Build Instructions

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• 1

  Order the PCBs and the stencil

  Usually, before I order the PCBs I make sure I have all the necessary components. Otherwise, I need to find similar ones which may not have the same footprint and I have to update the PCBs as well. 

  Go to jlcpcb.com or your PCB fab house of choice and upload the Gerber files for the LED matrix PCB and for the battery shield. You can find both in the Github repository of the project. Select the quantity, the soldermask color, the surface finish (I usually go with LeadFree HASL-RoHS or ENIG-RoHS), and check the Remove Order Number option.

  Then order the stencils: one for the LED matrix PCB and one for the battery shield. I selected a custom-size stencil (10x10 cm) since the default one is way too large to work with for such a small PCB. Plus, if you order a smaller stencil it gets shipped in the same box as the PCBs which is more convenient.

• 2

  Laser cut the acrylic panel

  Order a laser-cut acrylic panel from your local fab house (or you can laser cut it yourself if you have the tools!). We've used semi-transparent white acrylic panels in order to diffuse the light. You can find the files in the Github repository.

• 3

  Solder the LEDs

  Start by soldering the LEDs onto the LED matrix PCB, using the stencil you've ordered. Make sure the LEDs are stored properly, in a low humidity environment, and that the temperature of the reflow oven is not too high for the LEDs. I recommend using a reflow oven if you have one, or this adorable mini hot plate from Miniware which you can get from Adafruit.

  You may notice there are three empty pads for pull-up resistors for the encoder pins which you can use if you want to, but I chose to use the internet pull-up resistors of the Raspberry Pi Pico instead.

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