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• GitHub Repo Public

  Kevin Arne • 06/05/2020 at 18:31 • 0 comments

  Check out the Repo

  Fair warning: I'm rather inexperienced with GitHub, coding, and hardware development, basically everything, so there are likely a ton of issues with the way I've documented and designed this macro keyboard. Getting feedback so I can improve is one of my main motivations for posting this publicly. That said, please remember that I'm human and can get hurt feelings, so be nice. Here's the link, but it's also on the main page.

  Next Steps

  I need to make an enclosure for all of this so it starts to look more professional. Since all of the hardware appears to be working, I think I'm also ready to switch to a board that uses the Cherry MX keys I plan on using in the final version. I may also add some hardware debouncing for the rotary encoder since it still isn't functioning quite as smoothly as I'd like.

• LCD Screen Works on New Boards

  Kevin Arne • 05/25/2020 at 23:55 • 0 comments

  New Boards

  As previously mentioned, I goofed on the LCD panel, so I spun a new board with the I2C lines broken out to headers. That meant moving a lot of pins around both to make the I2C lines open and make the routing easier to do on a single layer. Still didn't quite make it all on a single layer mostly because of the rows and columns of the keypad. I'm an amateur at this, so feedback is welcome.

  LCD Panel

  The LCD panel now displays the current keyboard's name. At first I had the code try to update the display as soon as the keyboard changed, totally forgetting that I probably shouldn't/can't do that in an interrupt. I still need to add some checks to make sure folks don't put keyboard names that don't display well (or somehow cause a crash).

  Next Steps

  I need to redesign the enclosure to include the LCD panel. I also want to be able to send some unusual commands using things like the control key and shift key, so I have to figure out how I'm going to structure the keyboard data to allow for that. Finally, I'd like to clean everything up so I can feel comfortable posting both the PCB layout and code to GitHub so other folks can make use of it.

• Bouncy Rotary Encoders, 3D Printed Parts, and Serial Issues

  Kevin Arne • 05/16/2020 at 16:32 • 0 comments

  Coding Continues

  Keypad works, rotary encoder sorta works, but still has some issues with debouncing, which could mean I need to debounce with an RC circuit instead of relying purely on code. I guess I'll need to learn exactly what that means.
  

  At the moment I'm hard coding the different macro keyboards, which will need to change at some point if I ever want this to be something I can sell.

  3D Printed Housing

  Designed and printed a housing for the board so I could start using it on my desk. I quite like the look and feel of this knob iteration, but it does look a little silly floating above the PCB. Once I replace the tact switches with keyboard switches, I'll be able to add a bezel that brings everything to about the same elevation.

  Serial Mix-up

  I didn't look closely enough at the description of the LCD panel I bought. I thought when I ordered one labeled as "serial" that I'd be able to use the SoftwareSerial library to communicate with the LCD using just one data line (and power and ground). 

  Turns out that meant I2C. My original board wasn't wired for I2C. In fact, the I2C pins were used by other parts of my design (poor planning on my part), which meant I couldn't even green wire it unless I also cut some of the PCB traces. 

  I've redesigned the board, with those I2C lines broken out to a header so I can give the LCD screen a try. The new version should be in soon. If this iteration works, the next one will have the Cherry MX Blues.

• New Boards Are in, Working on Firmware

  Kevin Arne • 05/01/2020 at 20:58 • 0 comments

  Assembled the Boards

  I soldered all of the components on one of the boards, taking particular care to orient all of the 10k resistors in the same direction (because why not?). The holes for the housing of the rotary encoder were too big in one dimension, but just right in the other. The datasheet called for slits instead of circles, but I'm not sure how to specify that in Eagle yet.

  Instead of my usual approach of just plugging it in immediately and hoping for the best, I did a couple of continuity checks, mostly on the tact switches. Seemed very possible that I'd bridge a few by getting solder on the housings, but they all read ok.

  Changing Approach to Firmware

  In the past I've also just thrown a ton of code together, compiled it, and then hoped it would work out on the microcontroller, which usually results in me banging my head against the computer for a while before I have anything working. This time, I wrote some test scripts for individual parts, starting with the enable pin.

  In my previous iteration, I had no switch or pin that I could pull to keep the Keyboard library from sending commands to my laptop. This led to hilarity/crying as I tried to flash new code without sending errant letters into my code. On this spin of the board, I added an enable pin. When a jumper is connected, the device will send Keyboard commands, but it won't when that jumper is removed. I tested this functionality first with the code.

  I've since written new keypad scanning functions and logic that keeps track of when a key was last pressed for debouncing purposes. It appears to be working smoothly.

  I have to say, writing test scripts really makes it feel like I'm getting in some good wins. It seems to be a lot more motivating to me than the way I previously did things.

  Next Steps

  The rotary encoder isn't set up, so I intend to write a test script to get that part working followed by integrating it with the rest of the code. I may take a break from coding to work on some CAD models for an initial enclosure and rotary knob.

• New PCBs, Different Layout, Onboard Rotary Encoder

  Kevin Arne • 04/24/2020 at 03:13 • 0 comments

  Back to Work

  Seeing FabroLab's macro keyboard brought back my interest in the project. If you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. It's really well executed, but it looks like it was designed for a left-handed person or someone who doesn't use a mouse with their right hand. I think I'd prefer the look of something longer than it is wide, so mine will have the LCD, rotary encoder, and then keyboard, in a line from farthest away to closest.

  Changes from Last Version

  I redesigned the board to work with tact switches and to double as a numpad (4x3 instead of the 2x3 I had before). The tact switches won't be in the final version, but they're way cheaper to prototype with. I also added headers to go to an LCD panel that communicates over serial. Aesthetically speaking, my routing skills have come a long way from my first version.

  I'm also starting to track all of the assets using git. I plan on eventually opening this up to everyone through my GitHub account, but at the moment I'm a little shy.

  Now We Wait

  Hoping the boards will arrive sometime next week, along with the components.

• Keyboard Scanning Functional

  Kevin Arne • 07/11/2019 at 22:12 • 0 comments

  After getting some help at an Arduino/Raspberry Pi user group Meetup, I've made some significant progress implementing the keyboard scanning. Now I can get it to output the correct button that I've pressed.

  Wiring Issue Fixed

  When I first plugged it in, I was getting garbage from my keyboard scanning algorithm (nested loops energizing a row and reading each column). It was registering a lot of nonsense periodically, basically noise. It turns out I neglected to include a pull-down resistor on the ends of the columns, which meant my values were floating, causing it to randomly trigger. After soldering on some 10k resistors the problem went away entirely.

  Debugging Issue Fixed

  I was also having trouble debugging with the Keyboard library because it would spit garbage out into my IDE. Someone at the Meetup pointed out that I could leave off the Keyboard library until I really needed it. I feel a bit dumb for not thinking of that, but it worked beautifully.

  Next Steps

  So now I need to implement some debouncing, likely just a time delay, and some way to save the state of the keyboard so I don't send a bunch of the same key press every time. That all feels pretty doable, so that's what I'll be doing in the next couple of weeks during my spare time.

• PCBs Have Arrived! Debugging Without the Serial Monitor Sucks

  Kevin Arne • 04/20/2019 at 02:14 • 0 comments

  PCBs Have Arrived

  They look good, well, as good as they were supposed to look given my design. I soldered the components on and have started programming. I could've started coding before, but I find that I'm less motivated to code when I can't test out the code.

  Early Coding Problems

  So it turns out you can't both print to the Serial monitor and use a Pro Micro as a USB device at the same time, or I'm just too ignorant to figure out why my Serial.print commands are being ignored. When I started to code keyboard scanning (pulling each row high, then reading each row to see which buttons are pressed), I realized that my schematic didn't really match my board layout, so I initially labelled my row and column pins incorrectly.

  Without the Serial monitor, I'm basically printing stuff using the Keyboard library and a text editor. This works ok, except I have to have the Pro Micro plugged into the computer to load new code, but it's spitting out debugging info whenever it's plugged in. The way I found around this was using keyboard shortcuts to upload new code (ctrl-u on Windows), and have the cursor on a line that's commented out so it doesn't mess up the code during compilation.

  On the next version of the hardware I'll just include a switch that disables the keyboard output, like a normal person.

  I'm getting a little unexpected ghosting (given that I'm using a diode for each switch), which I haven't really figured out yet. I noticed that @David Boucher used a 1 microsecond delay between pulling each row HIGH and reading the column pins in his keyboard build, so that's what I'll try next. I noticed that his keyboard is hooked up in the opposite direction of mine, but I haven't dug down deep enough to understand that choice yet.

• Waiting on PCBs

  Kevin Arne • 04/09/2019 at 20:57 • 0 comments

  Ordered PCBs

  I'm currently waiting on PCBs that I expect in the next week or so. This version of the board has no chance of being the final product because it lacks any sort of text output device, doesn't have the wiring for a rotary encoder (I broke out some of the Micro's pins for prototyping that part), has haphazard spacing of the buttons, probably has poorly-sized traces, and totally lacks mounting holes. It's basically something hideous that I can start coding with.

  Current Issues

  Programming Interface

  At the moment, I'm not sure how I'm going to implement an interface that the average consumer could use. That's partially going to depend on whether I provide this as a diy kit or as a finished product. I'm going to shoot for the latter, but might fail my way into the former. Having users modify a header file for the Arduino sketch would work, but recompiling and flashing the code to the Arduino isn't going to be very user-friendly.

  Display

  I'm also not sure how I'm going to allow users to switch between macro keyboards. At first, I thought that color coding would make sense by adding some RGB LEDs behind some frosted acrylic, but that limits the number of keyboards to the number of colors people can easily distinguish between and their memories. Each keyboard could be named and displayed on an LCD panel near the rotary encoder (knob), but traditional LCD panels are big and don't match the aesthetic I have in mind. OLED displays either for named keyboard or individual buttons that say the key functions are another option, but far more expensive than the other two options. I'll likely try some version of all three and decide which I like best.

  Rotary Encoder

  Finally, I don't really know how rotary encoders work yet, so I have some research to do.

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