A business card is a convenient way to share your contact information, but it’s unfortunately prone to being thrown away or forgotten. PCB business cards try to get around this problem, but while impressive, most won’t keep the recipient engaged for a very long time. [Cole Olsen]’s macro pad business card, on the other hand, might actually get regular use.
The card has three buttons and a rotary encoder as controls, with an RGB LED to indicate the card’s current mode. It can perform three sets of functions: general productivity, serving as a presentation remote, and controlling music. The scroll wheel is the main control, and can switch through windows, desktops, and tabs, page through slides, and control music volume.
The card itself is made out of a PCB, the exposed side of which contains [Cole]’s contact information, and the other side of which is covered by a 3D-printed case. As thick as it is, this might be stretching the definition of “card” a bit, but as a mechanical engineer, [Cole] did want to demonstrate some mechanical design. A nice!nano wireless keyboard development board running ZMK firmware reads the sensors and sends commands. Conveniently for a presentation remote, the card is powered by a rechargeable battery and can work wirelessly (as a side benefit, if a recipient were minded to get rid of this card, the lithium-polymer battery would probably substantially delay disposal).
[Cole] writes that he was inspired by many of the other impressive business cards we’ve covered. Some of the macro pads we’ve seen have been marvels of miniaturization in their own right.
Building A Macro Pad Into A Business Card
cool card but get a better email address!
I appreciate the skills demonstrated by the maker.
However, anyone who plugs a random thing into their computer or connects with Bluetooth to a random object should be fired IMMEDIATELY.
That’s the way your entire company gets encrypted.
Yeah…that’s exactly the way. 🙄
Hi, I’m a security researcher – here’s my card!
Just add a vague promise about productivity improvement the card enables and this is perfect.
As a hiring manager for cybersecurity company, I frown upon people handing USB or other peripherals out as business cards. If you’re a software dev I’d completely understand, but as an aspiring cyber security professional you’ve got to know better than that haha.
Do you know how many people just toss things out in the trash? The majority of humans do not give two thoughts to “oh! this has a lithium battery! I can’t throw THAT away!” 🙄
Just like every “disposable” vape out there gets tossed in the trash or thrown out the window when their done.
801? He’s here in Utah.
This should be in the book “The 100 Most Useless Inventions.”