And I thought I was the only one with a Module Addiction, it appears there are lots of junkies here.
Hello my name is Duke Nukem and I’m a Gadgeteer Junkie and its been almost a week since my last module fix (dam you delivery services as some more modules are somewhere between here and Pete Brown and Love Electronics and the shakes are starting to hurt). Sure it started off all nice and fun with a little weekend recreational use of a spider with some flashing LEDs, but then I got hooked…
I totally agree
Even if you design something really simple like a little blinkie light - you whip something up in Eagle and send it off to fab.
You sit here all excited with anticipation waiting for it to be made - did i design it right? Will it work?
Opening your first package from manufacture is like multiple xmas’s all at once.
You fire up the soldering iron / station and start populating with components with the thrill of wondering if it’s going to work.
You plug it in and weeeee things light up and start whirring… and you have a little giggle and wear a big grin…
Or maybe that’s just me
And…the satisfaction of working with the community to learn how to design and manufacture a model is a big bonus (if you go that route). And there’s something enormously satisfying about selling something that you’ve manufactured with your own hands and brainpower (and lots of help in my case). When someone is willing to pay you for what you’ve made, it somehow makes it even more concrete, in a sense.
And the pleasure of collaborating with others to expand where and how something works (for example, trading posts with @ taylorza to help refine his fantastic OSS contributing enabling SignalGenerator on Hydra, and testing it with my IR module) is a great feeling, too.
Duke, by all means, don’t stop at consuming modules. Become a producer and distributor. Unlike other addictions, it’s both legal AND fun.
One advantage of designing a PCB with the assistance of the TinyCLR community…circuit design review. @ Gus saved me from building a batch of boards that would’ve put my mainboard(s) at risk by drawing too much power from the mainboard. One little resistor helped significantly reduce the likelihood of frying my (and others’) mainboard.
I quick screengrab from Eagle, posted to a thread on the forums, may be all that’s necessary to prevent that kind of pain.
Speaking of…wonder whether there are enough of us module builders at this point to support a separate forum specifically on building Gadgeteer modules?
It gets my vote. An here is a quick preview of the DSLR Remote Module V1. This module allows you to use any standard Camera Axe cable to control a DSLR camera. In my case a Nikon D80 but any camera will work (asuming it has a remote cable connector). The driver is under construction and im waiting for the boards to arrive. Im going to try Skillet soldering the first one (until i can afford to get a small Reflow oven)
Ive got something else cooking at the moment too but more on that later…
Thanks Architect ive already had a bunch of these boards arrive but i had a small mistake in the 2.5mm jack wiring, embarassing but its a learning process. Still it gave me a first go at hand soldering 805 SMT resistors and transistors! that was fun… i think
edit: Here is a pic of the hand soldered “Wrong version” its not very neat but as a first pass im quite pleased.
Nice one, HughB! I hope this will work with my Canon 40D. I’m always jealous of you Nikon guys and the built-in IR capabilities (new Canon’s have this now but mine does not). This may give me some capabilities I’ve been wanting!
Actually, you’re reminding me that one of the things I wanted to try with my IR module is using it to trigger my D70s…in my copious free time, of course.