11/29/2025 - Todays work was to desing the pcb

Holyyyyyyyyyy its the first time in my life I touch Kicad, (or any software to make pcbs really) but it was been tons of funnnn

I have a bit of background with arduino so it wasnt as dificult, but what was difficult was figuring out how all the wiring goes, I spend 30 solid minutes staring at the screen saying to myself "yup i've asbosulty no clue on what I'm doing"

So I went back to basics, I grabbed a protoboard, put to music on and start plugin components, so once I had the main idea figured out, it wasnt as dificult to uploaded to Kicad

And after 2 solid hours of trial an error I can say very gladly that my pcb is doneeee (i hope it works)

2/18/2026 7:35 PM - make some tweaks to the pcb and case

so after loooots of time thinking how could i imporve i realized i could add extra led and, after taking to people they made me realize i didnt need the diodes, so i removed them, and also since i had a few hotswap switches, i changed that too, so i can switch the switches any time i want

2/18/2026 7:58 PM - soder the pices + flash circuit python

after the pcb arrived, i sodered everything together, the proces was really really smoooth (due to the fact i used like half a kilo of flux) and after cleaning the flux residue from the board it was time to flash CircuitPython in the xiao, the proces went smoothly the installation was really easy and after confimating that the xiao was running with python it was just time to code it!

2/18/2026 8 PM - problems starting arriving

so after my first try to upload some firmware, i ran into a problem, my plan was to test each feature of the board before coding the whole firmware, so i started, testing the led and after some troubleshoot, and installing some libraries in the xiao the ran smoothly, then it was time for the encoder, which worked first try, then it was time for the swtiches, and here the problems started arriving, the switch connected to d8 didnt work, and since i didnt have a multimeter, i didnt know if either the pin in the xiao didnt work or the there was something that wasnt soder properly, and without the multimeter, my safest route was to just soder a wire, and since i didnt know if d8 worked i just soder it to d0 since it was one of the only ones that didnt have any attach to it, it was perfect

And it was finally time for the oledd!, AND HOLLLLYYYYY this oled brough me so much problems so starting, it would recognize, and once i updated the libraries and the code, it was telling me i needed a pull up resistor, so i added a 10k ohm resistor, and still notihing worked, so i decided to just remove the oled, and dont have it in the end result

2/18/2026 9:01 PM - redesign the case + printing the case!

since i removed the oled, then that mean i needed to make an new case, (since the previous version i had was very ugly ngl) so after some music, crashes (from fusion 360 mostly) and 2 monsters later, the design was done

this new design is overall more apealing than the last one, since this one has a more keyboard aproach case, i have the main switchplate for the switches, and a more pretty design (im really proud of this)

so now it was time for the printing!
i just got this dual sided plates for my printer, and i decided to use the carbon fiber finish, and HOLYYYY it looks pretty, but the only thing i didt acount for was the faact that i didnt add more support for the pcb, therefore it was realyy realllyy wobbllyyyyy

so i hoped into fusion again, add some supports, and add a top part supported by a standoff so the xiao could be protected (plus it looks more profesioinal)

being this my final render

so after printing it, everything fitted perfectly, the final result came out so neat with the carbon fiber finish

2/18/2026 9:07 PM - firmwareeeeeee

after all the hardware was done, now it was just time for the firmware, i had a layout in mind alredy, z space and x and after giving it a shot i realize that for osu i need z x and space but for geometry dash i need space z x so i researched in a layer method that could be achieved when pressing the encoder for more than 2 seconds, and when the encoder is rotated clocksise it will increase my volume and the rotated counterclockwise will decrease my volume, and when pressed, it will pause the curretn playing music.

so after a lot of coding, and a lot of playing with lights (i spend like 3 hours just tweaking the leds)
THIS PROYECT WAS FINALLY COMPLETED!!!!!!

when swtiching in betwen profiles, i just make a white BUMMM effect and change the led to another effect

osu mode

changing between modes

geometry dash mode