Reddit:Electronics

I realize that this image can be triggering to some. I apologize in advance for any discomfort it could cause 😅

Hey all, I’m a 2nd year student in electronics right now. I know there’s tonnes of handwired keyboards on the internet, but here’s mine.

This is my first time ever soldering or doing anything outside of arduino or simulations. So it’s very messy.

After I finished painstaking soldering the diodes and columns, it turns out I need 19 pins and the pro micro has only 18. I thought my project was a goner, but I found the hack of removing the resistors in the leds to free 2 more pins. I’d never ever done soldering before, and was honestly scared about taking out the resistor from the board, but figured the project wasn’t going to go anywhere if I didn’t do it, so I took the chance and somehow managed to desolder the resistors and put in the legs of the diode which I cut off earlier! But but but, as soon as I started soldering it to a column to test, I ripped out the copper trace from one of the pins and though my project was a goner (again). Thankfully that hack gave me 20 pins, which means I had exactly 19 now (phew).

Maybe you notice the red electrical tape on the switch, that’s because it was meant for the big L shaped enter key which I didn’t have, so I had to use the tape to fit the enter and |\ keys.

Well, it works now; it’s not perfect, the board sometimes misses strokes when I use it because the wires the dangling out, and I currently don’t have anything to secure the back. But it works!

I’m sorry if my body too long or not technical enough, I just wanted to share my work.

When told we’re working on something, profs always ask its application and what issue it resolves. I spent a lot of time and energy on this and I have no answer to these questions, I made it cause I wanted to know how it works and cause I felt I should be able to make it, and I know it’s nothing special or solving any real issue and has a lot of documentation and YouTube videos to make the same. So, I’m just not sure if this work is “sciency” enough to justify it on my profile or even investing that much time into it.

Welp, I had fun so that’s that.

Sorry for the out of topic rant again.

Let me know what you guys think!

Built a free timing diagram editor for hardware documentation.

Visual editor - draw your signals instead of coding JSON. Useful for datasheets, protocol specs, or explaining timing to your team.

Works for:

• SPI, I2C, UART, CAN timing
• FPGA/MCU signal interfaces
• Memory timing (DDR, SRAM)
• Any digital logic really

Imports VCD from your simulator, exports PNG/SVG for docs.

Browser-based: [https://www.wavepaint.net/](vscode-file://vscode-app/snap/code/220/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-browser/workbench/workbench.html)

Friend asked me to make a time machine this is what I came up with on my lunch break.

3 stack peltier plates, PWM, DHT11 etc . The first indicator light is main power. 2nd is HV field, third turns on when 32F or less is reached in the chamber. I made this from found parts

Arrived from the US in a carry case full of foam that had deteriorated to dust. Spent a few hours just taking everything apart and cleaning all of that out with IPA and an air duster.

First it needed some work to fix a bad connection on the high-voltage return. The previous owner had already had a go at it (hence the hose clamps on the grip) so at least I knew where to look.

It turns on and works but it can't quite reach 30kV according its own display, so I will need to figure out how I'm going to verify that with a very high voltage probe. The thing is absolutely chock full of carbon composition resistors and capacitors that have probably gone bad so it is probably due for some replacements.

If anyone is interested I might make a youtube video out of it going through the repair and testing process.

I dedicate this composition to Office Space...

Some of these parts will be upcycled in new projects... some others will be used for target practice...

Almost to big for the x-ray sensor.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a standalone ECU project for the last couple of years, and I’ve finally got the first proper PCB made and assembled. The ECU side of this is already proven, I’ve been running it on engines for a while using smaller boards hand wired setups (single-cylinder and a four-cylinder). This PCB isn’t me starting from scratch or hoping the logic works, it’s the next step: turning something that already works into a solid, repeatable platform that’s stable, easier to test properly, and easier to keep iterating.

The whole idea is a practical ECU built around an ESP32 that I can keep improving without the usual expensive locked-down ecosystem. It’s aimed at bikes and small engines, and the firmware is already doing the real ECU stuff (fuel and ignition control, crank/cam sync, 16x16 maps, launch/ALS logic, telemetry, etc). This board is basically where it stops being a rats nest of wiring and starts becoming an actual unit.

the board itself is pretty simple. There’s nothing exotic going on hardware wise, it’s mostly just a clean way to break out signals and do the boring but important bits like input conditioning, ADC, drivers, and power. Honestly 99% of the complexity in this project has been the code and the engine logic. The PCB is mainly about turning that proven setup into a proper platform.

(Also for those wondering underside is ground fill between traces)

Hardware-wise it’s an ESP32-S3 Mini, an external ADC (MCP3008) for the analog stuff like TPS/MAP/O2, a 74HC14 for cleaning up crank/cam inputs, low-side injector drivers (IRLB3034) with flyback diodes, and a TC4427 driving the ignition outputs. The spark outputs can be jumpered for 5V or 12V depending what you’re trying to trigger, and there’s basic 12V protection plus an onboard 5V rail for sensors/modules.

Also, I know an ESP is kind of a cursed MCU choice for an ECU if you look at it purely from a “hardware timers everywhere” perspective. It’s not the obvious route. The sensible/normal choice (and what most platforms use) is STM / STM-based stuff because you’ve got a ridiculous amount of hardware timers and it makes a lot of ECU timing problems feel easy. With the ESP32 you end up having to get creative, sharing limited hardware timer resources with software layers and scheduling, and that’s where a lot of the complexity has come from on my side. But the reason I went ESP is the surrounding ecosystem: the dash connects wirelessly, the power distribution unit connects wirelessly, the tuning app is wireless, telemetry is easy, and it’s all stuff the ESP platform is just good at. So yeah, if anyone’s wondering why I chose the ESP route and made my life harder, that’s basically why. Long term I want this to be an open-source project where people can add whatever features they want, and the ESP ecosystem (and how widely supported it is) makes that way more realistic.

This first revision is intentionally big and through hole heavy. That’s on purpose, it’s way easier to probe, rework, and debug when everything isn’t tiny and packed tight. Rev 1 is always where you find the dumb mistakes, and I’d rather find them on a board that’s friendly to work on before I shrink it down and move to SMD later.

So far I’ve been going through it section by section and it’s been behaving way better than I expected for a first spin. Bench testing is still continuing though, mainly power stability, noise/EMI behavior, sensor scaling, crank/cam conditioning, and verifying injector and ignition outputs under more realistic conditions.

Once I’ve shaken out whatever issues show up, I’ll do a revision 2 to clean up what I find, and after that the plan is to shrink it down and move to SMD so it becomes a smaller, cleaner “real ECU module” style board instead of a big debug-friendly prototype.

So I got one of those reflex games for Christmas the toy ones, and it was really fun but way too easy. So decided to make my own after seeing the real ones were over $1000!!

Almost all the parts used was shit i had laying around like a old Amazon basics fan base and some scrap pvc so don't judge how it looks or my shitty choice to use a small j box. Also id of done almost everything different if I did it over

it was just a prototype but this thing sure is fun as shit and I had a decent time figuring out how to make it all work!!

On the bench is a Behringer EP2500 pro audio amplifier. It's having a blown output stage and a shorted rectifier diagnosed and repaired.

In play is a TTI signal generator and a Tek 468 scope, as well as a DIY dim bulb tester.

I've been slowly acquiring all this gear over the past few years. Recently got hold of a proper electronics work bench with shelf a I've for the instruments. This has made life so much easier with all of the extra space it's freed up. It's great to be using all this stuff for real work, not just playing around!

Here are some of the PCBs I've made myself for an 8 bit computer project I'm working on. The boards, except the A register board, are double sided. Unfortunately no plated throughholes but there are functional vias with a piece of wire. Will definitely be posting more update about the entire project as I'm slowly finishing it.