6th Annual Scratch Made Light Contest - Flashy Mike's machined project

Nope. I’m still a dummy. The one on the left looks like a driver, but I still don’t know what the “new” board is. :person_facepalming:

Populated but not tested yet:

Thijsco19, you are close.

Okay, it has a trace that looks like an antenna. So, it’s a wifi module? Bluetooth?

Bluetooth Low Energy

Say wha? :open_mouth:
I always love to learn with these mods/builds :blush:

Dang, just noticed the 7135 I used for this build are not best. They need a minimum pwm value of 10 to light up the 7 XM-L2 in my test head. Fortunately I provided a 3rd channel (resistor) for (energy saving) ultra low moon with sleeping MCU. Firmware needs a fix though in order to allow a smooth transition from 1st channel (1x7135) to second channel (5x7135) and vice versa.

That is some awesome creativity :+1:

Be careful with that BLE module, I had one I was trying to hook up to my laptop (to rename and setup with AT commands) and I powered the board up from a li-ion battery (that wasn’t even full) and the module outputted a huge spike on the 5v line and killed my laptops USB circuitry. I looked it up and that computer had USB over-voltage protection to 13.5v so the pulse must of been higher than that!

It works fine in operation but the only way I configure them anymore (config requires AT commands over its UART) is by hooking them up threw a powered USB 3.0 hub to protect my [new] computer

Not good. Are you talking about exactly this module (WT51822-S4AT)? I know the NRF51 has a buck DC-DC converter on board but there must be a serious hardware flaw in the NRF chip to make this happen. How do you know it was an excess voltage spike?
Btw., I only reconfigured this module once with AT commands but it didn’t remember the new settings after power cycling. Have to try another module.

Edit:
Any special reason why you powered the module externally? I used a common USB serial adapter which supplies Vcc by itself.

Very cool.

This looks like black magic to me. :beer:

Yes same module, I picked it cause I like Nordic semi RF stuff but not like the chip manufacturer has anything to do with these type of Chinese modules… They don’t have any clue, they just build these things based off the recommended best-practice circuit diagram in the Nordic datasheet and slap the cheapest components available on the dang things. Live and learn.

It was in a laptop and when it happened the entire USB bus died including the built in track pad which is technically a USB device. Upon getting the new main board for it I followed the old ones USB traces to a pair of cracked in half zener diodes.

Cause I like doing things the hard way I guess lol. I was having trouble establishing a connection with it [AT session] and one suggestion was to power the board on its own to allow it to be running then trigger a reset and try again but the moment I triggered the reset the spike happened.

Cut this charger module in 2 parts:

The left part will be glued in to provide water protection.

And I made some first test prints with the ASB filement which I’ll finally use.
This is a small part of the top reflector. As you can see the small text printed on the outside does not work out well, so it will be omitted. My printer is currently printing the complete shell of the reflector, according to the slicer software it will last 4 hours.

Another point to improve is this half trapecoidal groove which I designed to take an o-ring. This picture shows a test print of a section of the lower housing, which has to be printed top down. This means the bottom of the groove is actually printed on top, called “bridging”. This didn’t turn out well probably because its so close to the edge. I tried to cure with a knife but this didn’t work out well either. Finally I used a 1mm ball point mill bit by hand (after I took this picture), this might work. Have to be careful. The remaining o-ring grooves will be printed bottom down which shouldn’t cause problems.

Now to the pros of the test prints. The knurling turned out pretty well, also the cut out for the USB connector what I didn’t expect since the “roof” of this cut out is also printed with “bridging”.

Interesting stuff :+1:
Must be fun watching those printers go.

Yeah, its relaxing - particularly that the machine is doing my work. :smiley:
When printing the knurling the printer is almost “singing”. I have even seen a video where someone made his printer play the star wars theme.

Have the first bigger parts printed: the reflector shell and the reflector which will be glued together later. Worked out not too bad but needs more sanding. Unfortunately there is a problem with the dimensional accuracy of my printer (or perhaps the slicer software): the outer diameters of discs are pretty exact but the inner diameters of circular holes are too small. The white reflector component is supposed to fit into the cutout of the green shell but the inner diameter of the cutout is almost 1 mm too small. Had to decrease the diameter of the reflector with a big scissors and some sanding afterwards. Perhaps I’ll print it one more time with smaller dimensions.



The printing is an artwork in itself. :beer:

Experienced some adversities lately:

1.) Ordered parts not showing up (LEDs, o-rings, magnets …)

2.) My 3d printer shows imperfections on surfaces. I guess the nozzle is somewhat damaged, ordered new ones yesterday. Hopefully they’ll show up tomorrow.

3.) Design flaw at the joint where reflector shell and telescope stick meet. Broke because its too weak. Did a redesign yesterday, new component is currently printing.

On the other hand: hardware, firmware and the android app I created for remote control are completed and working flawlessly:

This is the new reflector shell and telescope stick design, I guess its ok now:

View from the top. Don’t mind the rough surface and edges, will be sanded later.