nicer looking gears!

watch me haul ass to a gear system instead of using pulleys

new gear system is 20/9 * (52/9) * (52/9) * (20/9)

= 165:1

troubleshooting

pcb didn’t work because of some mystery reason that I’m going to figure out later, but battery would only turn the backlight on, and the code wouldn’t turn the backlight on, even explicitly setting the pin to high.

• mysterious. ugh
• well anyway, I’m ordering another one because I also fixed a component so that it would be flush with the board

It generates 3 volts yay

At a pretty slow spin it generates 3 volts! I’ll probably add an attachment to spin it with.

Also here’s my collection of parts so far, the top wheels snap-fit into the bottom ones!

I made my final bugfixes and a few optimizations for web, I think you guys will really enjoy the game!

Finished wiring!

Oh the horrors of 4-layer pcb. I fixed up an error with the accelerometer footprint and added a copper pour, so that should make the IS31 chip happy.

Looks kinda like the night sky, which I like.

Made a schematic and worked on the README

Good 5AM everybody :>

Here’s a schematic!
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Since DC motors are gonna output anywhere from -9V to 9V depending on how fast/how we crank the dynamo, we’ll need something to turn it into a stable 5V in a USB-C.
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This uses a full bridge rectifier (schottky diodes) to make the voltage positive. The amperage of this generated voltage is super low, so the UPS module will use it to power a battery, which then trickles high amp voltage into the phone.

Worked on a CAD!

This is a dynamo, for backdriving a DC motor to produce a voltage across both ends. The purpose, ultimately, is to be able to convert it into a stable 5V at enough amps to charge a phone.

First we’d have to get the motor spinning though, at about 8300 RPM / 60 = 138 RPS. I thought about using a gear train to backdrive it but there seems to be too much friction, so I’m using a wheel and rubber band system.

The ratio is about 6:1 *8:1, for a total of 48:1. So hopefully brisk spins would work? Otherwise, we would just need one really big sprocket.

Added these little guys (pioneer 9, pioneer 10, jupiter icy moons explorer) because there’s a webcomic that I like

my pcb got here from pcbway!!!

soldered some components to the board. turns out I bought the wrong size of JST connector (by a couple millimeters…)

next step is fixing that, and printing the enclosure with translucent HTPLA & PETG.

I have to do my homework now xd

I used the terminal easyeda2kicad to get 3D models and finally configured them right! dot wrl files don’t do well on KiCad. Also checked off the shipping reqs and filled out the BOM, so off we go

Software: fixed a bug about unit conversions, also took some pictures for the readme!

Also check out this e-ink thingy, I was gonna use it for this project but it didn’t fit the use case very well. Dunno what I’ll use it for in the future. Code credits to blurPP/ssd1681_epaper_driver_micropython !! for the demo

I hope this is right?

I’ve never actually done circuitry that involved looking at and copying datasheet schematics before, so I hope that’s right.

This is a watch! It uses a charlieplexed grid of LEDs, which means only one LED is on at a time, but human persistence of vision makes it look like many are on. There’s also a clock and an accelerometer, and the whole thing is run by an ATtiny. So I’ll have to go refresh c++ later.

Somehow we’re starting at 52 hours, probably more since I fiddled with it for a really long time while trying to learn microelectronics..

Anyway, since I joined this pretty late with this project, honestly the software part is mostly finished. I spent the last month

• testing the sensor
• drafting out figma layouts
• making the page navigation architecture in circuitpython
• making pages
• making a whole ass CAD model for printing an enclosure

So this week I made some games!

They use two buttons, since the main page navigation and UI of the environment sensor uses two buttons.

It runs on a TFT LCD!!! But for ease of testing, I have a True/False flag in the code that runs it through pygame (adafruit_displayio_blinka library, I think) so I can simulate and test on the computer. Pretty neat