad with an OLED screen. I learned a lot about KiCad through this the main things being learning about global labels, matrix wiring, and vias. I kept redoing my wiring because I never felt like it looked “right” but I eventually realized that it doesn’t really matter how funky the wiring looks so I just put down whatever works DRC returns no errors. Next up I gotta work on the cad model and add some silkscreen art to my PCB.

Just completed the Hackpad DIY guide(https://hackpad.hackclub.com/guide) to familiarize myself with KiCAD ,I had to rewire the pcb after placing the microcontroller on the wrong side :( , and the proccess of building a macropad as a whole, so I can use it to make a tri-mode 16 key pad with numkey,calculator,and macropad functionallity.I forgot to connect Hackatime to Onshape and Kicad since this is my firstime using Hackatime so i only have 17min even though i spent like 3 hours on this. :(
Looking forward to starting making the full featured PCB and case. :D