To say Fri3d Camp was awesome is an understatement... Met, and reconnected, with a lot of wonderful people in the woods. Looking forward to the next edition! 🫣

I've been working on this USB MIDI controller in between all the work for Fri3d Camp. The resulting device is so much fun to play with. It's powered by a WCH CH32X035 USB microcontroller and has 64 WS2812C LEDs. 3D printable and laser cuttable housing are finished. Next step: CNC enclosure

Playing with USB MIDI on the (prototype) Blooppad Maxx. This PCB has a WCH CH32X035 microcontroller, 64 WS2812C LEDs and an 8x8 silicone button array. I have no musical talent whatsoever. Bit having 64 buttons with RGB LEDs is right up my alley. Alternative USB HID firmware is in the works.

Filling up flux syringes for Fri3d Camp makes me feel like a drug dealer somehow...

I ran out of time to come up with a design for the silkscreen for the 8x8 midi controller... 🤷

Nice solution, I only had the those larger euro boxes available which means the weight is significant. I opted for a 3 layer approach. It fits 12 x Bakon BK-969C soldering stations (JBC C210 compatible)

This version already contains I²C pads on the bottom (you do need alternative firmware to use those) or you can add the 1mm pitch SMD connector for Qwiic/Stemma QT compatibility.

That @solder.party keyboard everyone is so hyped about arrived. That tactile feel is crazy for a silicone keyboard. It types practically the same like the old Nokia E63 / Blackberry keyboards. Too bad you can't feel it through the photo, but if you're fast @pimoroni.com might have some stock left!

Another productive evening at the Area 3001 hackerspace. Hand assembled 5 PoE+ WLED Light controllers for Fri3d Camp. Paste distribution was not perfect because of the manual alignment and not putting any tension on the stencil. But the boards came out great, no rework needed.

Apparently not what she meant when she asked me to "cut the apple in 8" 🤷 (Why only 2 slices you ask? She stopped me 🫣)

Kudos to their support. Lego sent replacement parts, no questions asked!

There is something wrong with the blue Lego bricks from a few years back... They seem way more brittle than their white, red or black equivalent bricks.

The Hackerspace members are having fun with the new ESP32-S3 Stamp using the @solder.party carrier boards!

Productive evening at the hackerspace this evening. The first prototypes of the ESP32-S3 STAMP and CH32V203 STAMP have been assembled and can now be tested. Thanks to @aisler.net for the fast and excellent service!

step one towards documentation ✅

Some members of Area3001 were nagging about the lack of wireless connectivity on the @solder.party Stamp boards. So I quickly drew up an ESP32-S3 based stamp. Now on to prototyping and creating some documentation. Everything fits whilst still using 0603 passives and 125um tracks.

Contemplating if I should start offering solder workshops at children parties... It's always satisfying seeing those kids smile when the LEDs light up!

Doing some hand assembly of this small debugging board for a client. Boards by @aisler.net , again faster than initially promised reducing deadline stress. And yes, that is Comic Sans on the silkscreen 😈,

Patch Tuesday but for hardware 🤦‍♂️ (stuffing variant was not configured correctly, so I had to remove some components on the 20 prototypes) luckily most was 0603. The next step is updating the GNSS matching circuit (which is 0402). That's when the Mantis comes in handy.

1 board patched ✅, 19 to go 🫣 Note to self, the RF path of GNSS is from antenna to receiver, not the other way around 🤦‍♂️ (This resulted in a LNA + SAW filter being inverted)

Spending the day in our (Dekimo) EMC lab, assisting one of our clients in their journey towards CE compliance. They have all the cool gear like the Rhode & Schwarz ESW that goes up to 44GHz (but they don't let me touch it though... 😒)

It might not be the most modern tool in my drawer, but it still gets the job done (if you feed it enough 9V batteries) It's an EC-220 calculator from Radio Shack for those playing along at home. It was released in the mid seventies.

Do I know anyone with a vintage PC collection that could use an old trackball? Stumbled across this in my storage. An old "Agiler" RS-232 trackball with installation floppies.

Time to make some prototypes on the @opulo.io pick and place. I got tired of the low quality LED strips on the market, so I went for a drop in replacement design with Cree LEDs (90+CRI) and a Diodes AL5809 constant current sink.

Since I'm not allowed to give real tools to school for carnival, I'm making some cardboard replicas. Might switch to MDF or EVA foam after some durability testing later today.

That's exactly the reason why I added this shape on the sides of the ESP programming dongle. (Used to program roughly 200 boards)

Would you look at that! I found the perfect spot to showcase the really big RP2350 stamp from @solder.party . Thanks @arturo182.bsky.social !

Fluke once made a plushie (albeit a cheap give-away style plushie) of the 283FC DMM. There is some room for improvement.

Can confirm that the 1mm thick PCBs also contain watermarks. (This PCB is the front diffuser for a custom badge I made for @calmera.bsky.social )

These keyboard parts are developed by @solder.party , however for me it felt like an obvious choice to go ortholinear for a thumb-operated keyboard. That might be because I used ortholinear keypads on PDA's back in the day 🤷Just some of the devices I used back then :