Macropads are great for having hotkey input around, but things can get out of hand very quickly when you realize how many shortcuts you have in your life. To avoid ending up with another keyboard-sized keyboard, some hackers will use a handful of switches and lots of layers to turn a few keys into many. And instead of worrying about legends, they use empty keys and leave labels to appear on any kind of screen.
There are in them [QCJ3], Who created this Nifty Little console-style macropad. Not interested in managing microcontroller memory, [QCJ3] Go to the actual route and load different profiles on a micro sd card. Each text file on a given card contains a label, a color for the KeySwitch LED and, of course, the keystrokes that the macro itself creates.
There are countless ways to create a macro pad, from designing with bare chips (if you can get them) to programming a pre-built key matrix. If you like the look of the console, grab the files and call it one day, or create a whole new enclosure to suit your hands. Whatever you create, consider entering our brand Spankin’s new weird inputs and weird peripheral competition, which will now run until July 4th. If you need more inspiration, just peek at projects under the macropad tag, or use the heavier keyboard tag.
Via KBD