What I’m Working On

My latest snippets and updates, which might not have made it to the main portfolio yet. Including behind the scenes, personal experiments, and lots of pictures of circuit boards. 
  • I love pretty circuits boards! And to get there I can spend a ridiculous amount of time on a circuit board someone else would have called 'finished' hours ago. This little magnetic encoder breakout board. I started working on it 9AM this morning. It was finished (the very last picture) around 11AM. Gold edges, nicely routed, no DRC errors. But, the shape could maybe be a bit nicer. The gold edges could be more consistent. The connectors overlapping the gold maybe wasn't so nice after all. And the text for which connector is which, maybe little icons would be nicer! Another three hours later, lots of tiny iterations and tries - seen in the images - and now I'm also calling it done. :) Some people would call a waste of time - there's no functional difference, other simply call it perfectionism. It's probably both, and I really enjoy it. (: #dingenbouwen #makerspace #hackerspace #magneticencoder #electronics #circuitdesign #altium #jlcpcb
  • One of my favorite things - 3D printing various adapters! There's no way to purchase a ready made Sony E-mount to ToupTek C-mount Macro lens adapter anywhere in the world, but you can draw and print one in under an hour. So many things you can suddenly make work together, especially with today's 3D printing accuracy. The text line width on the crystal oscillator in the last pictures is about 70 microns, and is engraved using a pulsed laser, based on all the little overlapping dots. #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #touptek #microscopy #macrophotography
  • Slowly training all of the Bibis for their premiere in two weeks! #jlcpcb #hackerspace #stm32 #dingenbouwen #electronics #electronicsengineering #makerspace #diabolo #circus #performance #qlab
  • Eén is geen #jlcpcb #hackerspace #stm32 #dingenbouwen #electronics #electronicsengineering #makerspace #diabolo #circus #performance #qlab
  • What are we making today... #jlcpcb #hackerspace #stm32 #dingenbouwen #electronics #electronicsengineering #makerspace
  • It's been 10 years since my last endeavor into home automation. Home assistant barely existed, Zigbee was still pre-3.0, and everything off the shelf was pretty clunky. I lived with an EE classmate at the time, and DIY'ed the entire house together with custom electronics and NRF24 radios. While it solved all the problems of the ready-made solutions at the time - high latency, low light quality, terrible dimming behavior - it was a pain to set-up and maintain, did not connect to one central place, and required constant manual firmware updates every time we updated a module. Now, 10 years later, I'm giving it another try. New hardware - both compatible with our old NRF24 network, and home assistant / zigbee 3.0, hoping to make another low latency network, this time with the user experience of the modern stuff. The first board is a 4 channel high resolution (16 bit) high refresh rate (20kHz) PWM dimmer, with a 60W 24V Meanwell PSU on the back. Its first purpose is replacing all of my old 80CRI 2200k ambient bulbs with 95CRI led strips. :) #diyelectronics #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #arduino #stm32 #jlcpcb #electronics #electronicsengineering #homeautomation #homeassistant #ledlighting #pwm
  • It's been ages since I designed myself some good old boards! These are Analog Discovery adapter boards to accurately measure power delivery network impedances - a task normally constrained to five digit Vector Network Analyzers. I really enjoy measuring stuff - finding a way to determine what things are like, so you can change the, play with them, improve then, and compare what differences this made. It's fun doing so while designing a board that I'll be able to use to measure more things in the future. :) Details, schematics and design files can be found on my GitHub page . . . #diyelectronics #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #arduino #stm32 #jlcpcb #electronics #electronicsengineering #pdnanalyzer
  • Another one - playing with water. :) #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #thermal #flir #seekthermal #xterm #infiray #thermalfootage
  • One thing that has always fascinated me is thermal footage - seeing how hot things are! Here's a short clip of a pan of water on the stove, through the eyes of my new thermal camera. :) #thermal #dingenbouwen #seekthermal #flir #hackerspace #makerspace #thermal #ircamera
  • Final form, oiled and all! There's a lot of joy spending time and attention on something as simple as a (hollow) block and having it turn out like such a treat. :) #walnut #woodworking #diycnc #handstand #handstandblocks #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #osmo #odiesoil #maple
  • I've said it before and will say it again - the best moment in a project is and will always be the first coat of oil, finally seeing the wood reveal itself and come to life. This is one of a set of hollow (light weight) handstand blocks. Literally just a block. Walnut makes everything pretty. :) #walnut #woodworking #diycnc #handstand #handstandblocks #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #osmo #odiesoil #maple
  • I let myself go for a bit on the front panel of this one-off stroboscope based oscillation analyzer. Walnut and maple. :) #dingenbouwen #woodworking #hackerspace #makerspace #walnut #heartwood #sapwood #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3d #hardwood #waves #maple
  • Five years and 15 weeks ago I mentioned my favourite things to do with acrylic were chamfering and milling little diffusion pockets into it - these have both been surpassed by flame polishing! Sand it up to 400 grit, give it a little bevel, and torch the shit out of it until it’s crystal clear. :) #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #flamepolish #diycnc #shapeoko #speakerbuilding
  • First sub all done! Quite proud of this one - both for creating a design this puzzly (instead of opting for something simple), seeing it through, as well as leaving in many of the little imperfections (where I normally wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfect). I still have to finish the second one, another big batch of work, but I finally have a good recipe to get the plexiglass to size, sanded, beveled, flame polished, and fit snugly (in the end using different foam densities for the sides, where they’re more tightly clamped). After that, finally on to the tops. #openbaffle #dipole #speakerbuilding #diyspeakers #woodworking #lx521 #subwoofers #shapeoko #diycnc #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #walnut #acrylic
  • Slowly getting back to working on the subs! Flame polishing plastics is tons of fun. :) I didn't fully think through the mounting of the acrylic panels (being sure I'd figure it out when the time came) leaving me with a bit of an odd problem to solve. After trying many different kinds of foams I've found one with an appropriate density to (hopefully) securely clamp the panels without deforming the rest of the frame, making for a solution I feel I'm quite happy with. The rest of the acrylic has been ordered, I'll post an update when I continue. :) #openbaffle #dipole #speakerbuilding #diyspeakers #woodworking #lx521 #subwoofers #shapeoko #diycnc #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #walnut #acrylic
  • Now with external lights! I tried a few quick patterns and see a lot of potential programming some smooth noisy randoms. :) Prototype itself is getting pretty dirty, time for a new and bigger version... Boards are from the ever trusty @jlcpcb #kaleidoscope #mirrors #firstsurfacemirror #reflection #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #jlcpcb #ledporn #arduino #stm32 #neopixels #ws2812b #diyelectronics #altium
  • Mirrors! Haven't made something without an actual purpose for a while - figured it was time to simply play around for a bit. Lots of fun once you learn how to cut glass. :) #kaleidoscope #mirrors #firstsurfacemirror #reflection #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace
  • Speaker building commences! With black woofers by popular demand. I've been looking at renders for months (as progress has been slow due to health reasons) - it's always one of the most magical of moments to finally see the real thing unfold in front of you. The wizards at Mublio sprayed painted the panels and supplied me with lifetime supply of #cabineos (which they recommended to make assembly a breeze - it was). Can't thank them enough for helping me out! Next up I'll need to acquire / make (plexi)glass panels to enclose the woofers. No rush. #openbaffle #dipole #speakerbuilding #diyspeakers #woodworking #lx521 #subwoofers #shapeoko #diycnc
  • Black or silver? I received replacement woofers from SEAS after some glue issues with the previous ones, but they're black! Go or no go? #openbaffle #dipole #speakerbuilding #diyspeakers #woodworking #lx521 #subwoofers #shapeoko #diycnc
  • Satin? Or Shine? Or Satin? Or Shine? I made these little cheese board as test pieces for the kind of finish I'll use on the walnut speakers, but am having a tough time deciding which I prefer! The satin finish looks more natural, but can be dull in certain lighting. The shiny finish is beautiful in more conditions, but can be a bit too reflective and look plasticky. What do you think? #openbaffle #dipole #speakerbuilding #diyspeakers #woodworking #lx521 #subwoofers #shapeoko #diycnc #walnut #osmo
  • And that's four! Now we need plastics... #dingenbouwen #woodworking #hackerspace #makerspace #walnut #heartwood #sapwood #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3d #hardwood #speakerbuilding #openbaffle #dipole #lx521
  • One down, three to go. #dingenbouwen #woodworking #hackerspace #makerspace #walnut #heartwood #sapwood #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3d #hardwood #speakerbuilding #openbaffle #dipole #lx521
  • An hour of sanding and a coat of #osmo later! The funky looking holes are for Cabineos - handy little things (recommended by the very same Koen & David) allowing blind 90° connections with only vertical machining operations. I'll show more pictures during assembly. :) Next up - 3 more of these. #dingenbouwen #woodworking #hackerspace #makerspace #walnut #heartwood #sapwood #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3d #hardwood #speakerbuilding #openbaffle #dipole #lx521
  • The engineering involved in smartphones is insane - yet in the end they're still electronics. My smartphone recently suffered 30 meter of gravity damage (in a really tough case) and suffered surprisingly little; It was bent, the cameras stopped working, and - most annoyingly - the volume buttons stopped working, causing the phone to boot in safe mode, making it unable to use any apps. After digging around on the motherboard one of the supply rails seems to have died, powering both the cameras and the pull-up resistors for the volume buttons. Some new pull-up resistors to a different supply rail should 'fix' the buttons? It does. :) #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #diyelectronics #samsungs21 #smartphonerepair
  • And here they are! (Or, well, have been for the past 3 months - these photos are all from April - but the internet doesn't seem to care about that.) They sound ábsolutely magnificent. The sound stage (perceived placement of instruments within the room) is incredibly realistic, and acoustical instruments sound like actual acoustic instruments, instead of music from a box. If you think I'm overstating anything, come have a listen. ;) I'm already drawing for the final walnut versions, making way too complicated designs that will need days of machining - can't wait to start working on them. :) #openbaffle #dipole #speakerbuilding #diyspeakers #woodworking #lx521 #subwoofers #shapeoko #diycnc
  • Progress! One of the advantages of open baffle subwoofers is that they radiate in a "∞" pattern, instead of a "O" pattern. Thus they radiate sound front and back, but not to the sides and the ceiling. This means two things. 1: To reach the same sound pressure at the listener position there is less energy dispersed in the room, which means it dies out quicker - no muddy base, but fast bass. 2: The ceiling and side modes of a room are excited less, which means a more even frequency response at the listener position. Go dipole! #openbaffle #dipole #speakerbuilding #diyspeakers #woodworking #lx521 #subwoofers #shapeoko #diycnc
  • I'm making the woofer enclosures from black MDF - as they are still prototypes and it's moderately pretty without having to do any finishing - which makes an interesting mess as the sawdust looks like we had a campfire in here the day before. Main steps now are cutting all the panels, milling all the woofer (screw) holes, and beveling all the right edges. Looking forward to start gluing! #openbaffle #dipole #speakerbuilding #diyspeakers #woodworking #lx521 #subwoofers #shapeoko #diycnc
  • Alright, 'some' bass might have been an understatement. We're going to need an absolute ton of bass - and not because we're building a night club here, but because dipole / open baffle subwoofers are véry inefficient. Or, at least for the frequencies we want. For the noise and distortion produced by the drivers it is as efficient as normal speakers, hence the need for 4 woofers - less excursion means proportionally less distortion - so this should get us a decent amount of nice, clean, bass. #openbaffle #dipole #speakerbuilding #diyspeakers #woodworking #lx521 #subwoofers
  • Tops all done! Not as pretty as they could have been but I'm not at all disappointed for first prototypes. Next up we'll need some bassss. #speakerbuilding #dipolespeakers #woodworking #LX521 #shapeoko #diycnc #openbaffle
  • Drivers all fit! The second top hole will get another tweeter, but aiming backwards. One of the appeals of dipole / open baffle speakers is that they radiate sound both forwards and backwards, where the sound going backwards will reflect back from the wall behind the speakers, similar to the way sound propagates from acoustical instruments. This gives a very natural 'sound stage', instead of the music sounding like it comes from the speaker. #speakerbuilding #dipolespeakers #woodworking #LX521 #shapeoko #diycnc #openbaffle
  • Cooking up some new speakers! I'll make some acoustic prototypes based on Linkwitz's LX521 designs out of MDF, and work up something from walnut if they are to my liking. They are open baffle speakers, meaning there's no box! Boxes cause all kinds of problems in speakers, but not having them has its own set of challenges... #speakerbuilding #dipolespeakers #woodworking #LX521 #shapeoko #diycnc
  • Programming boards! - At one of my clients we have 4 different sets of custom development hardware, al needing three different programmers for the modules on board. We used to have all three connectors on each but recently switched to a single 10 pin picoblade to save (cash but mostly) real estate. To hook up the individual programmers and set the hardware to the right modes we now have these little adapter boards, governed by Gary! . . . #diyelectronics #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #arduino #stm32 #jlcpcb #electronics #electronicsengineering
  • More boards! More gold edges! These are battery powered wirelessly 'instructed' LED strip controllers for one of @werccollective's new projects. They can sleep on a single charge for a couple of years while listening to the radio for a wake-up call, and control a ring of addressable side glow LEDs once awake. More details will follow as the firmware unfolds! :) . . #diyelectronics #pcbdesign #pcbporn #jlcpcb #stm32 #18650 #arduino #nrf24l01 #altium #kicad #dingenbouwen #makerspace #hackerspace
  • Today's office! Strips on the right -> . . #elevatedplatform #ledstrips #rgbw #addressableled
  • If your signals aren't too fast and can just be observed physically another option is to just completely stuff your board with LEDs! This is a wireless DMX based everything controller for Scott and Muriël, featuring; - 6 Servo outputs (on two selectable voltages) - 4 High side switched outputs, fused at 5A - 4 Low side switched outputs, fused at 5A - 8 Debounced and protected button or analog inputs - 2 Stepper motor drivers - 4 General purpose LED outputs - Wireless DMX, NRF24L01+, or RFM95 communication - Spare UART and I2C ports - 1 Goat . . . #diyelectronics #diyelectronicguru #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #arduino #jlcpcb #altium #kicad
  • With the iteration timelines at one of my clients shrinking from months to weeks to days, the first thing I do when touching any new piece of hardware is hooking up a mixed signal analyser; debugging is much faster if you see them crawling befóre they bite. As an attempt to also speed up physically hooking one up I stumbled on these SMD 0603 test points, and wished I did so sooner! Can't wait to sprinkle these éverywhere. . . #diyelectronics #diyaudio #pcbporn #jlcpcb #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #esp32
  • One more! This is a microbial fuel cell analyzer and long term data logger for and with @livinglightenergy. It supports up to 8 cells, measures its anode and cathode voltages against a silver chloride reference electrode - both open cell and under load - measures the cell's current capacity at a fixed and settable harvest voltage, and shoots everything into an online user friendly dashboard set up by the instagramless Marco van Noord. :) . . #diyelectronics #pcbporn #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #mfc #jlcpcb #esp32
  • It's often a challenge moving from 'quick and dirty' to 'proven and reliable' while (still) building prototypes. On one hand you need quick iteration speed, but on the other you need a (mechanically) robust solution to reliably test the first concepts. This baseboard thus aims for quick and reliable; It's replacing several protoboards from an earlier setup with one single custom board, provides a rigid place for the same single board computers and modules (and thus firmware) as the old setup, integrating the whole into an easily mountable cable-free unit! #diyelectronics #hackerspace #makerspace #pcbporn #arduino #raspberrypi #jlcpcb
  • Here's one of the over-engineered breakouts ready to rock some stepper motors for @cream__on__chrome's new installation Tidal Space! It's an installation about the identities one has (and has to transition between) while living, working and caring from home during the pandemic - it's on display at the Dutch Design Week until the end of this week, would recommend! #ddw #diyelectronics #hackerspace #makerspace #pcbporn #nucleo #stm32 #arduino #interactiveinstallation #ddw2021 #jlcpcb
  • Nucleo boards are great; they're cheap, they have heaps or processing power, and you have dozens of STM32 MCU's you can choose from for the pheripherals you need. They do have one mayor downside; they use the Arduino Nano form factor, and are on their own impossible to make a mechanically reliable prototype setup with. Therefor I present; Freshly delivered over-engineered breakout boards! Machined female headers, (not the ones that will leave your pins hanging after 10 insertion cycles), cage clamp screw terminals (instead of the usual round ones with a little lip that keeps pushing your cables out), and purple and gold PCBs that will be perfectly solderable for years to come. #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #pcbporn #nucleo #stm32 #arduino #diyelectronics #jlcpcb
  • It's been a while since I've posted some good old hardware designs on here, so here's a fresh one! It's a development tool for high end speaker builds, and has an integrated Bluetooth module, digital signal processor and 2x80W class D amplifier (all with a fully digital signal chain) on top, with an extra (analog differential) 230W amplifier as its seat (and power supply). . . #diy #diyelectronics #pcbporn #altium #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #diyaudio #speakerbuilding
  • One of the hardest things working with RGB leds is making sure they don't violently scream "RGB LEDs", but instead have a natural feel to them. One of the easiest "fixes" is keeping your saturation low. Another important one is keeping your animations smooth, but one of the most enjoyable ways is implementing good, old, physics. Here I'm modeling friction and inertia in a new design for the ever amazing @jellyjessyfish, using a gyroscope to "spin up" the lights. #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #diyelectronics #arduino #ledstrip #rgbleds #interactiveinstallations #ledsareawesome
  • And there she is! Wood never ceases to amaze me - I honestly couldn't have been happier with how the walnut turned out. For what's in it; It's a 2x80W class D amplifier, with built in Bluetooth module and digital signal processor for loudness correction and general equalisation. The board is one of the earlier prototypes for a client of mine, which happily allowed me to use it for this project! #dingenbouwen #woodworking #hackerspace #makerspace #walnut #heartwood #sapwood #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3d #hardwood
  • Oooooh boy, here we go! I'm stóked seeing these crisp details and nice dark browns, can't wait to put everything together once all the layers of #osmo are on there. #dingenbouwen #woodworking #hackerspace #makerspace #walnut #heartwood #sapwood #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3d
  • All done sanding! Are you as ready as I am? Shall we? Tiny bit of oil, just to take a peak? Or everything at once? #dingenbouwen #woodworking #hackerspace #makerspace #walnut #heartwood #sapwood #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3d
  • Last couple of holes! After this just a lót of sanding left. I find it one of the most boring yet meditative (and rewarding) processes out there, though I always find myself spending just a bit too little time on it. I'll give it my best! #dingenbouwen #woodworking #hackerspace #makerspace #cnc #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3
  • Then we make a hole! So far so good, wood still looking pretty. I'll (try to) resist spraying the wood again to see the grain, no going back now anyway, we'll check at the end. Any clue what we're cooking up yet? #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3e #woodworking #walnut
  • All flattened! Super happy to see the sap wood (the lighter part) looks nice and clean (compared to the darker spots before). The heartwood also has some promising contrast going on - can't wait to put some oil on there once it's done. Now we wait, 20 more laps and we should have ourselves a nice clean block. #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #woodworking #cnc #diycnc #shapeoko #carbide3d
  • I'd had a few of these odd sized 2" blocks of walnut laying around for over 7 years, full of potential, but without a purpose so far. Spraying some isopropyl on them shows some nice warm grain, just waiting to be dug out of its rough cover. I think it's time. It's time for walnut. #woodworking #walnut #shapeoko #cnc #diycnc #carbide3d #makerspace #hackerspace
  • And the final enclosure! Next up is the firmware for their new spaceships. (: . . #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #woodworking #arduino #ws2812b #ledstrip #leds
  • All done sanding! Ready for some #osmo. This will be an enclosure for one of the music transmitters running @jellyjessyfish's jellyfish. They read in analog audio, peak detect a few frequency bands, and transmit these values to the battery powered receivers controlling the lights. . #woodworking #electronics #arduino #leds #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace
  • New transmitters for @jellyjessyfish! #dingenbouwen #woodworking #led #arduino #interactiveinstallations
  • One of the nicest things about being an adult is being able to decide to be a little kid (and build a swing in the living room). :) . . #diy #woodwoking #swing #dingenbouwen #rotterdam #euromast #euromastpark #viewoftheday
  • She's back! It took a night of effort reassembling, and there's still fluff everywhere, but at least my home doesn't look like that of an adult anymore. Next up; a nice walnut swing set . . . #giant #beanbag #blue #fluff #everywhere
  • Last one! Turns out my giant cardboard press bags weren't airtight, so I had to change tactics. These smaller bags (I'd have needed 30) are luckily way faster (and more fun) to shrink. . . . #giant #beanbag #vacuum
  • And, at last, the fun part! . . . #beanbag #vacuum
  • Move time is foam time
  • Halfway there! (I might have been optimistic about the time required to create as well as assemble a giant wooden 45° jigsaw puzzle - but it's going to be worth it) . . . #flooring #oak #laminate #45degrees #dingenbouwen
  • Every once in a while you get something dope on the scope! These are voltage waveforms from a lithium battery with a very high ESR, during a 400Hz PWM dimming sequence of a bunch of LEDs. . . #diyelectronics #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #arduino #leds #oscilloscope #rigol
  • More patches! I accidentally gave the "not mute" pin a pull-up instead of a pull-down - an easy fix with a large 2mm resistor, bridging to the nearest ground via. #dingenbouwen #electronics #pcbdesign #patches #Infineon #hackerspace #makerspace
  • Patches! In my engineering circles the consensus is that you're supposed to have between one and three small mistakes in your prototypes, depending on the complexity of the board. If you have more you clearly rushed it, and if you have less you've spent too much time double checking the lot. Here I'm disabling the 48V to 24V buck converter from my latest board. When running it from the 24V input it will charge the 48V input capacitors though the internal mosfet's body diode, making the 48V buck shoot this energy back onto the 24V rail - at an annoyingly audible 2.4kHz. The next spin will get proper undervoltage protection. :) #dingenbouwen #electronics #pcbdesign #patches #TexasInstruments #hackerspace #makerspace
  • The new STM32L1 PIXI boards are in! I won't have much time to program anything before the holidays, but I'll try to bring up the hardware asap. :)
  • I've been incredibly busy with commercial projects, but finally - (it's been over 8 months since the last time) - I've ordered some boards I've made for no other reason than that I enjoyed designing them. Pixi went into it's fourth year in the forest this October. (Or, went, everyone from WERC worked days and nights to bring their creatures back into their habit for their final year.) We've learned a lot since the design back in the summer of 2016, and one of those things is that running swarm behavioural algorithms on a tiny un-debuggable 8 bit microcontroller can be a proper pain in the ass. These boards, powered by an STM32L1, will fínally bring the Pixi mind into a proper brain. It's gonna be some work porting the many years of firmware to the new platform, but I'm so looking forward to being able to work with them in something modern. They should be here in two weeks, I'll keep y'all posted! #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #pcbdesign #altium #pcbporn #arduino #wellnotanymore #stm32 #arm #smdsoldering
  • Sloooowly taking shape. Still figuring out how to actually produce the blocks efficiently. (It'll all make sense shortly) . . . #diycnc #diylamp #shapeoko #carbide3d #makerspace #hackerspace #dingenbouwen #walnut #blackwalnut
  • I just spent the largest part of the evening making various kinds of graphs, looking for the perfect parametric curve to base my new dining table lamp on, and can't say I've ever been this pleased looking at a green line - I'm definitely looking forward to designing the rest of this one - will keep y'all posted . . #parametricdesign #cnc #cncmachining #diycnc #lamp #walnut #dingenbouwen #makerspace #hackerspace
  • Weekend projects! A colleague designed this owl as a birthday present - we had the pleasure of spending the entire day generating and testing toolpaths to get the tiny bird together as neatly as possible. (Trickiest was getting the right tolerance on the eyes and pupils, allowing some room for positioning without getting any significant gaps - 0.05mm proved perfect.) He will still glue, sand and oil the necklace pendant to be. Especially the Maple is rather fibery and needs some love, and the oil should bring out the Elm and Walnut beautifully . . . #owl #diyprojects #shapeoko #diycnc #cncmachining #cnc #woodworking #walnut #elm #maple
  • One more algorithm for today; two imaginary fuzzy lines. Wherever they cross the LEDs they light up. . . . #computationalgeometry #ledstrip #lamp #ws2812b #sk6812 #rgbw #arduino #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #keilewerf
  • The first bit of math is in! All the LEDs are mapped to a coordinate system - Here I'm drawing an imaginary line with a randomly moving origin and randomly changing angle, and turning the LEDs on only if they're on 'side a' of the line. I'll probably play around with imaginary circles next, but I'm open for suggestions! . . . #diylamp #arduino #ledstrips #design #rgbw #sk6822 #ws2812b #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace
  • Worked up a new lamp concept! So far just spinning colours but hopefully running some nice computational geometry algorithms soon. ♡ . . . #diyprojects #arduino #ws2812 #sk6812 #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #design
  • With the hardware (proof of concept) done I can write some actual firmware! The first mode; battery level indication. . . . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #pcbdesign #smdsoldering #ledring #ledmatrix #rgbleds #cncmachining #diycnc #shapeoko #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #woodworking #rosewood #touch #sapphire #glass
  • First ring out of the machine! Still a bit rough, like the rest, but not at all dissatisfied for a first prototype. Despite having fixed most of the ghosting there's now a lot of light leakage through the glass, so I'll have to change the design somewhat to add a barrier between it and the leds. The holes for the leds will be filled in with resin in the final version, but since POM doesn't stick to anything I'll have go get another type of plastic once I'm that far. Back to writing firmware! . . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #pcbdesign #smdsoldering #ledring #ledmatrix #rgbleds #cncmachining #diycnc #shapeoko #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #woodworking #rosewood #touch #sapphire #glass
  • I finally received my sapphire glass disks! Now all that's left is (the end mills for) milling the led cover, and getting the final batteries in the mail. The led cover itself will be a whole adventure in its own - having to be milled in four steps, pouring epoxy in between the middle ones. . . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #pcbdesign #smdsoldering #ledring #ledmatrix #rgbleds #cncmachining #diycnc #shapeoko #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #woodworking #rosewood #touch #sapphire #glass
  • We have control! After a day of firmware, calibration, hardware tuning and swearing at ST's disappointing peripheral code there's finally a way in. (@stmicroelectronics.nv, if you're listening, there's some overflow problems in your TSC library.) There's still some alinearity to compensate for, but it's nice and responsive as it is. Looking forward to getting some actual application code on this thing. :) . . . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #pcbdesign #smdsoldering #ledring #ledmatrix #rgbleds #cncmachining #diycnc #shapeoko #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #woodworking #rosewood #touch
  • And there she is! Súper happy with how the wood turned out. I used a different strategy for the tabs and their removal afterwards this time, but even cleaning them off with a separate toolpath until the watch base falls down leaves a bit of a mark - too much to neatly sand off with this dense wood. I'll try to make some fixtures for the next iteration, gotta beat the renders regarding smoothness. :) . . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #pcbdesign #smdsoldering #ledring #ledmatrix #rgbleds #cncmachining #diycnc #shapeoko #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #woodworking #rosewood
  • Half way there! . . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #pcbdesign #smdsoldering #ledring #ledmatrix #rgbleds #cncmachining #diycnc #shapeoko #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #woodworking #rosewood
  • I'm ready (enough) to mill the first real watch! I precut a blank from a large chunk of rosewood and will let it sit for a night or two to allow it to bend and warp as it likes. This weekend I'll flatten it, mill it to the exact shape required for alignment during the upcoming three stage milling proces, and hope for the best. . . . . #diycnc #diywatch #diysmartwatch #rosewood #shapeoko #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #woodworking #finewoodworking #highprecision
  • One more - ball point tip for scale. This watch is the smallest assembly job I've done so far, and while designing I was scared it was going to be way too small to enjoy, but I found it surprisingly doable still... up until this bit of rework. If you plan to mess up, I'd recommend one size larger. . . . . #diyelectronics #diywatch #rework #smdsoldering #stm32 #nrf52 #pcbdesign #microscope #microscopephotography #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen
  • Sometimes all your chips want is to be straddled in 0.1mm copper wires... Or to have a proper footprint to sit on. Turns out I mixed up two IMU parts numbers, one that's quite old and isn't really supported by the current ST framework, and one that's nearly plug and play. Although I enjoy digging to the bottom of some obscure IC and porting old libraries for it, I could also spend those two weeks at the CNC machine milling rosewood watch parts - an easy pick. :) . . . . #smdsoldering #deadbug #pcbdesign #diywatch #diysmartwatch #stm32 #nrf52 #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #imu #gyro
  • And there she is! The tabs could have gone in a better place, which I won't bother cleaning up for this one, but I'm not at all disappointed for the first prototype. The next one is definitely going to already be wood. I'll have to wait for my 0.4mm end mills to arrive before I can make the LED ring cover, and then it's another wait before I have the glass disks that cover the touch interface. - For now, back to firmware and ghosts. . . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #pcbdesign #smdsoldering #ledring #ledmatrix #rgbleds #cncmachining #diycnc #shapeoko #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen
  • Almoooooost . . . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #pompompom #cncmachining #diycncmachine #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen
  • Enough software, time to make something physical. I'm milling the first prototype out of POM, this gives a 'higher resolution' model than most woods, giving more insight on inaccuracies during the process. . . . #diysmartwatch #diywatch #diycncrouter #fusion360 #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #pom #shapeoko #carbide3d
  • Chasing ghosts! Or, well, ghosting. I slapped the first one together into it's final form and gave it a little animation, but am getting a lot of action that isn't supposed to be there. It disappears when slowing down the timers, so it's probably a matter of adding some dead time in between the switches and hoping for the best. . . . #diysmartwatch #diywatch #diyelectronics #electronics #pcbdesign #hackerspace #makerspace #dingenbouwen #rgblights #stm32 #nrf52 #not #arduino
  • Multiplexing! With 180 individual light emitting diodes and only 15 available high resolution timer pins you gotta have some of the good stuff in there. I'm using the 15 timer pins to drive the LED anodes, and have a 12 bit shift register to select one of 12 groups of either red, green or blue cathodes. The video displays the process, slowly ramping the scan frequency up to 12khz. . . . . #ledmatrix #multiplexing #rgblights #diysmartwatch #diywatch #pcbdesign #smdsoldering #dingenbouwen #makerspace #hackerspace #keilewerf
  • Round two! Development kits for team Bluetooth (@remkokruize) and team Android (@het_laatste_niels). Since the board has two microprocessors (the STM32L4 and the NRF52) we'll need two bouts of firmware, one handling all the hardware interfaces (touch, the IMU, the display etc.) and one handling the communication with the app - that also needs to be written. Since I'm mainly a hardware guy I'm happy to have the other guys on board for the higher level stuff. :) . . . #diysmartwatch #diywatch #diyelectronics #pcbdesign #pickandplace #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #stm32 #nrf52
  • Annnnd we are live! The control board came out neat-ish, a bit too much solder on the MCU. First bit of display firmware was a hassle with 15 pin-swapped anodes and 12 similar cathodes that all had to be traced back and mapped to the pins they ended up on - but boy, these LEDs. Next up; IMU firmware. . . . . #diyelectronics #pcbdesign #diywatch #diysmartwatch #smdsoldering #wheresthegoatnow #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace
  • Got my stencils! Almost done spreading around the grains of sand, 0402 (luckily) isn't nearly as bad as I imagined. I'm hoping all the ≤0.5mm pitch components will come out without requiring too much rework. 🤞🏻 . . . #diyelectronics #smdsoldering #pcbdesign #stm32 #nrf52 #diywatch #diysmartwatch #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace
  • And, the actual boards! I can either solder the two halves together, or solder them both on the bottom section. On the bottom part everything will still be connected, but I'll also have access to a bunch of test points that would otherwise get sandwiched between the boards . . . #diyelectronics #diysmartwatch #pcbdesign #altium #smdsoldering #dingenbouwen #makerspace #hackerspace
  • And so it begins! I have boards, but no stencils. Living life with a chronic lack of patience we'll just have to go in by hand - 0805 RGB leds for breakfast. . . . #diy #diysmartwatch #smdsoldering #rgb #pcbdesign #dingenbouwen #makerspace #hackerspace #jlcpcb
  • Back to the roots, multiplexing LEDs like it's 2012! Currently preparing firmware for the watch display while the boards are on their way. On the right is my first ever LED matrix, a piece of laminate flooring proudly hosting 24 of 'em. Comparing the watch display with that one; we'll have a whopping 8192-fold increase in brightness levels, a 150-fold increase in scan rate, and a 7.5-fold increase in diode count - it's going to be pretty. . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #ledmatrix #multiplexing #stm32 #arduino #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace
  • And we have legs! Thanks a million to my old colleague David, wouldn't have been able to have them this optically smooth yet mathematically correct (and parametrically designed) without you. :) . . . #diysmartwatch #diywatch #dingenbouwen #makerspace #hackerspace #diyelectronics #stm32 #nrf52 #hardwood #woodworking
  • Still buffering the little legs - I'll get some help from one of my old aerospace colleagues rolling out the multi-curvature surfaces today. :) . . . #diywatch #diysmartwatch #woodworking #hardwood #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #diyelectronics #stm32 #nrf52
  • First rough draft - sure looks like a watch. Hoping I'll be able to keep it this thickness or even slim it down a bit once the actual parts are in and measured! . . . #diysmartwatch #diywatch #dingenbouwen #makerspace #hackerspace #diyelectronics #stm32 #nrf52
  • Assembly is going to be a blast - SOT23 for scale. . . . #diysmartwatch #diyelectronics #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #stm32 #nrf52 #smdsoldering
  • One control board coming up! The whole thing together is going to be a DIY smart watch, with an IMU, Bluetooth, the LED display and the touch interface at the front, a cute little SMD vibration motor, and all the necessary stuff to make it low power enough for a few week's charge. . . . #diysmartwatch #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #diyelectronics
  • Paper watch face seems to fit! Next up is the control board. . . . #diyelectronics #diywatch #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #ledmatrix
  • What are we making today? . . #dingenbouwen #hackerspace #makerspace #pcbdesign #diyelectronics
  • And the final before / after. :) . . #dingenbouwen #woodworking #sandyourtables
  • Welcome to the world, flock of young ones. Working on firmware for @werccollective's Tane :)
  • Tomatoes grow at night.
  • Tomato forest is starting to get out of hand