@RyanDiLorenzo-U04JGJN2B401My cat's automatic litter box recently stopped working and it's around 300$ for a replacement which we were thinking of doing. I thought I could take a look at it and see if I could try to fix it. I initially thought the motherboard traces were corroded and not making contact so I tried to reflow the solder but no luck. The motherboard and microcontroller pre-installed had no documentation or help guides other than contacting the company to buy a replacement.
I decided to try if I can use a Wemos D1 Mini ESP8266 microcontroller to control it, and after many hours (6) later I present to you a polarity switching circuit using 3 SPDT relays, a step-down buck converter to convert the 18V power from the built-in power on the cat litter to 12V the relays could use. Then after a lot of trial and error I found the perfect transistor (2N2222) in my transistor kit to convert the 3.3v logic levels from the ESP8266 to the 12v or something that the relays can use. Some of my trouble could be avoided if I used the correct DPDT relay modules meant for this, but this is all I had on hand.
It's not quite finished since I still need to hook up the 2 sensors and 2 end stops to make it safe of course, but it's coming along and now the hard part is down. In the end, I'm going to open source a schematic design and order a PCB to contain everything.
@jakjakob1LETS GOOOO S/MIME is woking!!!!! (so now every email I use is now getting S/MIME AND openPGP) (btw there are actually places where you can get free S/MIME certificates - I would never pay for that)
@cupcakes7+Working on a Pie PCB workshop! :pcb::pifp:
@Junior0Managed to make a mail server for my fbla competition.
@TheTridentGuy0I was sick yesterday, so I worked on my PCB for #onboard :
@JosiasAurel0new article just dropped (actually last evening but π€·//josiasw.dev/writing/automatic-social-behaviour>
@Doruk0:siren-real:WEBSITE SHIP:siren-real:
So you know my website is actually built in HTML/CSS and I wasn't proud of it, so I had to redesign it and make it future-proof. After a month of learning next.js and react, I was able to figure out to create an one with :typescript:,:react:,:tailwind: that is %95 created by myself!
:github://github.com/itsdoruk/mawebsite|github.com/itsdoruk/mawebsite>
π: dsplash.xyz
@Kieran0#ship I finaly finished procrastinating on making the pcb for my led cube and was able to knock it out in less than 8 hours total; particularly proud of no drc errors and a clean schematic
@vik0day 7 of #10-days-in-public. feeling less cooked today so i started work on my hall effect pcb. i dont kno if the low pass filter values are right (need to simulate in spice) and if the decoupling is right, but it's slowly coming together
@Kieran0Day 6 of #10-days-in-public: i was way too busy with school and robotics today to work on my website but I got to go to a maple syrup farm on a field trip and work on my teams robot; only one auto mishap today!
@Scott1700Day 2 of #10-days-in-public
Just getting a quick post, might update with more later. I started researching what components I might need for my pcb, and made an initial layout for it. I want to design this pcb to be small and modular for a microcontroller (not sure what I will use yet). The layout of the pcb is probably going to change.
@karmanyaahm0chessbot ESP32-DevKitC-v4 clone w/ Pololu DRV8834 motor drivers. Goal was to find out how well it runs at 5v (as opposed to 12v) (so I can simplify circuitry by having only one voltage rail). Answer was sufficiently well. Should be able to cross the board round trip in ~8seconds (ignore the video numbers)@phaedra0phaedraverse v3 is in the works! this time its in 3d (but its hard to portray 3d stuff in figma :p)
@KarthickArun0Working on a new PCB now !! ps. its called HackFuel (hint: has to do with batteries)
@cwalker0Did a mind-numbing amount of sanding last weekend to put a finish on this live-edge slice of black walnut for a table. Band-sanded with 80 grit sandpaper, then a random orbital sander at 100, 180, 240, 320, and 400 grit, then 3 coats of boiled linseed oil over the course of 2 days, then a final coat sanded in with 600 grit, and finally hand-sanded with 1500 grit for a satin sheen.
@Malycia1Continued working on FCC's registration form (now pushed to Github!). There are still a few kinks to work out (such as being able to submit an empty form), but it's coming along nicely :)
@Kieran0got some new tech to play with for our livestream; tech: blackmagic pocket cinema, blackmagic cinema studio, atem mini pro. everything is manual focus which is fun
@Malycia1Finished creating a marker set on freeCodeCamp! (the way they do use shadows and gradients to create it is SO COOL)
@cupcakes7+Rube Goldberg machine progress: All that red tape is fitting because itβs super delicate so no touching unless you have clearance
@Kieran0Finished my 3d print! longest print to date; now to assemble it
@Tom0Logo for my programming language. I wonder what it's called...
@zrl0working on a new poster design to try out for onboard! would love thoughts / feedback. the idea is to ask teachers to put it on their classroom doors, and for it to be visually stunning and catch peopleβs eyes
@ThomasStubblefield0scrappy w.i.p@sampoder0Dev & I went to a laser cutting class at the Generator! We met a guy who was learning to laser cut coconuts