• Update

    loldavid6 • 10/16/2016 at 16:19 • 3 comments

    Its been a little while since I last updated. A levels and sixth for life has kind of taken over at the minute, lots of work to do, but I still found the time to solder up the rest of the prototype.

    Having a few problems at the minute though, the ESP8266 I bought might be busted... or maybe my PCB design was bad. I'll tinker around with it a bit more and see whats up with it. So until the next log, David out.

  • Making the Entry Video

    loldavid6 • 10/08/2016 at 17:20 • 0 comments

    This is a kind of "behind the scenes" of how I made the entry video.

    To clear a few things up, it looks amateurish because it is. I don't have Sony Vegas or any other such software, and I certainly don't have a camera that can take high quality footage.

    I used OpenShot video editor for all the video editing (I couldn't stand using Windows Live Movie Maker), and I used MS Paint for the logo and captions.

    After taking all the footage with my camera, I looked at the EXIF data to see what resolution it was, and used that as a guide to what size the captions and logo should be. I then set the size of the canvas in MS Paint to 1280 x 720. Next, I found the centre, using 2 pink line, each being 2 pixels thick.

    I then created a series of blocks, all 60 pixels by 60 pixels, with 4 pixels spacing between them. I then marked the ones to be removed in grey and I rounded off the corners of the blocks to be kept. This was all done by hand (save for some copying and pasting), as I was unable to find a large image of the Hackaday 2016 logo. I guess you could say its pixel art to the next level. P.s. the other coloured lines are just reference markers that I use to keep track of distances.

    I then proceeded to remove the coloured lines and unnecessary boxes, and colour the background black. I also used a grey colour on the corners of the boxes to make it look rounder (pixel art trick). I went to my project page, hit "F12" on my keyboard and went into the CSS to check what font was used on the title (Helvetica Neue). I then downloaded and installed said font so I could use it from within MS Paint to create the title and subheading above and below the Hackaday Prize 2016 logo.

    All-in-all, it took me a around thirty-ish minutes to make the logo - I'm pretty proud of it as well.

    The slides were made in the same manner, with the same font, with the textbox retracted from each side by 200 pixels to make it look nice and centred.

  • Entry Video

    loldavid6 • 10/08/2016 at 17:02 • 0 comments

  • Some Assembly Required

    loldavid6 • 10/04/2016 at 17:35 • 0 comments

    It's been a few days since I last posted an update, things are mostly going well. Almost all the parts have arrived, and I have successfully started assembling a prototype. Although, there have been a few setbacks, frying my Arduino being one of them, but other than that things are looking pretty good. I'm surprised a project such as mine has even made it this far, it truly has exceeded all my expectations, and then some.

    As you can see, I managed to work around my problems in a hacker-ish fashion; by rounding off the pins on the relay with an emery board (for filing finger-nails), and instead of mounting the screw-down connectors directly to the board - I instead mounted them onto connectors that would fit.

    The next important thing I need to do is release a video, still deciding on how i'm gonna do it. I think i'll look at what people have done in previous years and let that help me decide.

  • Rookie Error

    loldavid6 • 09/29/2016 at 16:30 • 0 comments

    Some of my parts came today, including the relays. Although, it wold appear that I have made a slight error - two of the through-holes on the board are too small for the relay pin, and upon further inspection the same goes for the screw-down terminals.

    These errors have now been amended on the files hosted both locally on this Hackaday project and on GitHub.

    Unfortunately, with some of the parts not fitting, I will have to order the boards again unless I can bodge it somehow. I think i'm going to try and file down the pins so they fit, I that doesn't work I will just have to order again.

  • Boards have arrived!

    loldavid6 • 09/28/2016 at 16:48 • 0 comments

    They're here!

    Hopefully it will still be small enough to fit inside a UK back-box with all the components soldered on.

    Of course, they're OSH Park PCB's - great service for small prototype orders.

    Next, I have to wait for the rest of the parts to arrive so I can assemble and test the prototype, and get some code running whilst I am it. Hopefully more updates soon!

  • MK2 Design Done!

    loldavid6 • 09/14/2016 at 12:57 • 0 comments

    For now...

    • It has GPIO in the top right, with both 3.3V and 5V@1A available, as well as access to the ADC and 4 separate IO's to allow people to add their own sensors (or maybe even some add-on boards)
    • There's a programming port in the bottom right (links directly to RX, TX GND and 3.3V)
    • There is also a DIP switch in the bottom right to put it into programming mode (it's a dual DIP switch, one for ground, one for 3.3V)
    • A reset tied to ground in the top right corner, you can use a pair of forceps/tweasers for this.
    • The mighty ESP8266-12 ( or ESP8266-12e) at the heart of the board
    • The SRD-05VDC-SL-C relay on the left of the board, for handling the switching (this will be a latching relay in future revisions for power efficiency, but it's not so important considering this is only a prototype)
    • Now with some degree of shoddy isolation!

    Front:

    Back:

    Update:

    Prototype board is now ordered, should be arriving soon!

  • PCB Design of Rev2

    loldavid6 • 09/11/2016 at 12:47 • 0 comments

    I have decided that instead of 0.2, this revision will be titled as MK2. SO, without further ado...

    The files will be uploaded here as well as on the GitHub page.

    (Note: I just noticed I spelled "Thiea" wrong, but it's corrected in the files)

  • Rev 2 Schematic

    loldavid6 • 09/06/2016 at 15:55 • 0 comments

    The updated schematic for the MK0.2 is ready! I have offloaded the PSU to a 3rd party board, and I have switched out a few parts that weren't up to scratch.

    • I have changed the transistor to one that will be able to cope in any scenario that should be presented to it
    • I broke the spare IO into a proper header which also supplies V, 3.3V and ground enabling people to add their own input/output to it if they are so inclined (maybe even some add on boards!)
    • 3.3V regulator - for, you know, regulated voltage
    • DIP switches for ground and 3.3V for reset/programming of the ESP8266-12
    • Pin 1 (RST) is NOT a DIP switch (this is a note, not an updated feature)

    Still, no suggestions as for a nickname for this version - in case you missed it suggestions are welcome!

    I have now moved onto designing the PCB, i'll let you know when i'm done!

  • Second Revision

    loldavid6 • 09/01/2016 at 15:52 • 1 comment

    Thanks to some helpful advice from [Krunal], I have decided to use a third party board to handle the supply of power, I will also be skipping straight to this prototype, which will be mostly the same save for this change to it PSU. It will be aptly marked as 0.2, but I am leaving the decision of its name up to you, Just comment what you think it should be named and I will peruse the comments and pick the most fitting title for this revision.

    In case any of you are interested I am intending on using this power supply:

    It can be found here. It's the 5V 1A one. More updates soon!