MacroPad RP2040 Overview

Introduction

You can buy MacroPad on the official Adafruit store.

Disclaimer

I do not earn anything from this post or from whether or not you buy anything from the Adafruit website. All the articles on my blog are written for the love of open source.

Key Switch Sockets

On the MacroPad, laid out in a 3x4 grid, are the Cherry-MX compatible key switch sockets. The key switch sockets are individually tied to GPIO pins (i.e. not matrix-wired).

The sockets are available in CircuitPython as board.KEY1 through board.KEY12. In Arduino they are pins 1 through 12. Pressing a key grounds the pin, so set a pull-up on each pin.

BOOT button

On the top right corner of the board (when viewed from the top), there is the rotary encoder: it is the BOOT button. The rotary encode has 20 detents per rotation. The BOOT button is required to enter the bootloader, but it is also available as a user input within code.

CircuitPython

The rotary encoder is available at board.ROTA or board.ENCODER_A and board.ROTB or board.ENCODER_B. The BOOT button is available at board.ENCODER_SWITCH or board.BUTTON.

Arduino

The rotary encoder is available as PIN_ROTA and PIN_ROTB. The BOOT button is available at PIN_SWITCH.

Pressing the button grounds the pin.

OLED Display

On the top left corner of the board (when viewed from the top), is the 128x64 SH1106 Monochrome OLED display.

NeoPixel LEDs

Above each set of key switch sockets, are RGB NeoPixel LEDs laid out in the same 3x4 grid.

CircuitPython

The NeoPixel LEDs are available as board.NEOPIXEL.

Arduino

The NeoPixel LEDs are available as PIN_NEOPIXEL.

Speaker

The grey square a bit to the right of the center of the board on the back is the 8mm speaker/buzzer. It can be used to make simple beeps and sounds effects. The speaker must be enabled to work in code.

CircuitPython

The speaker is available as board.SPEAKER. The speaker enable pin is board.SPEAKER_ENABLE.

Arduino

The speaker is available in Arduino as PIN_SPEAKER. The speaker enable pin is PIN_SPEAKER_ENABLE.

Set the pin high to enable the speaker.

RED LED

On the top edge of the back of the board, to the right of the USB Type C connector is the red LED. You can control this in your code.

CircuitPython

The red LED is available as board.LED.

Arduino

The red LED is available in Arduino as PIN_LED. The speaker enable pin is PIN_SPEAKER_ENABLE.

Reset button

On the right edge of the back of the board (visible from the front), there is the reset button.

CircuitPython

CircuitPython is a derivative of MicroPython designed to simplify experimentation and education on low-cost microcontrollers. It makes it easier than ever to get prototyping by requiring no upfront desktop software downloads. Simply copy and edit files on the CIRCUITPY drive to iterate.

Adafruit Docs - CircuitPython CircuitPython official installation tutorial

Install CircuitPython

Download the latest version of CircuitPython for this board.

You’ll get a file named like adafruit_circuitpython_etc.uf2.

1. Enter the bootloader by holding down the BOOT button (press the rotary encoder), and while continuing to hold it, press and release the reset button (on the up left of the board).
2. Continue to hold the BOOT button until the RPI-RP2 drive appears.
3. Drag the adafruit_circuitpython_etc.uf2 file to RPI-RP2. The RPI-RP2 drive will disappear and a new disk drive called CIRCUITPY will appear.

MacroPad CircuitPython library

You can take a look at the following documentation page:

Macropad CircuitPython library Official documentation

Adafruit CircuitPython MacroPad library wraps all of MacroPad’s CircuitPython features into one place to make it super simple to get started using CircuitPython with your Adafruit MacroPad.

Installation

To use the MacroPad library, you’ll need to install it and a few other CircuitPython libraries on your CIRCUITPY drive.

First of all, you need to install CircuitPython, then you can install this library.

The steps to install and use this library are:

1. Download project bundle and unzip.
2. Move into CircuitPython 9.x directory or CircuitPython 10.x based on the language version on your board
3. Copy lib content into CIRCUITPY drive’s lib directory
4. Edit code.py file, happy coding!

Use the library:

from adafruit_macropad import MacroPad

macropad = MacroPad()

Important documentation link are:

• HID
  • Keycode
  • Mouse

Arduino

The Arduino Philhower core provides support for RP2040 microcontroller boards

Adafruit Docs - Arduino Arduino official installation tutorial