An update on the plethora of project I have going on. 

First is the large WS2812B clock. This has taken a couple of twists and turns. I have all of the LEDs I need. The came in a sheet of 10×10, with 6 pads on the back for Vcc, Gnd, and DataIn, DataOut. My first thought was is to have 2 long runs of copper enameled wire to use as power and ground. I have the runs cut and have started to polish off the enamel where I need to solder. I have a little jig setup to help out with that. Along the same time as sanding away, I though about just making a PCB to use for it A PCB for Everything! Right? It has to be the most planned PCB to date. I have the template done, and the schematic done. Now I have come to a cross roads in my soldering journey. How to get those boarded LEDs I have onto the PCB? I guess I could put pads on the PCB and figure out how to use the frying pan and sand method to get them soldered, but it is almost putting them on there blind. I could just get the bare lights and some other small parts, but then I am delving into the world of SMD soldering. It wouldn’t be an issue if I didn’t want to get this project done. So I will continue with the wire and ponder the PCB as I sand. 

In playing around with clock code, I thought I would put together a “quick” Metro Mini, RTC, and 20×4 LCD with i2c backpack. Well. . . It has been a part success, it does print the time on the screen. Yesterday I spent my a good deal of time trying to get a large font working on with the screen. That is listed a bust right now. I am going to keep trying to figure it out, but will spend my energies on other things. It was just a one-off quickie. What I have will have to work for now. 

SweetPea’s Pretty Blinking Lights is going through another PCB change. I need to allow myself a little bit more room on the board and the chip was going to run into the ESP8266. While disappointed, it shouldn’t be too bad to fix as I have a good base and idea to work with. 

So tonight is a night of rest?

After getting this posted I will dig into my box of goodies and see what I can come up with tonight! One idea I have been toying with is to hookup three OLED screens via I2C and display the time across them. There is a new library out in the wild just for controlling multiple screens. Lets see what happens. 

© 2019, wrightmac. All rights reserved.

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wrightmac Arduino, Clock, elegoo, ESP8266, hardware, In Progress, KiCAD, LED, PCB

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