finished modelling the case!

I wanted to keep the design really compact (which was the reason why I redesigned the PCB earlier), so I decided not to use screws and secured the PCB with friction instead.

The PCB is sandwiched between a base and a top plate, the PCB is secured to the top plate when the switches are attached, and the top plate secures to the base with some neat snap fit geometry (second pic).

I made a little render to illustrate how it’ll look in the end, with the light bar as well.

for some reason, I decided to change my macropad’s design, so I had to redo parts of the schematic and PCB. It’s now more compact, with one switch replaced by the rotary encoder, and 5 extra LEDs used as some sort of “progress bar” that I think would turn out pretty cool.

finished pcb!

designing and tracing the pcb was definitely the most enjoyable part of the process so far imo.

i also imported all the step files and silkscreen into fusion, next up is designing a case!

made progress on the pcb!

this was an oddly satisfying process, but took absolutely forever since I had to redo the LED traces at least 5 times.

I ran a quick DRC after wiring everthing and got about 80 warnings and errors… tomorrow’s problem.

finished the schematics (for now)!

this took way longer than it should’ve, mainly because i have no clue what i’m doing, but i think it all works?

next I have to check if it actually works as a pcb, and make sure it doesn’t exceed the max dimensions (100x100mm)