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Building a MinimalPad isn’t complicated if you have even a little soldering experience, and it’s hard to go wrong if you follow the order below. Your kit includes everything needed to assemble the PCB.
Bought a fully assembled MinimalPad? Skip this page — yours arrives built, flashed, and tested. Go straight to the Quick start.

Illustrated step-by-step guide

The full build guide with photos of every step lives on the MinimalPad site. Use it alongside this page.

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Parts

Included with the standard kit
  • 1× MinimalPad PCB
  • 16× Kailh Choc low-profile hot-swap sockets
  • 17× 1N4148 diodes
  • 1× EC11 push rotary encoder
  • 1× PCB push button
Depending on your order, you’ll also need
  • 1× compatible microcontroller (nRF52840 clone or nice!nano v2)
  • 1× set of male pin headers
  • 16× compatible Kailh Choc switches
  • 16× keycaps
No battery is included. For wireless use, buy a 3.7 V LiPo battery with a JST PH 2.0 connector locally and check the connector polarity before connecting it — reversing it can damage the controller. See Quick start for batteries that fit.

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Tools

At minimum: a soldering iron with a fairly small tip, solder, and snips or cutters. Cleaning alcohol and helping hands are nice but not required. Work on a decent surface — there are a lot of joints and you don’t want flux and solder everywhere.

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Soldering order

Work in this order. It keeps the board flat on the table for the fiddly low-profile joints and saves the tall parts for last.
1

Diodes

Solder the 17 diodes one row at a time.Fold each diode’s legs 90 degrees around your finger, insert it into the PCB, and bend the legs outward on the back so it doesn’t fall out. Once a full row is in, solder it, then trim the legs as flush with the PCB as you can before moving to the next row.
Diodes are directional. Insert them from the side where they’re shown on the white silkscreen, and line up the black band on each diode with the white line on the silkscreen. There are 17 in total — don’t forget the one for the rotary encoder on the left.
2

Hot-swap sockets

The Kailh Choc sockets go on the same side as the diodes and drop into two alignment holes. Keep each one flush with the PCB while you solder it.Hold the iron against both the socket’s metal leg and the square pad on the PCB so both heat up, then apply a good amount of solder so the socket is held firmly. Work one row at a time so you don’t knock loose sockets out of place.
3

Microcontroller

Cut the male header pins to length — they often arrive too long. Insert the headers into the PCB first, then place the microcontroller on top; this keeps the pins straight.Solder the four corner pins on the microcontroller side, flip the board, and solder the four corner pins on the PCB side. That holds everything square while you do the rest.
The microcontrollers have two pins at the top for an external battery that don’t use header pins. Line up the bottom pins of the microcontroller with the bottom pins on the PCB, which leaves the top two without headers. This applies to the nRF clone; on the nice!nano v2 those pins are too small for headers anyway.
4

Rotary encoder and push button

Both go on the top side of the PCB. Insert the encoder in the correct orientation and solder it from the back. Place the push button with its pins on the left and right sides, not top and bottom.
5

Switches and keycaps

Line up the two small pins on each switch with the holes on the top side of the PCB and press straight down.
This makes the logo look upside down. That’s correct — it’s the orientation that lets the LEDs shine through properly.
Fit the keycaps, then press the knob onto the encoder, lining up the flat section inside the knob with the flat side of the encoder shaft.

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Flash the firmware

Your pad is built. Now put firmware on it.
1

Connect it

Use a data-capable USB-C cable. A charge-only cable provides power but your computer won’t detect the device.
2

Enter bootloader mode

Press the small PCB push button twice, quickly. The microcontroller enters bootloader mode and appears as a new removable drive.
3

Copy the firmware

Download the latest .uf2 from the MinimalPad firmware releases and drag it onto that drive. The controller restarts automatically when the transfer finishes.Full detail, including which file to pick: Update the firmware.
4

Test every key

Connect to a configurator and check all 16 keys, the dial, and the dial button before you close up the case. A bad joint is much easier to fix now.

Stuck on the flashing step?

Bootloader drive not appearing, or the pad not responding after flashing.

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Next

Quick start

Change your first key.

Hardware overview

What each part does, and how power and sleep behave.
Questions about your build? Email minimalpad@unbox-studio.com.