MACROPAD With 2 Knobs

Being a GAMER I always struggled with having to remember all those shortcuts to make sure that I reminisce about all those Legendary Gaming Moments be it Shepard's Betrayal from Call of Duty MW2 or the fight between Arno and Bellec in AC Unity. This led me to the idea of making my own Macropad that could help me with all these functions. For those who don't know what a MACROPAD is, it helps us to manage tasks with just a click of a button. With a bit of research, I finally cracked the code to make my own Macropad. But the mission was far from over.

Parts

• Macropad PCB
• Arduino Pro Micro
• 9 × Diodes
• 9 × Cherry MX style switches
• 9 × Custom keycaps
• 2 × Encoders
• 3 × Neopixel strips
• 7 × 10 kOhms Resistors

Tools

• Soldering Iron
• Solder
• 3D printer

This was my first time working with Eagle and was amazed by how user-friendly it was. Now back to topic, for this project I chose to work with Arduino Pro Micro. I used here key matrix to minimize the number of pins I used on the Arduino and diodes to overcome the problem of ghosting i.e. keys don't work when multiple keys are pressed simultaneously.

With great help from Fusion360, I was able to flawlessly design a suitable case. As it is compatible with Eagle I was able to design every component to scale which really helped when 3D printing the components.

Not being from a CS background, Coding was the toughest part of this journey. But with a few helpful tutorials, I was able to code the Macropad to meet my requirements. Before placing orders for all the components, I simulated my idea in Tinkercad to visualize its working and rectify any errors beforehand.

Code: https://github.com/Assassin1408/Assassin1408

Simulation: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/645wrvX9kqz?sharecode=_1YmnrBsS5zhN8TGexSSxaiL30zJCKkdnB-QvAIuxrQ

With all my components designed it was time to 3D print them. With the help of some known associates I was able to 3D print the components but the only limitation was that the material available was Resin which is not as durable as PLA which is the ideal material for such cases.

With the arrival of all my electrical components and the PCB, I started the soldering which was tough at first but when I got a hang of it, the process became seamless.

With all building blocks completed now, it was time to assemble them and test them for the very last time.

This marks the end of my first project at Instructables. I know that it is lacking in many ways but will keep working on it to make it better.