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Things are progressing!

I had a conversation with my girlfriend, and we decided that we would clear out our 'guest room'/store-things-when visitors-arrive-and-call-it-cleaning space. So today I did just that and realize I do have room for more workarea!

It looks cramped (and it is) but the walking space will be a bit more than it was. I threw out a rusty old bed and some junk. Gave away three garbage bags of clothes, and at the end of the day both me and my GF are looking forward to having a proper work/read/game area!

Here it is:

I've sourced the materials and hardware, but not put in an order yet. (I'll have them cut it for me, so I need to go over things once or twice more). I'm looking at a price of about $400 which I recon is totally worth it!
The things mentioned; like fume extractor/blower and optics/magnification are added to my list of things to get, but not modeled.

Thanks for your feedback guys!

I've already made a theremin once (though using an LED) ;) I posted the library under my AlphaBeta alias over at the Arduino camp some years ago. Not sure it can be found because I deleted a lot of stuff from my wiki at some point...
It's difficult to play professional theremins, and a dumb implementation with trickery makes for impossible-to-play noise gens.

I had mine skip between notes in a scale (minor, major and pentatonic) then I had a pot I could turn to change between them. That one made it sound OK but was not as fun to play, of course :)

That's true.
The best name for such a sub section (if you decide at some point in time that it's needed or beneficial) would probably be Need Help or some variation that clearly reads as 'post anything that's not working like you think it would.

Though, I completely agree with your stance on the matter. Just wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Awesome! I think I'll teach my youngest brother (11yo) a bit of programming and make this with him the next time I'm home. Classic! :)

I see there's a lot of questions about troubleshooting and other problems.
These ranges from straight out bugs to user errors and everything in between - of course.

What do you think @Gordon? Is it room for a Forum for troubleshooting and bug discussion?

Currently questions related to things not working pop up everywhere, it's easier for people to help if there's a known place to help people having trouble with getting started etc.

I made a thing on Thingiverse today :)

Here it is:

As said in the Thingiverse description, it's a programmer box with

• Olimex msp430-jtag-tiny-v2
  
• ST-Link/V2
  
• AVR ISP mk2
  
  

Everything I need at the moment :)

Awesome feedback, thanks!

Regarding the computer, that's basically just me not thinking. I started modelling the setup from the floor level then I just dismissed the whole having to model the legs. Nice catch! Frees up a lot of space. I'll also investigate options for a more integrated solution for holding the monitors. Would you perchance know about something you'd recommend?

At work I use some drawer cabinets that does not stop the compartments from being pulled straight out. It seems that these needs to be lifted to get out, so then I'll drop them to the base of the table. (I won't screw anything in place - at least not until I'm 100% happy with the arrangement. It is very tall, the sides are 180 as it's currently modeled (yes, the ceiling here is abnormally high).

Wire reel! Of cource :) thanks.
I'm curious now to see your setup!

So it is finally time to pull the trigger on getting a proper lab/workbench set up at home.

Here's my plans:

The board area is 180cm * 90cm and I've divided it up in PC (home studio, gaming and CAD) and EE.
I'll have to buy everything except the PC and the audio stuff.

Let me know if I'm missing something important (I've got a fluke on my way, didn't forget DMM ;) ) or if you have ideas / criticism / love / hate etc.

Extremely exiting times ahead for the little kid in me :)

EDIT: Oh, and the table itself is extremely rugged. Got it free from a company (Texas Instruments) that had to move (they were our neighbors) - so thank you TI for that! I think it should be able to support this stuff (time will tell....)

Fantastic! :D

Try process.memory()

Did you add the pullup resistors @user54499? They are necessary to keep a reliable state on the bus. Devices that are inherently slaves should not have pullups (though some will have them in 20k-100k range and will provide a weak current).
I would add 4k7 (seems to be a popular compromise) near the master and see if it helps.

R = 4k7 (4700) ohm

VCC--+--+
     |  |
     R  R
     |  |
SDA--+--|--->
SCL-----+--->

Hello :)

Try to use the save function.

function onInit()  {
  playMelody();
}

Upload to Espruino, then in the right hand side; type save() and press Enter.
You Espruino should now playMelody() each time it's powered on!

I feel kind of stupid for making those mistakes. The unrouted NRST didn't get detected because the net names didn't match (typo...) so that's that.

The other VDD to GND short was because of a last minute refactor of the schematic (shouldn't have done that), and the final one is because I was a bit too confident when making the footprint for the USB.

In summary (as this is my first SMT with a lot of custom footprints) I'm more happy about everything I got right than annoyed about the things that were wrong.

I used ST-Link utility for flashing the STM32 with Espruino. I notice the serial bootloader article does not mention it as an option. Would you like me to contribute a short How To for it? It is dead simple but may be good for first-time-flashing-STM Windows users.

WOHO!

It's running Espruino and flashing some LEDs :D

Summary of mistakes:

1. Forgot to route NRST....
   
2. Made a silly mistake with one of the decoupling caps (such that I had VDD and GND shorted...
   
3. Missed fine print in USB datasheet about the footprint being from bottom not top so it is mirrored. I fixed it by soldering the connector on vertically (which effectively mirrors the pinout)
   
   

New revision will be ordered before the end of the week, correcting all this.
I've learned a lot so far! Debugging, fine pitch soldering, and SMD reflow and rework. Phew

Hi!

There's digitalPulse but as the reference says it is better to do setTimout "if you're doing anything over a few milliseconds".

I just need a 220v to 110v tranformer (I got a hot air gun from ebay, I did specify 220v but they sent me the 110v anyways...) and I'll pop it off, rotate around and try again harder, better, faster, stronger. :)

@DrAzzy it seems each module offers different ways of interfacing. The default firmware of the WizziKit is exactly this; a serial bus over the air (as long as you send a given opcode as the first bytes, then it will be in the serial rx/tx mode).

Which LoRa module did you try @LawrenceGrif?

Ok... I'm slightly mad right now :D

What on earth convinced STM to put the large circle for pin 33? I presumed the larger one was 1 and I have my STM rotated 180 degrees.

Do you think I've fried the chip?
I'll need to get my hot air gun working and fix this then...

Note to self: Do not assume you know the orientation of the ICs

Awesome stuff! Thanks for posting :)s

Sorry to hear the 2x2 didn't work (apologies for the idea). Maybe you could drill a hole in the middle so one could use one of those perfboard tools that twists the track to cut it?

So one could do this:

Looks good!

If you're going to put it up for sale somewhere, you should do a few project on it too. With side by side 'normal' and yours. Far too often I see some board and I go "how would this help me" / "show me an implementation".

It's not that I can't with this particular board, but I think it's a good idea never the less.

Show us some photos when you get them please :)

Very few components like to be bent and stretched like that. Even solder joints can crack with repeated stress. Relying on the IC package for structural supports seems to me a bit backwards. I guess it's good for prototyping wearables, though I presume the project would die rather quickly.

Do you have experience using this? :)

EDIT: What's the progress on this @DrAzzy? Did you pull the trigger?

Hey, has anyone tried to get Espruino loaded on a raw STM32F1?
Do I need to upload something through the JTAG?
I do have the USB port available, so maybe the ST link should work? If so, then how do I get a vanilla STM32 to enter the same state as Espruino's flash mode?

Sorry to ask something not directly Espruino-board related @Gordon, when I get this working I can write up a howto for it if you'd like. I guess it's inevitable that someone would like to use the Espruino for custom PCBs and the like (which you already know I'm already doing).

Thanks :) I've been thinking the same thing. Maybe I pressed to hard with the squeegee and forced too much down in there. I'll try to apply less pressure next time, just to see what happens. I'm trying to learn after all :D

The first reflow is done!

As you can see there are a few solder bridges, I this happened when I lifted the stencil. The PCB followed with it (damn you surface tension!) and I think it skewed the solder blobs some. I'll tape the PCB down the next time around.

I think I can fix those with solder wick and the iron though. Just wanted to show you the raw out-of-the-oven board.