Hackpad

Hackpad

About

The Hackpad is a custom macropad to help me with everyday repetitive keyboard shorcuts.

Instead of pressing ctrl and c to copy or ctrl and s to save I now only need to press one key on the Hackpad.

The point of the Hackpad was to teach me how to make hardware and also to let me avoid getting my hands to awkward positions just to undo or save my code.

How I made the Hackpad

To make the Hackpad I needed to learn how to make a Schematic, PCB, and Case, but the problem was I never done it before so first thing I did is come up with the idea of what the Hackpad will do, after I came up with the idea of the shortcuts. Then I the got to work by making the schematic, to make it I followed the guide and asked questions to the Hackpad Channel on Slack. When the schematic was finished I turned it into a PCB, I enjoyed working on the PCB it is very relaxing but not really when you run into problems. After The PCB I worked on the Case, I installed Fusion360 for the first time and started making the case, The case took me the longest because I kept having to reset or go back and change stuff and it was very confusing to me as a beginner. After all of that I went to sleep and in the morning worked on the Firmware. the firmware was okay because I used Arduino IDE which I previously used before, when finished the code I quickly compiled it to check if it worked which it did not but after some deubuging everything worked. After an eternity I finally got all the parts needed to assemble the Hackpad, first I soldered the header pins to the Xiao RP2040, after I uploaded the firmware and tested the circuit with a breadboard and it worked, then I put all the parts on the PCB and I soldered them on, when I finished that I tried to put in inside the case with the cover but it didn't fit so I had to remodel the case and 3D print a new one, so after all of that I now have a macropad which I use daily and It came out AMAZING!

Features

Ctrl A = All, Ctrl C = copy, Ctrl V = paste, Ctrl S = save, Ctrl Z = undo, Ctrl Y = Redo.

Challenges

It was very hard learning everything from scratch like how to make a schematic, pcb, a case but I managed and I couldn't have done it without yam he helped me so much with like bugs and common problems my beginner brain didn't now how to solve.

What I Learned

When building the Hackpad I learned how to make a PCB, use Kicad, make a schematic, use Fusion360 to make the case and how to actually solder. These skills will help me in my future hardware projects so much!

Photos