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• all five are ready and code is almost done

  RRichmond • 08/20/2018 at 04:19 • 0 comments

  so in the last two weeks, I didn't have time to update, sorry, but I did, in fact, work on the project.
  so the first 5 Badges are ready to go, are assembled and all peripheral are go.
  the programming also is cool, I tried to use the Arduino built-in instruction ShifOut, but soon I realized it's impractical and time-consuming for this project (also it consumes a heck lot of memory, like a real ton).
  so i decided to implement my own library for the 595 shift register and it works awesome.
  one function displays a certain pattern, 16bit long in case you want to play around it and optimize it.
  the other one displays patterns, you only need to define the array (resembling the matrix) and you're good to go.

  the Input library was easy, the last part is the IR Sony protocol, i didn't have much time to code it, yet.

  but i think that in a couple days i'll have that too, then it'll be just a matter of optimizing and creating more examples with the code :D

• Problem solved

  RRichmond • 08/18/2018 at 20:33 • 0 comments

  when I tried to measure the voltage across each diode in the led matrix i got nothing, at best some noise, after a while i saw that if i connected VCC to the cathode of each section of the matrix, it worked perfectly, i didn't understand why this happened.

  so i decided to swap out the 595s, and replace with new ones, that i had from another project, and then it worked.

  but something told me, that it wasn't that necessary, i tried again with a new board, but this time i only replace the first 595, and with that done, it worked, it seemed that the 595 I pick up first is open collector, go figure.

  so with this all my problems with hardware where almost gone

• unexpected errors

  RRichmond • 08/10/2018 at 02:11 • 0 comments

  although the first badge turn out fine (apparently), it needed a little rework in order to work properly

  my initial test in the LED matrix was unsuccessful, I thought that it was due to the initial random values that the shift registers can have sometimes, but i tried some rework on the led matrix

  this didn't work, so I stopped there and started to program the program for the other peripherals

• Material arrived and First Badge

  RRichmond • 08/10/2018 at 00:37 • 0 comments

  about a week ago i got the materials and PCBs, so I thought it was gonna be a smooth ride, but due to an error in the PCB Gerber file the PCBs arrived panelized, but it didn't have the v score, so I got to use an Exacto knife and work my way around it

  and I didn't buy the stencil, it was way too expensive for the amount of PCBs that was proposed to be manufactured, so i had to make a stencil, yup, it's a lot of work

  after some work, it was ready, and reflow time :D yai

• Schematic avaliable now

  RRichmond • 07/27/2018 at 02:01 • 0 comments

  while I'm waiting for the PCBs and components to arrived I noticed that I didn't upload the schematic, my bad, today I added the schematic to the files.

  hopefully i'll be able to get all the parts for assembly the next week

• Badge Pinout Card Doc

  RRichmond • 07/23/2018 at 03:27 • 0 comments

  today i got time to finally sit down and work on the Pinout Card, like the ones you can find on Teensy.

  so i got this :D

• last details and PCB Panel

  RRichmond • 07/22/2018 at 06:20 • 0 comments

  some final details, like part names, silkscreen errors and something like this took some time.

  finally there was just a question about what text put in the pcb, and which names, after all of this you can see wich was the final result

  so, let me give you a tour of the Badge

  so it has 

  • 6x6 led matrix
  • 11 IO pin  available
  • 2 IR led (connected at the same pin, with a jumper)
  • 2 user buttons
  • 1 reset button
  • ISP connector
  • ON/OFF switch
  • magnetic sensor
  • and battery socket

  for the IR LEDs i decided to use one of the available I/O pins and connect it with a jumper, so if in any case, anyone wants to deactivate this function, all that is needed is an Exacto knife.

• Official badge now and IR

  RRichmond • 07/22/2018 at 06:07 • 0 comments

  so after talking with my peers/committee of expenses of the event, they agreed to make this badge official, so now i have money from the event, great.

  now, this is where the funny part comes.

  i originally thought about making 20 of this boards, then they told me to make 50, then 100 (that's a lot of badges, my max run was like 36 or something like that, but with fewer components). then that number drops to 40, and then to 25.

  in order to keep all of this official i had to make a detail report of the cost of each part, and i was asked to add IR capability (in order to work with the Sony IR protocol)

• some errors along the way

  RRichmond • 07/20/2018 at 17:57 • 0 comments

  so i encounter with some errors that I didn't expect, for starters, the outline of the board is great but, it doesn't fit under any grid, at least not any common grid, so I had to trace a new outline as similar as i could, taking the original ar a reference and erasing the original, this gave me a little more work, but now i have and standard board shape

  and then, when i moved the board around, the silkscreen moved, but not fully, so this happened

  so there's another time redoing the silkscreen and moving it around, in order to see if there's any error. this took longer than expected due to the process of verification (do something, move, save, next)

  when i finished this, i noticed that i couldn't panelized it correctly, due to the form of the board (the upper part of the logo) so, i had to modify the outline again in order to make it  a little more square per say, this was an easy fix, so no big deal

• final list of material, finally

  RRichmond • 07/20/2018 at 17:56 • 0 comments

  so, after some time i got the parts i needed, cheap enough thanks internet and will power,

  
  

  good news everyone (said the professor).
  i managed to get down the cost so i was able to get one more row of LED, so its gonna be a 6x6 led matrix, but with only 2 buttons, i wanted to get more buttons and i could, using one analog input, but the Attiyn4313 doesn't have one.
  anyway, everything is place now, the BOM shouldn't change that much, so i can finally route everything without any major problem
  

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