Project Logs

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• Acrylic & 3D Printed layer testing

  Andrew Woodbridge • 04/16/2025 at 15:11 • 0 comments

  Now that I have the electronics sorted out, I've been able to turn my attention to the other layers.

  The 3D printed baffle sits on top of the circuit board. It's slightly too big for my Prusa i3

  The next layer up is the LED Black Difussion to hide each of the cells when they are not lit and to smooth out the light. The SVG template will wind up in files section once I finalize the design

  The top layer has graphics. I'm not quite sure what I want to do on the top layer. I did some experimenting with laser engraving then filling it with oil paint stick. On my next attempt, I will be engraving the design, then filling it with the paint, then doing the cut operation. This should keep the paint out of the holes

• Circuit Boards Arrived!

  Andrew Woodbridge • 04/12/2025 at 21:40 • 0 comments

  PCBWay came through with beautiful circuit boards. These are the biggest I've done.

  I populated the female pin headers and screw terminal without issue. The LEDs however proved a  bit of a challenge the pin holes are slightly offset and this created some shorts that were hard to spot. I am currently working through some issues.

• Design & Software Testing

  Andrew Woodbridge • 04/02/2025 at 15:06 • 0 comments

  Case Design

  I did the layout for the case. The top layer is fancy acrylic that I'm engraving with an alchemical design. The second layers will be the black diffusion acrylic for the leds, then the baffle to give each moon it's shape. The frame is going to be quarter sawn oak in an Arts and Crafts style

  Circuit Board

  I did the circuit board design in Fusion 360, I laid out all of the LEDs and add headers for the components. I sent the gerber off to PCBWay for fabrication.

  Code

  I have the code in a good place. I started with the base code from my MagTag version:

  • I have switched to a Craftsman Style font, I might change it later
  • I integrated the encoder. Rotating to change the day. Clicking will rotate through the modes (normal operation, change year, change month and change calendar)
  • I added the ability to switch between the different calendars for the different races

  Next Steps

  1. Wait for Circuit Board, LEDs and Terminal block to arrive
  2. Build the frame
  3. Test the acrylic cuts in cardboard
  4. Finalize the design for the acrylic engraving

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