This is the second part of the meta-tutorial, where I talk about designing a cheap plant watering sensor. If you did not already read the first part, please do it now. It contains a lot information about constraints and decisions made which lead to this point. The first part ended with step 11, building a working prototype…
Author: Lucky Resistor
The Fan Controller Wrapped Up
Yesterday I found some time to put the fan controller in a casing. I used a very cheap no-name case with the dimensions 130 × 68 × 44 mm. First I drilled some 2.5mm holes into the lid, and fastened the Arduino board on it using M2.5 spacers. You see the bottom of the case in the…
How to Design a Cheap Plant Watering Sensor (Part 1)
In this article I will talk about how I designed a cheap plant watering sensor. My goal is some kind of meta tutorial, where you can see the steps involved from the initial idea to the final sensor. If you ever planed to create a own device, I hope this article give you some inspiration…
SMD Adapters from Adafruit
Today most chips are only available in SMD packages, therefore I often need adapter boards for prototyping. There are only a few manufacturer of adapter boards and they are often very expensive. I think the reason for the high price is, because most of this boards are made to replace DIL chips in devices with SMD ones….
Finished a Series of the PissOff Project
I just finished a small series of the PissOff project. After all work done, I probably would use a stencil and solder paste next time. For this series I used a slightly larger speaker to improve the loudness and sound quality. Tried some different ones, but the really good ones do not fit on the…
The Five Light Spheres Project
I just published the guide for the five light spheres project. It is the perfect decoration for this Winter. The spheres always display a nice color combination and blend from one color to the next. It is a quiet and artful decoration. Continue reading on the project page
Fan Controller Project
Recently I had the problem some expensive components did overheat in my server rack. The ventilation was not optimal and I had to install additional fans. Because this rack is in my office and I like a quiet working place, the ventilation had to be as quiet as possible. First I thought about buying a…
Outmoded Sequencer Part 2 Ready
I just finished part 2 of the project description for the Outmoded Sequencer. In this second part I describe the steps from the prototype to the final device. I copied the preface from the page after this link . Outmoded Sequencer Part 2 (Preface from the project page) Building the Outmoded Sequencer was a really…
Video: Soldering Boldport Project “Touchy”
I made a short video how I solder the Boldport project “Touchy”. It is a SMD project with a quite difficult to solder chip. For the first half of the assembly, I did not notice that the solder tip was no screwed tight, so the heating of the tip was not optimal. Click the link…
Soldering for Show
This article is about soldering for show. While usually you solder electronic components to make the best possible connection and keep everything working, this is just to make a great visual result. If you want to take photos from your projects or would like to impress a customer with a nice looking prototype, you have to solder with more…