1/19/2026 - Research and Firmware turning

Researched uses for my macropad and finalized firmware. I realized that I could use my pad for tasks beyond what I had previously listed.. I want to maximize the knowledge I gain from this project to use in the future.

1/26/2026 2:26 PM - Watched copious amounts of soldering vids lol

spent way too much time on figuring out how to solder lol. I watches a bunch of videos and found my dad's old pair of helping hands. Still looking pretty overwheliming tbh:>

1/26/2026 2:28 PM - Ordered parts!!!

Ordered JLCPCB PCB and Case!

So ecxited to finally be making progress lol

Used #printing-legion shoutout to ethan for the print

pcb will take 2 weeks fordelivery broooooooo

1/26/2026 3 PM - Parts done!

Parts done and redy to be shipped!

ok now i hae to fill some empty space

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1/27/2026 3 PM - waited

bro im so impatient and thats my fault lol

Amazon has pampered me and now I am paying the price.

Pweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease blueprint gods teleport my package to me

1/27/2026 6 PM - Progress I guessssss

Progress:

Reasearched optimal button setup and I ordered a silicone mat to do my soldering from temu lol(I had helping hands already). I cant wait for everything to commmmeeeee.

1/27/2026 7 PM - Color change

At this point i need to consolidate journals like 5 into 1 to even meet the minimum word req.

anyways: color change ;)

Idk is this is better or worse buttt:

1/31/2026 - UPDATE

Parts should all arrive soon. I havent really been able to do much for the hackpad and I have been working alot on my split keeb. It was finals week but it was virtual so it was the wierdest thing ive ever done. Basically, all I have done is waited and revised. Still worthy of an hour in total though.

wait now that i think abt it prob shouldnt have posted the shipping # buttttt idc

2/3/2026 - Some parts arrived

My print legion parts arrived and My hackpad kit parts arrived. The only part remaining is the pcb! Its coming from hong kong ;( I can finally start building once the pcb from jlc arrives!

2/7/2026 - Parts arrived and final assembly!

Parts have arrived! I will prepare my soldering setup to complete the final process.

UPDATE:

I am getting ready to solder!
I am starting by practicing soldering on an old non-functioning pcb from a raspberry pi 3 speaker.

UPDATE!

Soldering time! I am starting with the switches. Then I will do the rp2040 and finally the rotary encoder.

UPDATE!

Soldering done:

I ran into so many issues. As it was my first time soldering, it was difficult to solder the male-header pins to the xiao, resulting in a near death experience for the xiao. Also, I made several faulty joints, so I used 3/5 of the boards ;( This is the final hardware (without case)

This is with the case:

Overall, Im pretty happy with the case and final look!

FIRMWARE

(spoiler, a lot of issues)

For the firmware, I had absolutley no clue what I was doing so I tried to see the hack club guide on this website. BUTTTTT.... the site was down.

I relied on countless youtube videos, and once I finally got my firmware exported to the microcontroller, the firmware didnt work at all. To be honest, I was abot to give up but then I realized that I had just misassigned the pins to pins that did not exist, so thats that. After all of that, I had thought I got it working until I realized that the top right switch was not soldered right. however, in the end, without the use of ai, I managed to finish the firmware

This whole process has been so cool and I want to expand past the preset hack club projects!