So far, I've clocked the badge at half the power draw of the Mk 1 badge, so I'm hoping the smaller battery im using will last a similar length of time.
So the Mk 1.4 test article failed! Hence why I was not wearing it at FWA '22. I BELIEVE I have a faulty Powerboost 1000C that does not like the inrush amp draw during the initial boot. I worked late Wednesday night trying to get it working (This is becoming a FWA Tradition apparently) and even spent a few hours Thursday redoing some connections and troubleshooting it at the con itself. I'm still going to get it working and do a whole writeup on what I like and don't like about it.
So why an amp draw issue on the boot? The SmartMatrix panel uses a buffer and latch so that the Teensy 4.0/4.1 are not directly connected to the Hub75 panel itself. My guess is there is trash data generated on power up or from the previous run thats causing the display to show some bright lines. For that few moments, the panel is drawing quite a bit of current. If I disconnect the panel from the matrix, let the board boot, and hook it back up, it works.
Some quick points:
* Moving from Powerboost 1000C to seeed LiPo Rider Plus
* New Acrylic attachment method for Front and Back panels
* Moving from Teensy 4.1 to a Teensy 4.0 (not by my choice, more on that in the future)
* Better power distribution with disconnect-able parts
* Moving from Powerboost 1000C to seeed LiPo Rider Plus
* New Acrylic attachment method for Front and Back panels
* Moving from Teensy 4.1 to a Teensy 4.0 (not by my choice, more on that in the future)
* Better power distribution with disconnect-able parts
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Using a laser cutter makes this sooo much easier!
DCB 1.4 Attempt 2 Megaplex 2022 Thoughts
Overall (TL;DR)
Extremely happy with how everything performed. I’m moving forward with Teensy 4 design! Below are some thoughts on various aspects of the design
Teensy 4:
Short of some mechanical issues (See later on) it worked well. I loved the near instant boot up. I did have a few instances where either it crashed or something else odd happened, but typically a reboot fixed it. Im planning on looking into MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) to hopefully make the Teensy and attached SD card show up as a device when connected to a computer. This means one less hole in the case while still having an SD Card internally.
I’m curious how far I can push the Teensy 4 when it comes to pixel count. Per the SmartLED Shield documentation, it can support up to 64x64 pixels. Im going to give this a shot on the test bench. Id love to source a 128x128 panel. I have plans that I want a bigger panel for!
Seed Studio Lipo Rider:
Overall I like this a bit more than the Powerboost 1000C, The USB C charging at 10W worked well and I loved the LED indicator on how it was charging (4 LEDs to show 100/75/50/25). With the 5000mAh battery I seemed to get very acceptable battery life. Combined with the near instant boot of the Teensy 4 it meant I could shut it off easily and save power.
QR code button:
I love this even though I only really used it once at the con. It will defiantly be a feature going forward, and I’m wondering if theres an easy way to just generate a QR code rather than make a GIF of the code
Adafuit LED diffusion Acrylic:
This Im not so sold on. I need to experiment with it more. Essentially ‘Hea though it made it look “Out of focus” and I can see that a bit. If the LED panel is not pressed directly against the panel you lose some sharpness. Also I’m still not convinced I’m mounting it right since I cant find anything to confirm if the matte side goes in or out. Also in sunlight it was still readable, but looked muted and dim. I may need to bump up the LED brightness.
Construction:
Definitely an improvement over Attempt 1’s sleeve construction, but still not super happy with the design. First the obvious stuff: Im in dire need of fixing my printer and re tuning it. I also need to spend some time figuring out exactly what works best for fitment of parts. On this design everything was essentially dimensionally perfect (No designed gap between any given parts) So it was friction fit or even interference fit at times when I was constructing.
At some point when I was reducing frame width, I nixed the “slots” my strap solution fit into and that was a BAD idea. Without any mechanical stop, the pins slid though the strap loops and most of Friday I was fighting with it. Ironically the lighter design actually worked against me the neoprene strap, I noticed the badge did not have enough weight to keep it creeping to the right as I wore it. The good news is that with the lighter design I can use smaller strap.
As for the design itself: The side screws holding on the font and back panels with glued acyrlic frames works, and I like it a lot better than the front/back screw construction of 1.4, but I’m still not satisfied. Im going to experiment a bit and see if I can come up with something better. The major issue is the design of the main frame requires 3D printed overhangs that I just cant print well yet. This causes roughness and added dimension to some spots that I have to sand down, and even then its just not…good. Also I have yet to find a way to attach PETG to Acrylic that works well, The white gorilla glue I used this time worked better, but still was not what I’m after. Its a fun and difficult challenge to make something as small, light, and strong as possible!
Overall (TL;DR)
Extremely happy with how everything performed. I’m moving forward with Teensy 4 design! Below are some thoughts on various aspects of the design
Teensy 4:
Short of some mechanical issues (See later on) it worked well. I loved the near instant boot up. I did have a few instances where either it crashed or something else odd happened, but typically a reboot fixed it. Im planning on looking into MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) to hopefully make the Teensy and attached SD card show up as a device when connected to a computer. This means one less hole in the case while still having an SD Card internally.
I’m curious how far I can push the Teensy 4 when it comes to pixel count. Per the SmartLED Shield documentation, it can support up to 64x64 pixels. Im going to give this a shot on the test bench. Id love to source a 128x128 panel. I have plans that I want a bigger panel for!
Seed Studio Lipo Rider:
Overall I like this a bit more than the Powerboost 1000C, The USB C charging at 10W worked well and I loved the LED indicator on how it was charging (4 LEDs to show 100/75/50/25). With the 5000mAh battery I seemed to get very acceptable battery life. Combined with the near instant boot of the Teensy 4 it meant I could shut it off easily and save power.
QR code button:
I love this even though I only really used it once at the con. It will defiantly be a feature going forward, and I’m wondering if theres an easy way to just generate a QR code rather than make a GIF of the code
Adafuit LED diffusion Acrylic:
This Im not so sold on. I need to experiment with it more. Essentially ‘Hea though it made it look “Out of focus” and I can see that a bit. If the LED panel is not pressed directly against the panel you lose some sharpness. Also I’m still not convinced I’m mounting it right since I cant find anything to confirm if the matte side goes in or out. Also in sunlight it was still readable, but looked muted and dim. I may need to bump up the LED brightness.
Construction:
Definitely an improvement over Attempt 1’s sleeve construction, but still not super happy with the design. First the obvious stuff: Im in dire need of fixing my printer and re tuning it. I also need to spend some time figuring out exactly what works best for fitment of parts. On this design everything was essentially dimensionally perfect (No designed gap between any given parts) So it was friction fit or even interference fit at times when I was constructing.
At some point when I was reducing frame width, I nixed the “slots” my strap solution fit into and that was a BAD idea. Without any mechanical stop, the pins slid though the strap loops and most of Friday I was fighting with it. Ironically the lighter design actually worked against me the neoprene strap, I noticed the badge did not have enough weight to keep it creeping to the right as I wore it. The good news is that with the lighter design I can use smaller strap.
As for the design itself: The side screws holding on the font and back panels with glued acyrlic frames works, and I like it a lot better than the front/back screw construction of 1.4, but I’m still not satisfied. Im going to experiment a bit and see if I can come up with something better. The major issue is the design of the main frame requires 3D printed overhangs that I just cant print well yet. This causes roughness and added dimension to some spots that I have to sand down, and even then its just not…good. Also I have yet to find a way to attach PETG to Acrylic that works well, The white gorilla glue I used this time worked better, but still was not what I’m after. Its a fun and difficult challenge to make something as small, light, and strong as possible!
Acrylic Thoughts:
The laser cutter at the maker-space is amazing and solves a LOT of problems, I love being able to etch glue areas. The “Sharpie Infill” worked OK, but in larger areas was not idea. If I do this in the future, I most likely will double etch certain areas and do a enamel paint fill (Thanks to @krhainos for the suggestion)
Other Design thoughts:
Im messing with the idea for a pressed thin aluminum back, and also the idea with vac forming the back out of a clear colored plastic. Im going to mess with this!
ToDo list:
The laser cutter at the maker-space is amazing and solves a LOT of problems, I love being able to etch glue areas. The “Sharpie Infill” worked OK, but in larger areas was not idea. If I do this in the future, I most likely will double etch certain areas and do a enamel paint fill (Thanks to @krhainos for the suggestion)
Other Design thoughts:
Im messing with the idea for a pressed thin aluminum back, and also the idea with vac forming the back out of a clear colored plastic. Im going to mess with this!
ToDo list:
• Figure out power draw and how long the battery will last to dial in a battery choice • Tune up 3D Printer and figure out how best to design parts that 3D print and fit together well • Start spin up of PCB Version of DCB 1.5!The badge has been invading my thoughts again! So I did not really work on it much since Megaplex, Between starting Auburn proper, and a bunch of other stuff, it simply fell off the list. But I did make some progress on some aspects!
3D Printer:
Over my winter break, I repaired and replaced a few parts and upgraded my 3D Printer. A new nozzle, a new heartbreak and a new heater block along with tuning things up seems to have made it work much better. When I moved over to PETG filament, I never upgraded to an all metal hotend, so I wrecked the PTFE Tube in the old hotend. I also moved up to a .6mm nozzle and so far have been enjoying it.
Tolerances:
Sometime soon I’m going to print a tolerance test piece with the newer nozzle and see just how close I can get parts. I need SOME play in the design to make it fit better.
TPU:
What really got me thinking about this again was a weird brainwave I had about TPU filament. My initial badges uses 1.5mm or 2mm thick “Funky Foam” which is just sheets of EVA foam. The problem comes down to cutting and attaching it to the frame. In fact in the Megaplex revision, i just skipped the foam and used hot glue. I started to mess with TPU filament after getting my printer tuned up, and I realized today that I could essentially print a “gasket” to fit around around the LED panel and provide it some protection!
So I’m going to see if I can work on some small improvements for TFF and give it a real test out there!. I guess this would end up being Digital Con Badge v1.4 Attempt 3? 😆
Also! I never posted pictures of the finished v1.4 Attempt 2! Here’s some!
3D Printer:
Over my winter break, I repaired and replaced a few parts and upgraded my 3D Printer. A new nozzle, a new heartbreak and a new heater block along with tuning things up seems to have made it work much better. When I moved over to PETG filament, I never upgraded to an all metal hotend, so I wrecked the PTFE Tube in the old hotend. I also moved up to a .6mm nozzle and so far have been enjoying it.
Tolerances:
Sometime soon I’m going to print a tolerance test piece with the newer nozzle and see just how close I can get parts. I need SOME play in the design to make it fit better.
TPU:
What really got me thinking about this again was a weird brainwave I had about TPU filament. My initial badges uses 1.5mm or 2mm thick “Funky Foam” which is just sheets of EVA foam. The problem comes down to cutting and attaching it to the frame. In fact in the Megaplex revision, i just skipped the foam and used hot glue. I started to mess with TPU filament after getting my printer tuned up, and I realized today that I could essentially print a “gasket” to fit around around the LED panel and provide it some protection!
So I’m going to see if I can work on some small improvements for TFF and give it a real test out there!. I guess this would end up being Digital Con Badge v1.4 Attempt 3? 😆
Also! I never posted pictures of the finished v1.4 Attempt 2! Here’s some!
In Attempt 2, I printed it face down and it took a lot of cleanup work when I removed supports.
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And since this that print came out so well, I’m at the makerspace making more Acrylic covers! For Attempt 3 I’m dropping the “LED acrylic” from Attempt 2 and just using Clear, I may mess with some “Glare Reducing” acrylic in the future…
Also trying a double depth etch to hold glue and paint better
Wow! I gotta get better at updating these posts after a con XD.
So at TFF'23 and at FWA'23 I'll be rocking Attempt 3. It faired very well at TFF but I still have a lot of small things I need to fix in future versions. I'll make a post-con post about it and what i want to do before TFS (if anything) and the future badge plans! If you found me at TFF or FWA and are curious, read though my previous posts and ill do a better job in the future about keeping this channel updated!