The Pokemon Hackpad!

what is this thing

a 5 key macropad with a rotary encoder and 3 SK6812 MINI E RGB LEDs, running KMK firmware on a XIAO RP2040. built through hackpad, a Hack Club program where you design your own macropad and get it for free. case modeled in onshape, pcb in kicad.

features

• an EC11 rotary encoder, controls volume, click to mute
• 3 SK6812 MINI E RGB LEDs, swirl and static modes
• 5 Cherry MX style keys
• pokemon themed design

cad model

the case, made in onshape. used onshape because fusion basically blew my computer up.

pcb

made in kicad. view the pcb on kicanvas

firmware overview

uses KMK firmware for everything.

• the rotary encoder changes volume, press to mute
• the 5 regular keys are copy, paste, undo, redo
• rgb leds swirl by default, static color available

bom

everything you need to make this. more elaborate bom here

• 5x cherry mx switches
• 5x dsa keycaps
• 6x 1N4148 do-35 diodes
• 3x sk6812 mini e rgb leds
• 1x ec11 rotary encoder
• 1x xiao rp2040

the hard part

ran into a manifold body error doing a boolean subtract in onshape, traced back to overlapping sketch lines from the imported dxf. fixed it by cleaning zero length segments with python and ezdxf.