Building the Nano Deck

A couple years ago, I set out to create my own macro pad. It had a few requirements:

• Reuse some scrap pieces of mahogany
• Be small enough to fit in the scrap pieces of mahogany
• Be easy enough to use, if I wanted to gift a few

After finalising the design, fabricating the parts, and building a setup wizard using the WebUSB API, I dropped the project. I bought a Elgato Stream Deck, which is superior in almost all aspects.

Fast forward to today, I stumbled upon the part I had made and decided to finish building it just as a minimum viable product.

Thankfully, the assembly and wiring were basically done. For the code base, I’m using CicuitPython and its human interface device libraries to allow for the device to act as a keyboard, mouse, and consumer control (media keys).

CircuitPython actually exposes the python code in a volume on the connected device. Although this raises a few security concerns, it makes it easy to change the macros when I want.

The project available on Github for those interested.