Blueprint

Kev's Macropad

This is my custom 10-key (8 MX, 2 encoder) mechanical macropad that has dual rotary encoders, per-key RGB lighting, and an OLED status screen. It is powered by the XIAO RP2040 and an MCP23008 I/O expander to make sure that I can do as much as I can on this board with such a small footprint.

Created by kevin kevin

Hackpad

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kevin kevin added to the journal ago

Soldered XIAO and OLED pin headers, checked i2c

I finished the soldering of the pin headers for my Xiao RP2040 and the OLED display!!!!!!!!

This process was damn hard due to a defective soldering iron I got which suffered from poor thermals and oxidation. I had to troubleshoot by setting the temp on the iron to 350ºC (yeah, ridiculous) to compensate.

Anywho, got that done. Not my finest soldering work but it worked :))

IMG_1745 IMG_1746

When I did this all I verified the connections by running some test code on a breadboard with the OLED display in Circuitpython, confirming that everything worked!

To the reviewer: yes, this sadly took 4 hours :(((

CAN CAN ⚡🚀 approved Kev's Macropad ago

Nice hackpad

kevin kevin submitted Kev's Macropad for review ago

Shaurya Bisht Shaurya Bisht requested changes for Kev's Macropad ago

please put your funding to 0 ... we give a auto grant for hackpads and a kit to build

kevin kevin submitted Kev's Macropad for review ago

kevin kevin started Kev's Macropad ago

1/15/2026 - Soldered XIAO and OLED pin headers, checked i2c

I finished the soldering of the pin headers for my Xiao RP2040 and the OLED display!!!!!!!!

This process was damn hard due to a defective soldering iron I got which suffered from poor thermals and oxidation. I had to troubleshoot by setting the temp on the iron to 350ºC (yeah, ridiculous) to compensate.

Anywho, got that done. Not my finest soldering work but it worked :))

IMG_1745 IMG_1746

When I did this all I verified the connections by running some test code on a breadboard with the OLED display in Circuitpython, confirming that everything worked!

To the reviewer: yes, this sadly took 4 hours :(((