matosicv0.0.0.10
About me, and why this exists.
I'm Hrvoje Matosic. I live in Mexico City. I make the Matosic Macropad — a small mechanical keyboard for the way I actually code now, which is to say, half the day in a chat window with an AI.
Why this product
Every day I take a screenshot of something on my screen
(⇧⌃⌘4), drag a region, and paste it
(⌘V) into Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor so I can ask
a question about it. I do this fifty times a day. Two key
combinations, fifty times, every day.
I wanted a piece of hardware where the top-left button is exactly that screenshot, and the button next to it pastes. Nine total keys, a rotary encoder for volume, hot-swap mechanical switches, programmable in a browser. I couldn't find one, so I made it.
Why you might trust me
I'm not a hardware veteran. I'm a software person who decided to ship a physical product. What I have going for me:
- The hardware is forked from ANAVI Macro Pad 10 — a battle-tested design that has shipped to thousands of customers. I'm not redesigning a PCB I have no business redesigning.
- The build log documents the actual journey, including the parts where I was wrong. I almost shipped 1206-footprint LEDs as 0603 parts. My first soldered XIAO module didn't work. Real story, no marketing gloss.
- Everything I ship is open source. GitHub has the firmware, the configurator, the menubar app. If I disappeared tomorrow, the product would still be configurable, modifiable, and repairable by anyone.
- I'm shipping ten units in the first batch. Not a thousand. Not a Kickstarter. Ten. If anything goes wrong, the worst case is ten refunds, not ten thousand.
What I know about
Mechanical keyboards (QMK firmware, VIA protocol, WebHID, hot-swap sockets), KiCad PCB design, JLCPCB PCBA (the auto-match pitfalls, BOM exports, panelization), AI coding workflows (Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini), and the particular psychology of a developer who'd rather buy a custom $50 macropad than learn a new keyboard shortcut.
What I don't know yet
International shipping logistics (figuring this out for batch one). VAT for European buyers. The exact failure modes of cheap Cherry MX clones. How to do firmware over-the-air updates on QMK. I'll write about these as I learn.
What's next
Ship batch one (~ten units). See what breaks in customers' hands. Decide whether to do a batch two, or fold the lessons into a version 0.1.0 with a slightly better case and a proper Cherry MX-compatible plate. After that, maybe a wireless version — if customers ask for it, not before.
Reach me
Email me at hi@hrvojematosic.com. I read everything. Replies might take a day.
Or follow the build:
Working with me
If you're a manufacturing partner, a fab (JLCPCB, PCBWay, OSH Park), a component distributor (LCSC, Mouser, Digi-Key), or a switch / keycap maker who'd like to send samples, support a batch, or co-credit a build post: I'm open to it. Constraints: I disclose every sponsorship clearly on the relevant page, and I keep editorial control of the build log. Email above.