Project Logs

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• Week 6 - Final project testing / PCB design

  Tom Thoen • 04/04/2024 at 23:02 • 0 comments

  Finally tested the last projects. 

  Revised the Sensors / Outputs PCB - using 3 pin headers to transition to SMT so they don't all have to be soldered manually.  Here is the final layout:

  My next plan is to solder up 3-4 of these boards and have people test them out for functionality / look / feel.

• Week 5B - Next steps

  Tom Thoen • 03/28/2024 at 23:05 • 0 comments

  Next steps:

  • I still have a number of projects to test - documentation is going to be the biggest time challenge.
  • Modifications for the Sensors / Outputs board - need to spin up a new PCB.
  • Once everything is working create a BOM / PCB files / some kind of basic instruction document.  Ultimately this will be a big task to replicate the original manual from Radio Shack, which was very good!
  • Finalize design of overall box - most likely laser cut from wood.
  • Start Phase 2 - Digital logic circuits!

• Week 5 - more testing!!!

  Tom Thoen • 03/26/2024 at 18:31 • 0 comments

  So far I've been able to get about 8 experiments working.  

  Lessons learned:

  The wire jumper ends break fairly easily, especially when I "rip" them all out of the board (memories of 5th grade!).  This also often leaves the pin stuck in the female header.  Also, the typical Dupont wire jumper pins are a bit small for the female sockets - they are a bit loose and don't make reliable connections and pop out of the sockets easily.  I did this originally to keep the sharp pins off the board, but now the plan is to replace the female sockets on the board with male .025" header pins.  The female to female jumper wires are much more secure on the header pins and the typical header pins I use are pretty robust.  Plus, they won't break!

  Maybe you think I'm overthinking this, but if this part of the board doesn't hold up, it will be very frustrating to the user!

  As there are a few other changes I'll be making I'll spin up another rev on the PCB designs.  The speaker sounds tinny as it's so small, so I'll probably replace the Solar cell real estate with a larger speaker...

• Week 4 - Project testing

  Tom Thoen • 03/19/2024 at 23:16 • 0 comments

  Mixed success this week - I was able to get two projects working; however several others did not work.  Not sure if the issue is difference in components or not.  At this point I'll probably work on circuits *based* on the original projects but tweaked to work with my new hardware. 
  

  Project examples (need to create YouTube videos... :-o )
  

  Light meter:

  Siren:

  (Note that original speaker on PCB is pretty small and not very loud!!
  

• Week 3 part 2 - testing

  Tom Thoen • 03/14/2024 at 23:14 • 0 comments

  Well, initial testing was more difficult than expected - took about five hours just to get a couple of basic circuits working.  Made a number of incorrect assumptions / mistakes including:

  • Assuming it might be differences between components (germanium vs. Silcon, transformer winding ratio, meter current)
  • Blaming the jumper wires (a bit old and janky)
  • Rushing too much when making the circuits

  Finally found out my resistor board PCB traces had not been routed 100%.  Yikes!  After re-soldering the board a couple of the projects are finally working.  Next step is to get a number of them fully tested and documented...

  Project # 1 test - tone generator :-)

• Week 3 - PCBs in, soldering and assembly

  Tom Thoen • 03/12/2024 at 23:02 • 0 comments

  PCBs came in!  Thanks JLCPCB!!

  Soldered up the boards - Kino in the Design Lab Laser cut a cool outline in plywood that I'm using for the base for testing.

  Boards were soldered and mounted.  There were some clearance issues with the meter so some extra drilling needed to be done!

  I'm very happy with the layout - Later this week I will be working on testing using some of the original 65in1 experiments.

• Week 1 & 2 - PCB Layouts

  Tom Thoen • 03/05/2024 at 21:50 • 0 comments

  I've started by laying out the five boards in Eagle 9.52.  Boards are now being ordered through JLC.  All parts have been ordered through Mouser and Digikey - however sourcing a small meter and solar panel that will match have been a bit of a challenge, as there are no specs published.

  I also did a layout of all the boards to make a laser-cut base out of wood.  Ultimately it will also have a box to hold the jumper wires.

  Once all boards and parts are in I'll begin assembly!

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