#USING A SCROLLING LED BADGE MANUAL#

My matrixes were oriented 90 degrees clockwise of where they should have, and my boost converter had a horrible feedback path and inductor choice that meant it wouldn't work. Then, shortly after that, I had realised I made a mistake. Simply put, it takes the SVG file uploaded and turns it in to useable line segments that can be imported to a library or directly on to a board.ДЄfter crossing my T's and dotting my I's, I was ready to submit my boards to fabrication! If you're wondering how I was able to import or use these fonts with my EDA, I use a tool by GFWilliams called SVG to Eagle. I went through several typefaces and different font styles, but decided on using CoolveticaВ and Graceland I wanted things to be readable at a distance, but also be interesting. One of the harder things to actually settle on was typography. I went through a few versions of my designs, switching from just two matrixes to three so the text could be read better. I tried my best, and made sure to have traces be orderly and tidy.

With my prototype working, it was time to make everything integrated! Admittedly, this is still the hardest part for me, I'm still very new to EDA and PCB design. There was one thing left to do then, and that was to flip the switch and hope I passed the magic smoke test. It was then that I saw my first signs of life with a successful bootloader and firmware flash on to the MCU! I used SpenceKonde's AT-Tiny Core, which allows a lot of control for setting fuses. A friend of mine will be getting the second one, and they chose red leds instead of white.ДЄfter inspecting all my joints and using a multimeter to do a continuity test, I was ready to put a bootloader on the AT-Tiny and flash firmware using a test clip.

#USING A SCROLLING LED BADGE MANUAL#

It's something easy to forget when you're just a little bit away from seeing your project come to life! Since I plan on making a small manual for people, I'll have to document the process with a second board. In my own excitement to see things working, I didn't take many photos of the assembly process. With the low amount of passives the boards takes, hopefully it wouldn't be too frustrating for them. If I'm making a more beginner friendly kit or board, I may change things to 1206 components. I have some experience with smd parts, but I still need to practice how steady of a hand I have with 603 components.

Now that I had my boards, it was time to populate them! I didn't order a stencil with this batch, so everything needed to be placed by hand and soldered in place.

Using a scrolling led badge