Integration nightmare!

The reason the first firmware didn’t work is because the D# pins didn’t map directly to GP# pins, so it was listening for phantom pins that weren’t even on the microcontroller. Then the laptop had numlock on by default with no way to turn it off because it doesn’t have a numberpad or numlock key, so it wasn’t doing what was expected.
After changing the pins correctly, the firmware wouldn’t compile and threw a bunch of errors, so I tested adding layers to the standard firmware QMK autogenerates.
Once that got compiled, I tried to flash it to the board and I couldn’t get it into bootloader mode.
I then tried a different laptop and it worked just fine.¯_(ツ)_/¯ 

I’m mostly done assembling, flashed my firmware to the macropad, and it does nothing. I plan on flashing the standard QMK firmware it creates and checking if that does anything to make sure that the assembly was done correctly.

Finalized PCB and case design and added a spot to attach the OLED display or the rotary encoder. They both use the same pins, so I can only have one at a time and neither is currently in the firmware, but both are options for the future! I am excited that my first PCB is ready!

I think the firmware is finished!

The QMK docs were difficult for me to understand, and I ended up following parts of a bunch of other tutorials. Compiling the firmware took longer and longer every time I added something else. Eventually, it took 55 minutes to compile.
Instead of trying to figure out how to use the OLED display, I added seven LEDs in a 7-segment display orientation and used that to display the layer number! I also designed some decorations in Inkscape to put on the top plate of the case.

Moved the PCB edge to flush with the edge of the USB-C port, added the corresponding hole in the case, and added some text to the case. I also began the compiling process and ran into a whole bunch of errors and missed semicolons…
In the code that I am testing, all but one of the errors is fixed! I don’t understand the correct syntax for switching layers, and code in a different file is a ‘statement with no effect.’

Coded all the keys for the macropad! It is my first time coding in C, so we’ll see how many semicolons I missed later… I used several other tutorials that were not linked to in Hack Club guides.
Setting up QMK
Layers
Macros

Designed the case for the macropad in Autodesk Fusion. Not sure what the cutout should be for the rotary encoder or LED, so I may need to change that if I figure out a better guess. Discovered Lapse for tracking time, which made it much easier to track time instead of finding plugins that don’t seem to be working.

Spent two untracked hours begining working before realizing that Hackatime was not linked and fixing that issue (tutorial). Found a different guide to making mechanical keyboard PCBs with KiCAD that was way easier to follow and got this made! I am not sure how close the edge of the PCB should be to the USB-C port on the XIAO, so I may adjust that later. Other than that, I think the PCB is finished!