Final Look

This is the final version of the keyboard.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do a 3D print because my printer broke (I’m currently collecting tickets for a new one — already at 1/3 of the goal!).

I’m really happy that I managed to bring the project to this stage. I also made a few improvements in the code to optimize it and reduce latency.

Project Summary

Issues / Challenges:

• Learning Fusion 360 – It was my first time working with this kind of software. After about two weeks, I finally feel confident using it.
• KiCad – At the beginning I didn’t really understand KiCad’s architecture, but now it’s all good.
• Programming – The only real issue I had was setting up the pins… mostly because I was doing it after 10 PM and felt like a zombie, lol.

Thanks to the hack club and the people who checked my work ;)

Keyboard programming

I started working on programming the keyboard.

It was really difficult at first — I had a big issue with the pins,

but after four hours, I finally managed to sort everything out.

At one point my encoder was acting like a keyboard,

so when I turned it, it actually started typing

Soldering

Honestly, for my first soldering, it's cool. It was quite hard and long for me because I have a transformer soldering iron and it was hard to do it right. Fortunately, a friend helped me. The worst thing was that the wire broke and I had to put it on again :/

Programming Filmware

That was the easiest thing. I love programming; it's fun. I didn't have too many problems. I used the KMK library to program the keyboard. NGL the hardest thing was writing out the pins

Remaking a keyboard case

This part took me a very long time (along with the tears over failed measurements). It was a big challenge for me, but luckily I managed to design everything well.

Recreating The PCB

Since I received information that I need to modify my board, I'm adding a few more things. These will be additional buttons from 4 to 9 and an EC11 encoder. It took me a while to understand how the diodes work because I wanted the buttons to be combinable

My work went faster because I knew how to use the program

Keyboard Case Design

The next step was creating the keyboard case. It took me a lot of time, as the biggest challenge was calculating the distances to make everything fit perfectly. Finally, I managed to complete it after six hours. It was worth it — everything worked out, and I also expanded my knowledge in Fusion 360.

Making PCB

Once I knew what to start with, I began creating the PCB. I encountered a few problems along the way, but I managed to complete it successfully. I liked it because I was learning industrial automation

Setting Up and learning XIAO

At the beginning, I wanted to understand what I was going to create. I checked how the XIAO microcontroller works, what components I would need, and how the project would turn out.

It took me more time because I wanted to do it properly. I also learned Fusion 360 and KiCad to avoid making mistakes.