Since July the cost of my electronics hobby just jumped 80% because of the new EU import tax that takes 3€ flat per category.

Now imagine buying a dozen components and a MCU from aliexpress or LCSC. Little itsy bitsy components worth pennies now get practically 300% tax.

But then how else am I going to find some random buck IC. And to hell with Mouser's 30€ shipping fee.

Seems like the gov finally killed the hobby for me.

Haven't Ordered anything yet but I just finished designing it and thought id show it off

Just a heads-up: be careful with the IP5328P board!

I built a power bank using this board and 4 × 18650 Li-ion cells (3,500 mAh each). It worked perfectly for over two years. Suddenly, the IC failed and got extremely hot. Unfortunately, I hadn't installed a fuse between the board and the cells. 🤦🏼‍♂️

All four cells ended up at just 30 mV each. I was lucky this didn't end up burning my house down

We put on a massive Haunted Circus every year for Halloween, so I built an ESP32-based controller to manage the increasingly insane amount of games, props, and custom lighting audio that makes it all happen.

It can:

• Use up to 4 motion sensors and other GPIO based devices. I find Ultrasonic Sensors actually work pretty darn well in a haunt.
• Trigger up to 4 of pretty much any typical Spirit Halloween, Home Depot, etc prop that has a step pad or try me button.
• Play custom audio, including a beefy amp and lineout for powered speakers
• Sync jaw motion with overridden of props (with an extra MOSFET hooked up)
• Has two higher powered and very protected 5V PWM connectors specifically to make it easy to connect programmable RGB LED strings, servos, etc.
• Has a wireless interface via a hub, so I can monitor everything plus adjust motion range/sensitivity, volume, and other per-prop settings. It's fun to monitor activations from my phone.
• Can be powered with 5.9V-12V barrel jack adapters. And has a fused pass thru VOut so you can plug in the controller and one prop through the same adapter, very common use case to spiffy up a prop with custom audio, lights, etc.
• All of this is programmable via ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8 Having the extra storage is key for all the audio (and there's an even bigger module, but it was out stock at the manufacturer)

The fortune teller in the second photo is a great example of the controller being used to its fullest. The attendant presses a remote control button to start the sequence. This wakes her up, and she does her movements while playing custom audio synced with her jaw synced to it. Plus extra props on the table go off. Plus it sets off a relay to create a lightning effect. Plus it tells a Pi to display a number in the crystal ball via a pepper's ghost effect.

I had built a much simpler controller last year, and while I love that thing, I really wanted to push myself to actually have proper power regulation (instead of a USB brick), power protection, my own built-in amp instead of DFPlayer, etc. And it needed to get done in time for Halloween, so I put my mind to figuring out how to get AI to help the process.

Over two months I ended up using GPT Sol 5.6 and later GPT Astra via Codex going pretty much every step of the PCB design process:

• Speccing out the functionality
• Initial design and component selection
• Sourcing datasheets, footprints, and 3D files
• Interpreting datasheets (so many datasheets)
• Iterating on and validating the design
• Building schematics in KiCad
• Some help with component placement (I did most of it, in hindsight I probably didn't need to)
• And the craziest thing, 99.9% of this PCB was routed by GPT Astra.

There was a lot involved in getting it to work well enough, particularly anything in visual layout. The general process was to have AI attempt to do the work, figure out where it's struggling and critique it, iterate, and once we had a good workflow, have AI build a skill so it can do the rest of the step on its own. This was critical to getting good results, including having schematics and routing not look like a dog's breakfast.

Salvaged from an old amplifier that my father brought for me from a junk shop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJiyGaUV1Rs

This is functionally a sequencer, but a dysfunctional midi controller as of now. There is still a lot of room for improvement, and will definitely not be my last rendition.

I used an Arduino R3 Uno, 4 buttons, and joystick, the Arduino IDE program, and ton of github resources.

I plan on upgrading to a teensy 4.1 eventually with an expanded patchbay to move beyond the prototype board.

...maybe throw some laser beams in there too.

Multiple examples (with scope readings!), formulas for everything you need, and everything laid out so nicely (even if they're a bit long sometimes)... I can't count how many times an exact scenario I encountered was directly described somewhere in the datasheet. Great stuff.

In my local maker space, someone asked about taking a project from a breadboard to a prototype board and wasn't quite ready to go buy a printed PCB quite yet. I think I've seen this topic come up a few times so I figured I'd share how I handle this.

Basically, I place all my parts on the prototype board and then draw out where I think all the traces need to go, then I remove all the components. Then I take copper tape and tape over the connections. Then, I place all the parts back on and double check that everything looks good before soldering everything.

NOTE: In my my examples below, I made the copper tape thick so it'd show up easier on camera, but if you are doing this for real, you want to copper tape to be thinner than the pads so that the solder connects the tape to each pad along the way.

Here is a demonstration (without any components) that I did on a scrap prototype board:

There are a log of reasons that I like this method. First, it is very intentional. You get to map out all of the work ahead of time and double and triple check your work before soldering anything to the board. Second, if you are planning on designing a PCB, you can use this intermediary step to test your assumptions and figure out if there are any problems. Finally, this method allows you to use both sides of the prototype board for your traces. This can be especially helpful when connecting components to ground without crossing over other traces.

This isn't a "You should do this and sell this on the market" thing, but a quick "try it before you buy it" approach to transition from your breadboard to a prototype board and all it costs is a little time and some copper tape.

EDIT: I've seen a lot of comments about why this is a bad idea and how the adhesive interferes with conduction, and I suppose that is on me for giving examples with the wider tape. Here is another photo showing it with a thinner tape. The goal of this method isn't to have the copper tape be the only thing the trace is using, it's just to make bridging between pads easier. If you leave enough of the pads exposed, then go over the whole thing with solder, there isn't any broken connections. The solder on each pad touches the solder running along the copper tape and everything stays nice and secured.

https://imgur.com/a/rI2QXlc

Even in pad E2, you can see the hole isn't filled with solder, but there is solder on the metal part of the pad that secures the copper tape. The purpose of the copper tape is to give the solder an easier way to bridge between pads, and the solder is conductive the entire way.

And yes, I know wire is not that hard to use for most people, but not everyone has the same brain and body which is why this is an alternative. I don't think this is going to replace how most people prototype boards, but for some people who find wires difficult to use, or find it helpful to see paths on physical materials, it can be a helpful method.

Finally, for everyone out there convinced that this doesn't work at all, let me assure you, it does. I've never had any of these fail and I've found it super helpful to go immediately from breadboard to prototype without having to wait weeks for production and shipping of a custom PCB. It may not help YOU but it might help someone, and it does work.

Left: my old tip35c
Right: my new “tip35c”

Recently, I suddenly had a strong desire to make an interesting USB device. Once again, when I was browsing AliExpress, I came across an STM32F070 for about 49 cents, and I bought it right away. When it arrived, the question arose of convenient debugging during development, and for that purpose I made this board.

I wanted to share it.

I built a padel tennis score tracker. It keeps the time, set and game scores, and tracks who serves.

- E-ink
- Physical buttons
- Coin cell that lasts for up to 3 years

I’ve been splice soldering for years but this is my very first attempt at PCB soldering. Everything works as it should so that’s good.

Hey ya!
Soooo i made this digicam using an esp32cam, ov5640 5mp cam module, and it has a 1.3" tft display that shows live view.

the cam is fully open sourced, you can find it on my github. (hey be sure to leave a star if you can!)
so y'all can build it yourselves, although you will have to do some soldering.

github: https://github.com/Bogey1309/PocketCam-Classique

i havent put it in a case yet- i do have the cad for it however, if any of you want to make it, you can put it in the case too.

unfortunately it does not take videos. but the photos look really y2k in my opinion.
(see the last 5th and 6th images)

also; i do not earn anything from this- just clarifying. its fully open sourced and i wanted to share this with y'all. (credits to hack club for supporting this project)

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I made a Power supply board to get more experience with ecad.

It connects directly to 230VAC main via the plug on the bottom left. The plugs on the right output 48/24/12/5/3.3/1.6V DC with a small webinterface via ESP32-S2 for switching and checking voltage and current.

PCB & schematic files are avalable here (Altium files): https://github.com/Timo-Hauser/POWERPANEL-HW

I will use the PCB in my Mini Rack with my Raspberry Pi inside.

I cheated a bit by stepping down the ac with a LRS-150-24 module so its DC-DC only.

I would love to get some feedback on the Schematics as well as the PCB layout.

I choose the parts mainly based on availability at JLCPCB and tried to avoid any tht parts.

I'm aware I could buy this premade for cheaper but it was fun so far.

Rail	Source	Rated
24 V	Mean Well LRS-150-24 brick, through a TPS16630 eFuse	2.5 A
48 V	LM5156H boost from the 24 V bus	1 A
12 V	LMR51450 buck	3 A
12 V fan	LMR51450 buck, feeds 4 × 4-pin PWM fan headers	3 A
5 V	LMR51450 buck, TPS2557 current-limited terminal switch	3 A
3V3	LMR51450 buck	2 A
1V6	buck from 5 V	1 A

Also for those that care I did work with AI on the project.

So I made this 3S Balance charger that uses three TP4056 modules and three 230VAC to 5V DC modules so that they can work together and charge eatch string of cells individually, this makes it so that every time you charge your battery you make sure that it will be balanced once fully charged and no cells can stop charging before they are fully charged like with a normal chargers. And the best part is this is scaleable to how many strings you want even a 100s1p pack. Every module have to have an personal galvanically isolated power source so if you don't have 5V power supplies you can use three phone adapters instead using the usb port. It's very important that the power supplies are isolated from eatch other, you can't use one power source for all three modules. I don't remember exactly why but if i am not mistaken the GND is chared by the input and output making it impossible to series connect the output if you parallel the input making a shortcurcuit.

I just made my first handmade PCB. I drilled and cut the lanes my self. There is no short circuit and its little bit messy. If you have any advice maybe how i can do it beter i will take it.

I know i could make it with those fluid chemicals or whatever but my parents don't trust me with it.

Its a 5-35 to 5 V Circuit with a LED that indicates when the 5V pin gives out power.

Open to anything, including discussions, complaints, and rants.

Sub rules do not apply, so don't bother reporting incivility, off-topic, or spam.

Reddit-wide rules do apply.

To see the newest posts, sort the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top").

For most of my questions and debugs I used opus 5.5, I learned a lot from this project and can't wait to do more! It's been very fun :D