The "Illuminate This" board

[winegummo]

ordered

[mike]

PS, for those not intending to go to the build night, or just wanting their boards early, I’ll drop off some kits as soon as they are bagged up this week. I’ll have to find a time to make the stencil though; so you might be using a toothpick or syringe if you go that option (I do not recommend a soldering iron for these, but as I’ve proven, it is totally possible).

[JDMc]

One of the makers at Maker Faire was using Optix Cracked Ice Clear Acrylic Lighting Panel from Home Depot to diffuse LEDs pretty effectively. Apparently laserable and cheap (~$16 for a 2’x4’ sheet):
https://www.homedepot.ca/product/optix-cracked-ice-clear-acrylic-lighting-panel-23-75-inch-x-47-75-inch/1000143373

[mike]

Oh, I forgot to mention one other thing (Yeah, another one other thing), 50% of my proceeds on this batch will go towards VHS (either as a direct contribution, or buying VHS something I think it needs).

[Janet]

Oh it’s on - off to buy ma ticket.

[Janet]

It’s been a while since I’ve done SMD work so I’m re-watching @tomkeddie’s videos.

SMD hand soldering instructional videos

So far I’ve done two videos showing how I choose to solder SMD parts by hand. I plan to make more, I’ll add them here. Note that the projects are obsolete but the techniques apply generally. There are tons of ways of doing this, this is just what works for me. Discrete components and SOIC package. Higher density QFP package.

[winegummo]

ty for this.

[Janet]

Is anyone gonna oven it? Still doable without a stencil. I think we still have toothpicks. I prefer the hand soldering. I guess this will finally teach me to remember how smd led polarity is indicated.

[mike]

@Janet

I guess this will finally teach me to remember how smd led polarity is indicated.

Maybe not… these LEDs are really obvious since the pads match the layout (one long pad, one short pad).

I expect most people will oven these boards, but you are free to solder as you please.

[Janet]

Amazing! That makes things easier. Super excited for this. I’ll bring a visor so we have another one around and all my reading glasses.

[mike]

It was asked on Slack if a PartyCat can control one of these (the PWM for dimming, they aren’t programmable LEDs).

Can someone bring a party cat to the build night so we can check it out?

Bonus points if someone brings a completed Bikeshed board.

Partycat Revision 4

Last year I made this revision 4 of the partycat, but haven’t gotten around to making kits… until now! [IMG_8058] [IMG_8056] These are a bit different than revision 3: No tiny level shifter IC. These use a single mosfet level shifter that is much easier to solder. No high-current auxiliary output. I had put this on the previous versions because I wanted to be able to reinforce the RGB LEDs with strips of pure white. Now that RGBW strips are commonplace, I removed that. PCB shaped like a cat. …

The Bikeshed Board

Hey all, One of my other projects ( https://talk.vanhack.ca/t/ble-midi-kit-dev-blog/8241) needs the ability to be powered from USB at 3.3v, as well as charge and discharge a battery, and ideally, not reset when you plug in/unplug the usb. As I’ve learned recently, this is called power path management. The question about how to do this has come up a few times on the VHS slack. I’ve gone ahead and designed a board that will hopefully satisfy this need and once I figure out any bugs, I’ll incor…

[Majicj]

I’m in for the build nite. I can bring a partycat.

FWIW the Aluminum board might behave a little differently in the oven wrt to reflow temperature profile. @packetbob might have some insight.

[packetbob]

I have no insight (but recommend you try some test runs before doing a group thing)…
However if it helps I can bring my own toaster re-flow oven on the 25th so that you have two ovens to use…

[mike]

@packetbob

but recommend you try some test runs before doing a group thing

I plan on running a full board test before the night to validate the end-to-end production.

@packetbob

However if it helps I can bring my own toaster re-flow oven on the 25th so that you have two ovens to use…

Thanks for the offer, that would be awesome!

[packetbob]

I’ll also bring my solder paste dispenser assuming we have compressed air at the space…
Think it even has some solder past in it…

[winegummo]

a quick little mounting bracket for the illuminate this board that also works as a difuser mount.
ALuminate this mount.stl (584.0 KB)

[Janet]

I love this design. Thanks Jim! This is just the motivation I need to get back to working on those boards. I have a bunch sitting right here on my desk.

[mike]

And if anyone needs the newer version of the board or the stencil, I have extras sitting in my bin, just let me know what you take and I can point you toward the VHS PayPal to settle up

[Janet]

In #greenthumb on slack a few of us were talking about using these for growlights. I know Steve Roy had some success with that. They’re perfectly sized for sticking to the underneath of a kitchen cabinet.

[SteveRoy]

Yes, I found an old baking pan at Value Village and with nylon stand-offs use it as a light for my seed starting.