Somewhere amidst the flood of stuff that needs to be done I found a few minutes to sit down with a few parts, a soldering iron, and a rough idea of what I wanted to end up with(see the schematic in the last log). The results are shown below. Note the high quality holding apparatus(alligator clips attached to stiff wire that is screwed to a wood block). I like to think of soldering small components to a bit or pcb wobbling loosely in the air as a game. I like to think that because the alternative is frustration.

This right here is why I really hope I win this week's stickvice contest. I've thought of building something a little nicer to aid with soldering, but that project is far down the list. I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope my next project log can include one of them fancy tools.

And here is the main board which was borrowed from a previous project, but with a few small modifications. I'm using it because it is set up for using an SD card. The whole thing runs at 3.3V via that LM317 regulator. It even has an audio output in case I wanted to verbally announce the dust level and play BGM inside the test apparatus like a miniature supermarket. I just need to set up some tiny aisles and registers and play James Taylor... I can tell that it's too late for me to be awake now. I'll finish it up when I find a few more minutes this weekend.