Just a quick post about some new things I am proud to have learned in the past week (plus a bonus from the week before last).
Badgelife
On Friday, I received some new boards from OSHpark from a design I made two weeks ago (yes, just under two weeks from order to receipt). I had originally intended to hand-solder the 0805-sized components. My long term goal is to learn how to apply solder paste with a stencil and bake it in a reflow toaster – but I don’t have a stencil or a toaster. No fear: watching a few videos and doing some reading gave me confidence to go part way – using solder paste from a syringe and heating with a hot air gun.
After a bit of tweaking, I got it to work for me. And, oh, what a great feeling. Having this new skill has just opened up a whole new world of SMD components.
As an aside, I made the boards using Inkscape and the SVG2shenzhen plugin the week before last. I had tried to make a badge back in March, and didn’t know of this plugin, so I wasn’t to enthused to try again. But for my project this month, I really wanted to do a badge, and then found the plugin.
The plugin (new to me) makes it dead simple to make interesting boards based on artwork in Inkscape. So, yes, this means I’ll be making more fun boards.
New chip and circuits
This badge also is the first time I did something with Charlieplexed LEDs (yes, a new thing for me to attempt). No library, as I only have 6 LEDs and simple animation. Also, I’m using an ATtiny402, which is a new chip for me.
For the ATtiny402, I had to learn a whole new chip and about UPDI programming, and needed a new programmer. So I made one. I even used my SOIC8 clip for the first time (new!) to program the 402s.
And speaking of new programmers, I hacked the Chinese USBisp programmer that came with my BLtouch kit (see below) to be a generic AVR programmer.
Oh, my, so much new.
3D printer
As I mentioned, I installed the BLtouch automatic bed leveling gizmo on my Ender 3 Pro. OK, so I really didn’t mind leveling the bed manually – and I was quite good at it. But I hope this new addition to my printer will do a long way to making my leveling even better.
One other thing I did last week was modify the fan on my Raspberry Pi so that I could control it with a GPIO (new thing for me, of course). This is part of adding the RasPi with Octoprint to run my printer. Not there yet, but Octoprint will be the next big addition to my printer.
As an aside, for the past few months, I’ve been staying at my mother’s for a few weeks at a time. So I bring my printer with me, and my maker mother has me designing and printing stuff around the clock. Many of my family members enjoy what I’ve been making for them. This is the first time I have been giving prints to others. The new thing here is this week I got more requests, from folks I didn’t expect to want anything printed. That was a great feeling.
Summary
In the past week:
- used solder paste and hot air gun to put components on a board
- [two weeks ago, I designed that board with software new to me]
- I made a programmer, of a new type to me, to program a chip, that was also new to me
- Hacked another programmer
- Did a Charlieplexed circuit on a board for the first time
- Installed a BLtouch on my printer, and all that entails
- Modified a RasPi fan for use in Octoprint
- For the first time, had others ask for my 3D prints
New new new!
What a great feeling.
