Woo! Hoo! PCBs arrived today from DFRobot.com. They look perfect and it only took 11 days from the time I placed the order to when they arrived at my door via DHL. Outstanding! I’ll definitely be using them again. After paying $10 for the DHL shipping + $3 for red mask, the price per board came out to $1.80 (5cm x 10cm). There will be a complete blog post coming after the party on Nov 3rd, but here’s a few shots of it in action.
The kids will build and wear the badges. The rest of the day they can have fun making each other’s badges “speak” to each other.
or play laser tag with your dad at home after the party using his remote control!
For some reason the assembled boards have a much slower blink rate than the 4Hz rate I was getting with my breadboard test. I can’t explain that other than most of the parts are from a different supplier. I could still tweak the resistors, but I kind of like the slower rate now and I’ve already got the excess parts.
One other note about DFRobot worth mentioning. On the day they shipped the parts, they also sent me an email with a photo of the PCBs to alert me to the fact that the screen print of some of the OSHW logos were striped. Since it’s on the back and it was only on some of the boards, I was not concerned. However, it was great that they let me know before hand and offered to send replacements if I wasn’t satisfied. Overall, I’m extremely satisfied with the quality and quick delivery from DFRobot. Pete, thanks for the recommendation!
Well done, and just to let you know, your video was quite educational. It is amazing how much the children enjoy getting involved with the soldering, everytime I solder something my daughters are there like a shot. The one time they did not help I destroyed a DL40
I didn’t figure anyone on this forum would gain much from it, but if you did then that’s great. In case you didn’t notice, the URL on the back of the badge points to the blog post. This will allow the kids to go back and do some virtual soldering in between video games
I have no shame in admitting my short-commings when it comes to soldering or electronics in general. Both have significantly improved since starting with Gadgeteer, but there is stills lots and lots to learn. Watching you solder made me realise that I spend too much time on the pin with the iron for example. So yes, educational… Thank you.
If you’re doing that then you likely either don’t have a good iron or you don’t have the heat dialed up enough. I usually keep mine at about 330C. If you haven’t invested in a good variable temp soldering station yet then make the $75ish investment. You won’t regret it.
