I've recently been experimenting with building a macro keypad and just in general finding ways to automate and improve my work-from-home setup. I feel like there's just so many cool uses for macro pads, whether it's a Spotify shortcuts pad like this one or an app launcher similar to a stream deck. The possibilities are endless with these boards, and they really make your workflow more efficient. As a compsci major, I'm pretty new to soldering and hardware projects in general, and I was looking for a kit that would guide me into purchasing all the parts I need for the build and include resources on how to assemble everything together. I decided to go with the Sweet 16 built from one of keyboards, which lets you customize and buy everything you need in one set and also has a very detailed how-to video on their channel. To begin, let's take a look at the parts we have for this build. First up, we have the Sweet 16 PCB, which comes in black or white. We get a pro microboard and header pins. We have 16 diodes and one reset switch.

4 standoff screws, 16 switches. I went with Gateron black inks, and for keycaps, they only had one option, which are these translucent keycaps you can add images to, so I went with those. You can also order a case, and one of the keyboards have them in a bunch of different colors, but they were sold out when I ordered, so I didn't get one. I did find some on Thingiverse, and if you do have access to a 3D printer, there are some really cool designs and cases on there. For this build, you'll also need some basic soldering skills. I'll link the products I have below, but definitely watch a video or two before you start. To start, I soldered the rails onto the PCB. I used the breadboard underneath, which really helped to keep everything stable as I worked through soldering the pins. I do want to preface this by saying that I am not the best at soldering, so I will be skimming through this build, but definitely watch the video on One Up Keyboard's channel, which is 30 minutes.

long and goes into a lot more detail. So, after soldering the headers, I installed the diodes. I gently bent them and matched up the black lines on the diodes to the black lines on the PCB. Next, I soldered the diodes onto the PCB from the top. [Music] So, that's what it looked like after soldering the diodes onto the PCB. Next, I just flipped the board over and took some cutters to gently cut off the excess ends. Next, I added standoff screws to the board, and now it was time to add the switches. They were pretty easy to snap on. You basically just have to match them to the holes on the PCB. So, after attaching all of those, I went in with my finger to ensure I could feel the pins of each switch on the other side, and then I just soldered those pins to attach the switches to the board. And this was the finished product after adding the switches. Next, I soldered the Pro Micro and the reset switch onto the back, which was

pretty much it for this build. The next step was to add the keycaps, which was probably the most satisfying part so far. [Music] So now it was time to figure out what I wanted my macro keypad to do and design the keycaps. I decided to go with three different layouts. One of them is an app launcher, kind of like a stream deck. The other one is a Spotify shortcuts pad, and then I also did an emoji keypad. I basically cut out all of the different keys and then added them into the keycaps. Now it was time to program the keys. I'm going to link an awesome video that shows you how to flash the keyboard, but I'll describe the process that I took. Essentially, you're going to go on the QMK configurator and choose the keyboard you have. Then you'll see that there's a bunch of different keys and shortcuts that you can choose from, depending on what you're using your macro pad for. You can probably just flash it using the keys or shortcuts found here, but since I wanted to create an app

launcher. I did need some more flexibility. I decided to flash the keypad with the extra function keys, such as F13, F14, etc. Then I would have these function keys trigger macros that would launch the apps. Here you can see me testing it, and the keys all correspond to the various function keys. Then I opened the Automator app, which is a built-in MacBook app, and created a macro that would launch an application. Honestly, Automator is so cool because you can create macros that do crazy things and assign them to your keys. Here I just created a macro that would launch Google Chrome. Then I opened System Preferences and created a shortcut that would run the macro when the corresponding function key was clicked. And here you can see me testing the Google Chrome key. And that was pretty much it for this build. I hope you guys enjoyed this video, and I'll see you in the next one.

Easy DIY Macropad with Mechanical Switches

Easy DIY Macropad with Mechanical Switches