Hacker News: NotARoomba

New comment by NotARoomba in "Show HN: A Truly Modular Keyboard"

NotARoomba — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:46:05 +0000

I am waiting on some key switches to make more keys (5 in total), but for now I just wanted to show the progress on the mechanical/electrical side. I don’t have enough PCBs for a full set of keys yet, but when the key switches arrive and I assemble the 3 other boards I’ll let you know how it goes :D

New comment by NotARoomba in "Show HN: A Truly Modular Keyboard"

NotARoomba — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:26:16 +0000

Thank you!

The 4x I2C busses were mainly there to reduce parasitic capacitance and also allows me to know where each key is physically relative to each other in software. I’m still working on the firmware for it, but currently the plan is for each of the keys to remember its “parent”, the neighbor that is closest to the main board, and forward events repeatedly to the main board.

New comment by NotARoomba in "Show HN: A Truly Modular Keyboard"

NotARoomba — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:11:36 +0000

There isn’t a mouse module yet, but I am going to make more modules that include screens, finger print sensors, and I’ll add in a mouse one too :D. Currently there isn’t support for a staggered manner but I am going to work on it for the next revision.

New comment by NotARoomba in "Show HN: A Truly Modular Keyboard"

NotARoomba — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:10:08 +0000

Thank you! I am currently thinking about adding those in the next revision and it would definitely make it more practical.

New comment by NotARoomba in "Show HN: A Truly Modular Keyboard"

NotARoomba — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:08:56 +0000

Thank you!!

It’s really rigid with 2 keys so far but I have yet to test with longer configurations. At a higher order quantity, each key comes out to be around 6 USD but I’m trying to minimize that as much as possible with future revisons!

New comment by NotARoomba in "Show HN: A Truly Modular Keyboard"

NotARoomba — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:07:40 +0000

The magnets are strong enough that most of it should survive lol. I will be doing drop tests to test that theory out soon

New comment by NotARoomba in "Show HN: A Truly Modular Keyboard"

NotARoomba — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 03:47:56 +0000

A while back I was frustrated when wanting to buy a keyboard that there were no triangle-shaped keyboards or circle-shaped keyboards. This lack of peculiar keyboard shapes gave me the idea to make a keyboard that could be reconfigurable into any shape my heart desired. I’m still working on the firmware and making more keys but I wanted to share my progress so far. Heres the source if anyone’s interested in how I made it: https://github.com/notaroomba/keybytes

Show HN: A Truly Modular Keyboard

NotARoomba — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 03:47:56 +0000

Article URL: https://github.com/notaroomba/keybytes

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50228115

Points: 164

# Comments: 51

How to make a flight controller (from scratch)

NotARoomba — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 17:56:38 +0000

Article URL: https://notaroomba.dev/simpleflightcontroller

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195434

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Show HN: Ember - A hot plate controller powered by USB-C Power Delivery

NotARoomba — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 16:59:26 +0000

Hi, I’m Nathan, an aspiring engineer who likes to tinker with hardware. Earlier this year, I started making hardware/electronic projects through various Hack Club programs. It was perfect, but most, if not all, of my projects were being withheld due to high customs and import fees, so I wanted to change that.

Most of the price was actually assembling the PCB, and looking around the internet, I discovered the wonderful invention of the hotplate, and that I could make all of my PCBs myself for more than half the cost. Now, while I could have bought one on eBay, I decided to take up the challenge of making my own (because why not) and to make it as functionally portable as possible, so Ember was born.

I started reading how hotplates work and looked around the internet to see if anyone had made one, and I stumbled upon this repository (https://github.com/ikajdan/reflow-hot-plate). It was basically what I wanted to make, but reading through, I found that although it went up to 210 °C, the hotplate size was rather small. Also, it needed an external DC jack along with USB-C to be able to control/monitor it from a laptop.

Features/Specs:

- USB-C Power Delivery up to 100W (20V) using TI's TPS25730D

- STM32WB55CG microcontroller with Bluetooth support

- Large(ish) 120mm x 120mm flexible heatbed for big PCB reflow (JLCFH)

- Dual temperature sensing with MAX6675 thermocouple and PT1000 RTD

- OLED display with rotary encoder for easy control and preset management

- NFC support (because why not lol)

- Gate driver for precise PWM heatbed control

- Current and board temperature monitoring for safety

- 32MB Flash memory for graphics and data storage

- Portable design with custom acrylic / nylon case

If you want to see the complete journal of how I made it and all of the design decisions I made, you can check it out here: https://blueprint.hackclub.com/projects/1701

Here’s the GitHub repo for anyone interested in making their own: https://github.com/notaroomba/ember

Thanks to Hack Club’s Blueprint for sponsoring this project!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46174773

Points: 7

# Comments: 0