Customizable Macropad

Weekly Devblog #1
This week marked the beginning of the Hackpad project. The primary goal of the project is to expand my skills in hardware design and embedded systems development. Since I had no prior experience designing custom PCBs or working with CAD software, much of this week was spent learning the fundamentals and overcoming the challenges involved in creating a functional board layout.

The main focus was PCB design, which proved to be one of the more difficult aspects of the project so far. Learning the workflow, component placement, routing, and design constraints required a significant amount of research and iteration, the final schematic linked is my 5th version. Despite the learning curve, I was able to make steady progress and gain a much better understanding of the PCB development process.

In parallel, I began analyzing the bill of materials and estimating hardware costs. Based on current pricing, the prototype is expected to cost approximately $37 per unit. The largest contributor to this cost is the set of six TFT display modules. Since these displays are readily available in bulk quantities, there is potential to significantly reduce manufacturing costs, with projected per-unit costs falling below $25 in larger production runs.

Overall, this week was focused on establishing the project’s foundation, learning new tools, and creating the initial hardware design while beginning to evaluate the project’s long-term production costs.