The Making Of monotrino, Part 9

2013-08-30 dada No category

Almost there, baby, ALMOST THERE!!!111one11eleven

This update is actually quite belated… I should’ve written 2 weeks ago, but my blog provider had some hiccups at that time. And then, well, I was just overwhelmed by laziness, as usual :-)

This is the panel. The flip side, that’s why it looks pretty rugged out. The front side looks definitely better.

It was finished on the 11th of August. Took me the most part of a weekend to cut out all the friggin’ holes. Phew. If you’re going to do something similar, by all means use a CNC service, or find yourself a friend with a CNC machine. By the way, does anyone here have a CNC machine? :-)

And this is the finished stripboard. It was ready on the 18th of August. Cute, isn’t it? I’m not going to show you the backside. But I’m pretty sure it works, I checked every single pin with the multimeter. BTW, I was very worried after I connected the 10K trimmer (it’s for the LCD contrast), because suddenly I had 10K (9.88K, actually) on the multimeter between practically every two points on the stripboard!

It turned out (I asked the good people on #arduino) that it’s normal. The trimmer itself leaks some power, so it creates a weak connection between 5V and GND. But 9.88K ohm should be fine. If you think about it, the circuit has to be closed somehow anyway. Electrons have to flow. The yin and the yang, balance and harmony, and all that New Age cruft, yeah.

Aaaanyway, the stripboard is so cute that you deserve another picture:

In the mean time, I’ve also mounted most of the components on the panel, so the whole thing is starting to look pretty badass. But no pictures for now, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

So what’s next? Basically, I have to wire the buttons (only 28 of them…), some minor soldering here and there, and then screwing the panel to the case. But Summer is officially over, so I’m going to slow things down a little. No, I’m not going to school, in case you’re wondering. I’m much too old for this. But my son is going, and since I’m primarily a family guy, most of my free time is dedicated to him.

But you can rest assured about one thing: it’s going to be ready for Christmas!

cheers,
Aldo

Upcycling Like A Boss The Making Of monotrino, Part 10