By
@Fawy2010
I'm making a macropad with 8 keys, 1 rotary encoder, 1 OLED Display, and a few WS2812B LEDs, with a custom Firmware. I plan on using 4 keys for a WASD constellation, because I don't have that good arrow keys on my laptop for playing games like Celeste, then use the remaining 4 Keys for shortcuts in various programms, and use the Leds for underglow.
So today I have finally begun the case for my CelePad, but I kind of made it more difficult for myself than I had to, because I just had to measure everything before I could be happy with it, and even then I still doubted whether everything was right or not.
But no I’ve done it, and the only thing left is the firmware and decorative stuff.
Having to go back to your schematic and change stuff and the also needing to update the PCB to fit it, is certainly annoying, but I hope it is right this time, because I do not wanna have to do that again.
Because as someone kindly pointed out in the comments of my first Devlog, the diodes in my matrix wiring were wrong, so I fixed that, but then having to reroute my PCB to be correct too, as mentioned already, was annoying.
I also encountered the problem of having closed the website that directs you to the Lookout app, so at first i had no idea why my time wasn’t syncing, luckily I managed to find the right Site in my browser history.
Designing a PCB for the first time is interesting to say the least, especially when you don’t yet know what excactly it is going to look like.
I experienced some difficulty getting everything into a position I liked and then routing the traces in a way I liked and that I thougt made sense.
I decided to do the LEDs last as I had no idea where to put them exactly, but by doing so I then had the problem that when I finally did do it, it messed up the already existing traces, so I had to redo some of them.
But before I finally put the LEDs where they are now, I first had to find out where exactly to put them, cause how are you supposed to know they are supposed to be put directly underneath the key switches?
I’ve created the Schematic for my macropad, and began making the PCB.
At first I had difficulties understanding KiCad and Lapse, but it ended up working out.
At first I also had no Idea what exactly i wanted to create with my macropad, but I found that one out quickly enough.
