Duskpad

What’s New?‎ I’m done with the case now. :D I ended up lengthening the design to be the same length as my Aula f75 so it would fit in cleaner with the rest of my desk. I also added a top layer to make the macro pad more comfortable to use as you can rest your palm on the extra length that was added and have your hand be able to reach the keys easier. I finished off the design by adding some small things like a USB port cut out and adjusting the length of the micro controller “window”. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ What went wrong? One of the big things I really wanted to try to make was having the whole device angle like my current keyboard does and spent some time tried a multitude of different ways I thought I could make this happen and I ended up realizing that the only way to make it work the way I envisioned was to restart and make the cad model on a different plane. This would have included redoing the extremely annoying dxf file shenanigans from last time so I decided against it after wasting an hour or 2 exploring options to make this happen. Another, albeit smaller, issue I encountered was that my micro controller was too far back on my original PCB design and I ended up having to do some minor rerouting to push it forward so the USB port at the end of it would be accessible with the new USB cutout. Also the PCB broke in OnShape when I reloaded it but I just let that be. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ What’s Next? I need to build out the firmware using QMK and code in the different layers for each key and figure out a way to connect the new top piece and the rest of the build without using glue or looking bad like screw holes do. After that my design should be ready to ship! :O

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