For our collective sign, I had to design and build an interaction on a custom PCB board with the shape of an 'I'.
I decided to keep it simple with the sensor input and focus on making something that can withstand a lot of people using it in a non-controlled setting. To do this, I used a potentiometer with different ranges, hoping to give users a bit more depth and engagement.
The process of building this was straightforward.
First, I added a few more LEDs to Andy's template file. After that, I designed the board trying to accommodate every component in a compact space. It was inevitable to add a couple vias, but that was easily handled on the fabrication part.
Once the design was ready, I opened it on Bantam, added the necessary configuration and started milling. I had the issue that after changing bits, the spindle would reboot but not continue milling. I thing it was because I closed the window after clicking on resume job. I had to restart the job and start over. No issues during round 2.
After that, I arranged my components on a piece of tape and organized everything to make the SMD part as smooth as possible. Added the paste with the SMD components first and used the heat gun. Vias came after, and headers at the end.
Finally, I programmed the AtTiny to blink the LEDs as a test for the electrical connections and once that I confirmed that everything was working, I added the interaction code to it.
Here is the result:
Comments