Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects

Quill

Samuel Stephenson shared the files of Quill, a nice hotswap macropad with encoders.

KBD.news
Published January 3, 2024

Samuel Stephenson aka shadowfoil shared his Quill, a nice open-source macropad.

The "Quill" is a 3 key, 2 encoder hot-swappable macropad shield utilizing an RP2040-Zero MCU board as a controller.

I wanted to take my first steps into designing a mechanical keyboard from scratch so I threw this build together over the last few weeks. I was inspired by the RP2040-Zero used by Timception in his Majin Drift which I just picked up but wanted to start simpler and work out how all the parts came together from PCB design through firmware compilation and 3D design for a case – shadowfoil.

Specs

• 3 keys, 2 encoders
• hotswap, MX
• Waveshare RP2040-Zero controller (surface mount)

All PCB/Schematic and 3D CAD drawings are available for the PCB as well as two cases that can be printed, machined, or laser cut from various materials.

Resources

• https://github.com/shadowfoil/quill/

Published on Wed 3rd Jan 2024. Featured in KBD #149 (source).

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