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Shipped 3 Best Product Prototypes

A project log for Sol BLE Tracker

Solar powered Bluetooth Low Energy Tracker with beeper and LED to assist in locating it.

dryerziniaDrYerzinia 08/15/2015 at 04:050 Comments

Managed to finish all 3 prototypes just in time. Testing completed at 7:30AM after working 16 consecutive hours to get the last 2 done. 30 minutes before the post office opens. I have pretty much worked nonstop, every moment of my free time this last week to get these prototypes ready to ship. And I just barley made it.

Tested working before shipping. You can see the 3 devices detected on the scanner app on the phone in the background. If you are the person at hackaday trying to test my prototypes and you can't scan them an important note. They are shipped with the battery protection IC in shipping mode. You have to briefly apply power to them on the micro USB port to activate them. When you do be careful because the PCB is super thin polyimide film so its best to firmly grip the device by the micro USB connector when plugging and unplugging or you may tear the polyimide film and trace on it.

Odd one out. Only had 2 working flexible LiPO batteries left so the last prototype had to use a bigger different battery. What it lost in thickness it more than makes up for in battery life.

Solar panels strapped on. Not exactly the most stable configuration but it will do. It pretty much does everything but stay attached to a cats collar. Look out for a post this weekend showing the 3D printed case prototype.

On the way to the post office, got the address and the trackers. Sending it overnight.

The fallen comrades of revision 6. Some obsolete still work, some had the FR4 epoxy erupt under IR rework, some didn't etch right. All in all I've made a lot of freaking boards and soldered a lot of tiny tiny parts. You can see I was rather stingy with the radios as they are the most expensive part. Putting it on last and only if everything else was functional.

Now I just have to make another one for testing over the weekend...

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