11/15/2025 6:45 PM - Schematic + part of PCB

Made the schematic and i'm pretty happy with it besides its really messy and yeah in total its a pretty simple schematic i probably will still add a few things but the general things are done. Then i already started on the PCB and i'm making first the sensor module and then i'm going to work on the bigger board where the brains are.

11/15/2025 6:49 PM - Small macropad

The macropad is going to be a companion for the Dial it will function as a modifier so if you press in one of the buttons it will change the dial from scroll to something like changing the volume or zooming in and out! Pretty cool right so the features are:

• Wireless
• RGB LEDS
• Really small and compact

it is perfect i love it

In the making i found some struggles mainly finding the right components and librarys and then the wiring in the PCB but it was actually easier then i tought i guess i have gotten better at making PCB's

11/16/2025 - PCB refinements

I'm going straight to what i did:

• Added Mounting holes.
• added connector for wires
• routed some more stuff
• added gnd layer

so yeah this was to make everything better like more useful

11/18/2025 - Main PCB and on off switch

So today i did two more modules one is the main modules where the nrf is and then the other one is where the power on/off switch is not sure if i'll keep this layout with so many daughter boards but for now it is what it is
i also fixed a few things in the schematic for cleanness and for practicality

11/29/2025 6 PM - Made 3D model

So i did the whole 3D model and i had already these cool ideas where each pcb stacks and yeah it was really fun to make this it also came with some difficulty's but i think this should be the almost last 3D model

11/29/2025 7 PM - Made case for macropad

So ive made some keyboard cases so this was easy its just a simple case with a power switch and i think it is perfect for the use and i'm actually going to use transparent keycaps so it will look so good with the leds

12/9/2025 1:35 PM - Bare firmware

So i wrote a bare version of the firmware it should work but i'm not sure and can't test yet but we'll see i used circuit python and some cool library's and this is one of the first times i'm using python so exciting but yeah ill have to prob write a new version after hope i don't have to change much.

in the image its only part of the firmware

12/9/2025 1:40 PM - BOM update

So i was a bit over budget so i decided to not get PCBA for the PCB and instead buy a pre made AS5600 board to desolder the components to solder into mine its way cheaper to do this then buy all the parts because of MOQ and like this i already get the exact magnet i needed which was super hard to find on its own.

2/16/2026 10:14 AM - Added silkscreen

Now that i got the grant i was going to buy the PCB and i was in the pcb viwer and i saw how lame the pcb looked without silkscreen so i drew some on my ipad and it was quite hard to get the right dimensions of the drawing but i think it was worth it

2/16/2026 10:28 AM - Soldering everything

When everything arrived I immediately setup my soldering stuff to start soldering everything as i really wanted to get this done and this was also the first time using my Hotplate! It was really exciting trying something new like this and its way easier then I thought and really fun too

With the hotplate I soldered the Leds in the macropad and the Xiao and AS5600 and the resistors in the Dial part.
Then the rest of the components were really easy but not as exciting because it was not with the hotplate it was the: Switches, Power Switch, Xiao.

Then I made a simple firmware for the macropad as that was the easiest and I made it in kmk as it has the most support for the specs I need

(unfortunately i don't have photos from the dial part just soldered forgot those)

2/16/2026 10:46 AM - Dial case redesign

I had to redesign the case because i forgot to account some parts of the PCB and I felt that it needed a few changes to the main design.

So I started Fusion and started to design it from the ground up.

Case

This is the piece that holds all the components its the main piece of the design

it holds the as5600 part and the xiao bottom PCB it holds everything secure.

Then there is a part that holds the bearing in place and that took quite some time for me to figure everything out how its going to hold everything.

then there is the bottom which is really simple just a round piece and the top which too is really simple.

2/16/2026 10:50 AM - Dial firmware

This was pretty easy as adafruit has a tutorial on how to use the AS5600 sensor and it was really helpfull but i still nededed to figure out how to make smooth scrolling in Linux because its not that easy I had to simulate a trackpad because they can use smooth scrolling but a normal mouse scroll can't so its working now but it took a while to figure it out

The firmware is Python.

2/16/2026 11 AM - Building everything

This was for the Dial after the new case design i had to desolder a few parts so i could mount everything correctly and this part was really fun i even made a timelapse while building it!

and you can check it here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXqYH0LlYbQ

and this was actually pretty annoying as i had to desolder and solder again some parts.