3/26/2026 7:36 PM - Foreword

This is, as instructed on slack by the user "cubit" a note explaining what happened with this project

I was going to submit this as a hackpad project but right when i was preparing the files i noticed that the pcb dimensions exceeded the maximum amount, I also noticed that, even if i bought it myself, I couldnt use a board other than the "Seeed Studio Xiao RP2040" and since I wanted 16 keys using the "Xiao" was impossible, when asking "cubit" what to do he told me to make it a custom project and to backlog all my progress. I started this around 26 february (even put it on the pcb) and worked always in blocks of 5 hours (usually from 13h to 18).

On another notice and also mentioned by cubit, yes the left side does look like orpheuspad, thats because I really liked it and it matched my macropads aesthetic. I give qcoral credits on the github and it wasnt a copy since I changed a lot of stuff I didnt like in it, fixed some problems I found and expanded upon it greatly.

Since im backlogging this I will do my best to go back to the project and screenshot what I did that day, it will be impossible to do that with some stuff tough, and as such ill put some images sugestive of what i did (hope its ok!)

Thank you for your consideration and im sincerely sorry for the trouble caused!

3/26/2026 7:45 PM - Setting Up the Environment and Learning the Basics

February 26th

I started this day by finding how hackpad worked, and reading through the basic "hackpad guide".

Then I downloaded Kicad and Fusion 360 and set them up. After that I decided to watch some tutorials on how to use both just to have a basic grip of the programs and to understand what tools, why and how I was using them during the whole project.

Finally I made the basic macropad shown in the "hackpad guide" to try and apply my learnings and to see if I could do it without running into any issues.

Everything went flawlessly and I decided to end the day there.

[This isnt my image its merely illustrative as I couldnt find the files related to this day]

3/26/2026 7:59 PM - Setting the Projects Goal and Starting Up

February 28th

I started the day by downloading the "orpheuspad" files and installing its libraries.

I started by analyzing the orpheuspad case and 3d model, then I analyzed the schematic and spent some time trying to understand how a key matrix worked as well as the pinout for the ec11 rotary encoder.

Then I analyzed the PCB itself and saw how everything was traced and connected. Then I found what were vias, how to use them and should traces be organized between layers (Front and Back).

Also found out about silkscreen and it's placement.

Finnally decided that I was going to do a ALIEN Themed PCB since its my favourite franchise and decided that I wanted the macropad to have a old look (a little bit like MU / TH / UR hence the name, and ambience from the first movies).

I really loved this tutorial and recommend checking it out

[This isnt my image its merely illustrative as this day was mostly about searching, defining what i wanted to do and watching tutorials]

3/27/2026 6:18 PM - Project Setup, Key Matrix and Rotary Encoder

March 2nd

I started by setting up the KiCad 9.0 project fully with libraries for footprints, libraries for symbols and some 3D models of the components I was going to use (which at this point was the components in the kit + the Seeed Studio Xiao RP2040)

Then I did the Key Matrix aswell as the Rotary Encoder Setup by watching along with a tutorial just to make sure I didn't mess up any steps.

Finally I asked around in a keyboard discord to optimize the matrix setup!

3/27/2026 6:35 PM - Setting Up the LEDs, OLED and MCU problems.

March 5th

I started the day by setting up the SK6812 Mini-E LEDs and the OLED display on the schematic and connecting them.

Then I tried to connect everything to the Seeed Studio Xiao RP2040 and thats when I realised I didnt have enough pins to fit the key matrix, the rotary encoder, the LEDs and the OLED all at once.

I spent the rest of the day searching for alternatives but ended the day with no concrete solution and delayed the finding of the MCU for another day.

3/27/2026 6:46 PM - MCU Solution and Rough Edge Cuts of the PCB

March 7th

I started the day by continuing the search from where I left off on the March 5th and found a nice option, the Seeed Studio Xiao RP2350 which had just enough pins to make everything work while being small like the RP2040.

Then I downloaded its libraries and installed them, then went back to the schematic and reconnected everything to the new MCU making sure all components were properly assigned.

Finally I did the Edge Cuts for the PCB defining the rough size and shape I wanted for the board, I knew these would probably need adjusting later but I tought it was better to have a general size of the board than making it way too big or small!

3/27/2026 7:12 PM - Rough Component Placement on PCB

March 8th

I started by placing the components onto the PCB.

Then when I realised I had no clue of what I was doing I looked at other macropads aswwell as keyboards and PCBs made by far more experienced peopke.

When I felt comfortable with PCB positioning, it took a while to figure out the positions for everything, I tried to make things that would be routed together (even though I didnt really know much about routing then just the basics from the tutorials) be next to each other, I also tried to make everything pratical (Like the keys being a 4x3 instead of a 3x4).

By the end of the day I had rough positions for all components on the board, nothing was final yet but it was nice to have a reference to where everything would be!

[I couldnt find any files or imaged related to this day nor illustrative ones... sorry!]

3/27/2026 7:23 PM - Traced the PCB and made some Minor Position Adjustments

March 9th

I started the day by adjusting the component positions from where I left them on the previous day, I needded to move some things around to make routing cleaner and easier.

Then I spent the rest of the day tracing the PCB, connecting everything together using front and back layers and using vias where needed.

It took a long to click but as soon as it did it felt great watching the PCB design come together like I've done it for years!

3/27/2026 7:26 PM - Adjusting Edge-Cuts and Traces

March 12th

This day was shorter since I had a test coming up and needed to study,

I focused on cleaning up and optimizing what I had. Adjusted the edge cuts since they needed some tweaking like I had expected, and went through the traces and vias cleaning up anything that looked messy (and making the traces pretty).

By the end the design was looking a lot cleaner and more organized!

3/27/2026 7:33 PM - Silkscreens

March 14th

I started the day by deciding that I wanted to use the orpheuspad "hack club flag" and "version" (v1.0 which i then changed to v1.1 since this is like an upgrade of orpheuspad) silkscreen on my board to honor it, I really liked them and felt it was the right thing to do since the left side was already inspired by it.

Then I spent most of the day making my Facehugger Dither Art Silkscreen after reading through some tutorials on how to make dither art for PCBs. Its actually really hard to get right because of the spacing and size between the dots (169 DPI), took a lot of trial and error but im really happy with how it turned out!

The Dither Art Tutorial I Followed

3/27/2026 7:52 PM - Silkscreen Finishing, BOM Table Making and QMK setup

March 15th

I started the day by finishing up the silkscreen side of things, I added the "In Space..." and "Weyland-Yutani" silkscreens and put my name on the back of the board.

i was really happy with how the whole silkscreen side of the project turned out!

I also did the BOM Table

Then I downloaded QMK to start preparing the firmware side of things aswell as the Github (which I would soon switch due to more problems).

3/27/2026 7:57 PM - MCU Problems (Part 2)

March 16th

I started the day by setting up QMK and began the keyboard creation process watching along with a tutorial.

Then everything went downhill...

When I was creating the keyboard I found that there were NO options for a RP2350 chip in QMK, I started desperately searching for workarounds or alternative firmwares thinking my work was in vain and thinking that I would have time to submit since the deadline was really close.

I found KMK but it was discontinued and its support for the RP2350 was new and it didnt feel right going with something no longer maintained. I even tested it a little but it was strange (or atleast thats what it felt to me)

So I decided to change the MCU entirely (again...).

I thought about ATMEGAs but they were too low memory, then I searched for RP2040 boards and went through a lot of options. Found the Keebio Elite Pi but tested its footprint and it was too big for my board and I really didnt want to change the board dimensions and component placement

Then by miracle I found the Waveshare RP2040-Zero and decided to analyze it better and hopefully use it the next day!

I also found this day that the Hackpad project had maximum PCB dimensions and that I couldnt use any board even if I sourced it myself. I asked in Slack about what to do and the user "cubit" helped me!
Thanks cubit!!!

[This isnt my image its merely illustrative as this day was mostly about searching and trying to desperatly solve a problem]

3/27/2026 8:01 PM - Creating the MCU libraries and Switching it on the PCB

March 19th

Desperate since the project was almost over I started searching for the Waveshare RP2040-Zero libraries for the footprint and symbol but only found fan-made ones (I even sent them an email but they dont have any official ones).

I decided to make my own based on an outdated fan-made one, which was actually really cool because I learned how to make symbols and footprints from scratch, but also really stressful with the deadline around the corner.

Then I finally made it and changed it on the schematic, then placed it on the PCB but like expected the traces didnt match up at all.

I then spent the rest of the day trying to make everything trace correctly (which was really hard since for example VCC was on the opposite side of the board compared to the RP2350), and also because the Waveshare has an edge cut in it to sit flush with the board making routing even more difficult.

3/27/2026 8:27 PM - New Footprint, Retracing Everything and 3D Modeling the case

March 21st

From this point on I locked in every day to try to make it in time for the blueprint deadline (and what a lock in it was).

I started the day by looking at the previous day tracing and thought to myself "wow how did I make this so bad", the traces were all messy, using lots of vias which created impedance and were super close to each other.

Then I had an idea, make an alternative footprint since I didnt need the inner pins, and flip the board around so that VCC and ground were more accessible and similar to the rp2350. After some changes to the footprint, and some changes to the schematic connections to match I started retracing the board but didnt finish it.

Also started the 3D model for the case, got the hang of it really fast which honestly surprised me!

3/27/2026 8:35 PM - Finished the PCB and made Huge Improvements on the 3D Model

March 22nd

I started the day by finishing the tracing and making it a lot cleaner.

Then I remembered a Tiktok from a guy explaining about GND copper pours and thought "wow this would be really useful", watched some tutorials about it and also learned about via stitching.

After that I applied it to my PCB with a GND pour on both front and back layers with via stitching connecting them, and then cleaned up the traces since I had a lot more space now that the GND traces were gone. With this the PCB was finished!

Made huge progress on the 3D model for the case aswell, I really dont know how I locked in so much this day.

Also updated the BOM table!

3/27/2026 8:49 PM - Finished the 3D Model and Got the QMK Firmware done

March 23rd

This day started with me finishing the 3D model and coloring tt.

Then I moved on to doing the QMK firmware with the new MCU in mind, watched some tutorials for it.

Discovered pretty quickly that QMK tutorials are really outdated and that even the docs arent properly updated (for example they switched their core config files from rules.mk and config.h to keyboard.json recently but a lot of docs pages still mention the old ones).

With help from their discord server I finally got the firmware done though!

3/27/2026 8:52 PM - Created the Github and Adjusted the Keymap

March 26th

Setup QMK to be able to work with VIAL in the future and adjusted the keymap.

Then I created the Github repository linked it to my local folder and GIT, wrote the readme.md, converted the BOM table to CSV and organised everything into folders correctly.

Also wrote 2 journals to backlog the work from previous days, doing my best to remember everything accurately and find illustrative images where I couldnt find the original files!

3/27/2026 9 PM - Journaling Everything and Submiting

March 27th

Today is the day im backlogging everything into journals, a bit desperate that, since the deadline is close and my project had a lot of hiccups it wont get accepted.

I hope it gets accepted tough and would be really gratefull for this.

This is my first experience with Hack Club, Im really loving the platform and premise so far and Im really hoping this is just like it seems and teens can actually get into doing this engineering projects they otherwise wouldnt do because of financial conditions!

Thank You for accompaning me through my project and see you next time!

Martim Mota