Category Archives: Fun

Fun

Soldering Boldport Club project “The Matrix”

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For the Boldport Club project “The Matrix” I used hot air soldering for the first time. After some experimenting and with help from Boldport Club members, it worked really well. I could colder the 120 LEDs in less than 10 minutes to the board.

I made a video about the process. Please keep in mind, I am new with this process, so this is absolutely no instruction video how things should be done. I may be absolutely wrong. 😀 Enjoy!

Here a list of the objects and tools you can see in the video:

If you have questions, miss some information or just have any feedback, feel free to add a comment below.

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Fun, Projects

SMD LEDs Tests

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Today I tested a number of SMD LEDs for the plant watering sensor project. I soldered all 13 LEDs I shortlisted onto a small board and connected it to an Arduino Zero Pro. So I could try the different flashing styles I planed to use more or less automatically. That way I could focus on the LED flashing itself, without being distracted by switching cables.

lucky-resistor-1

This is the board I made. Very simple but functional. I used red and blue male header to mark the anode and cathode of the LEDs. There is a sticker on the bottom with the LED numbers on it.

lucky-resistor-2

I mounted everything on a very small breadboard and did all connections to the Arduino.

Continue reading SMD LEDs Tests →

Fun, Projects

Outmoded Sequencer Music Demo

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For the demo video in my previous post, I did not really choose nice melodies. So I created a small composition using the outmoded sequencer:

For this music I connected the outmoded sequencer directly, after the potentiometer for the volume control, to an audio interface. Now I recorded the sound of the sequencer while I changed the matrix. After recording I added additional elements, like the percussion and bass lines.

Enjoy!

Fun

Boldport “The Cuttle” Arrived

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Today the new project from Boldport Club arrived. It is called “The Cuttle” and it is a minimal configuration of the ATMega328-PU microcontroller with minimal elements to get it running.

As usual the PCB is artfully designed in shape of a cuttlefish. Soldering was easy this time.

Here some photos of the project how it arrived and at the end the final version with all components soldered into place.

Boldport “The Cattle”
Boldport “The Cattle”
Boldport “The Cattle”
Boldport “The Cattle”
Boldport “The Cattle”
Boldport “The Cattle”
Boldport “The Cattle”
Boldport “The Cattle”

I also made a short video where you see the ATMega in action:

The source code for the LED effect shown in the video is very simple:

void setup() {
  DDRD = 0xff;
  PORTD = 0x0f;
}
void loop() {
  const uint8_t first = ((PORTD & 0x80) != 0) ? 1 : 0;
  PORTD = ((PORTD << 1) | first);
  delay(50);
}