#Devlog 2 — 7 Hours Later… I Built My Own Arduino 😭

Today was the big build day for ArduCore.

I spent almost 7 hours designing and finishing my custom Arduino-style development board using the DIP ATmega328P.

This isn’t using a ready-made Arduino board — I built the main circuit myself and had to figure out how all the important parts connect and work together.

One thing I learned is that this board doesn’t have a built-in USB programmer, so I’ll need to use another Arduino as an ISP programmer/burner to upload the bootloader and program the ATmega328P.

Today I:

• Finished the schematic
• Designed the PCB
• Worked through the component connections
• Figured out the ATmega328P DIP setup
• Finished the board design
• Recorded the whole ~7 hour build session

And finally… ArduCore is complete! 🚀

Now comes the fun part — getting the actual hardware, programming it, and seeing if my board really works. 👀

#Devlog 1 — NexKey: The First Lines of the Circuit ⚡

Today I finally started working on NexKey, my own custom macropad.

🎯 The main goal

I want to build a macropad completely by myself — including the PCB.

Today was mostly about getting started with KiCad and figuring out how everything will connect.

🔧 What I worked on

I started building the schematic and divided it into different parts:

• 🧠 MCU + Power
• ⌨️ 9-Key Matrix
• 🖥️ TFT Display + SD Card
• 🔄 Rotary Encoder
• 🌈 RGB LEDs

I also planned how everything will communicate with the XIAO ESP32.

The TFT and SD card will share the same SPI bus, while the keys will use a 3×3 matrix with an MCP23017 GPIO expander.

For RGB, I’m using SK6812MINI-E LEDs in a chain.

🧩 What I learned

I thought PCB design was mostly about placing components and drawing tracks…

Turns out, there’s a LOT of planning before routing even starts. 😭

Day 1 done. ✅

#Devlog 1 — Starting My Own Arduino Board

Today I officially Started working on my own custom Arduino style development board called ArduCore

I started by Searching :

• What IC is used
• What each pin does
• Which Components are needed( incomplete yet )

I also started exploring` KiCad, trying out different tools and plugins to get familiar with the workflow.

Of course, KiCad had to test my patience with a few “Not Responding” moments 😭💀

Still a lot to figure out, but the goal is to understand everything properly before I start designing the actual board.

Day 1 done 🚀