The Pabile 2-key macro pad is an exploratory pad where I am experimenting on an unorthodox way of mounting Pro Micro on a PCB. As seen in the image above, only 12 pins of the Pro Micro is soldered. This gave me room to mount hotswap sockets on the PCB where the controller lies - which my goal. I found it very promising and proceed to apply this approach to several more pads.
This might have solved my problem on hotswap sockets but open several more unconventional practices and drawbacks. First is the obvious lesser pins. The other one is that the whole assembly is thicker by at least a millimeter. This drawback is what I find annoying the most since I want my keyboards and pads as thin as I can get using common components.
One more drawback is that several pins needs to be shortened. Else, those will protrude and switches won't properly mount. Below is P40v3 PCB with pin headers soldered. It shows that those pins on the left side of the controller is leveled with the PCB as much as I can.
In spite of these, I am pretty happy on how these turns out. The whole assembly may be thicker but the added space between the PCB and the controller is enough for the USB port of a Type-C Pro Micro to seat.
Comparison with a Pro Micro with micro USB port:
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| Micro on left. Type-C on right. |
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