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2h 21m 41s logged

Devlog One: Schematic and basic layout!

Hello guys, welcome to my first devlog for this project!
Today, we will begin off with the basics, what do I want to do with this.
I know I have a lot to work with here, 16 switches, 2 knobs, and an oled.
I think as many keys as possible would be nice, basically an external numpad for my new keyboard I ordered (thanks for the aula stardance). An oled could just do anything, and a knob could too.

I also wanted RGB, because RGB is cool, no other words needed.

The schematic

Now of course with a project as ambitious as this, I ran into a bottle neck quite literally as soon as I started.

Problem

The RP2040 does not have enough pins for this.
I need 2 for my rotary encoder, 17 for my switches, 1 for my led, and 2 for my oled. We can cut my switch count down to 9, but yet that is still more than the rp2040 can support

My solution

Charlieplexing! What is this? I barely know too.
In essence, I learned of it similar to NCR (in math), where you can pick a combination of 2 elements and you can get n^2-n elements, in this case a 5 pin charlieplex can give me 20 different keys!!!
Now I have my pins sorted out, lets get to schematics!

Schematic

Schematic was quite easy, just wiring things up
Gemini assisted me in learning charlieplexing inputs, as there are very few resources on this topic. And so I got a pinout from there.
I wired up the leds in a line, switches in schematic, and the OLED and encoder in a simple straight to pi.

Footprints

Footprints was easy at first, just following devlog, but difficulties arrive, in my next devlog!

Thats all for now, thank you!

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