Macropad + Airlift

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dastels
 
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Re: Macropad + Airlift

Post by dastels »

Yeah, the page you link to is generic CircuitPython material that is linked to from various hardware guides that support it.

4886 isn't a multiplexer, it's an IO expander (basically I2C controlled GPIO pins). If you connect that to the STEMMA I2C port, you'll have 16 GPIO lines (which can be handy, I used that approach to add more keys) but still no SPI port. What you'd need to do is hack into the SCL/MOSI/MISO signals on the board (SCK and MOSI connect to the display, but MISO doesn't go anywhere. Then you could use SDA and SCL from the STEMMA connector as regular GPIO lines. Even so you need 3 for the Airlift (CS, BUSY, and RESET). You might be able to use your idea of a I/O expander.

Removing the rotary encoder would give you 3 pins, but you'd loose the BOOT button functionallity.

The product isn't mean to have a SPI connection. It's a simple smart USB keypad. You can build your own WiFi/BLE keypad device using the NeoKey 5x6 https://www.adafruit.com/product/5157 and whatever MCU/WiFi/whatever products you wish.

Dave

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dastels
 
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Re: Macropad + Airlift

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It's probably fast enough to bitbang SPI. Generally there's no reason to even think about that as most modern MCUs are capable of multiple SPI busses. a version with exposed SPI, I doubt it. I2C is far more useful in this context.

I very much doubt that. If you have a brd file you can get it made by Oshpark, Aisler, etc and populate it yourself. You might have an audience for selling a small number of them.

Again, using the NeoKey 5x6 and a Feather/QtPy/ItsyBitsy plus one of the Airlift boards, and whatever else you want, you can make your own WiFI/BLE enabled keypad.

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Re: Macropad + Airlift

Post by dastels »

To be fair the MacroPad is designed to be a USB keypad that's plugged into the computer so no Wifi/BLE/battery are required. It's meant to do somethign very specific and does it quite well.

Dave

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