Getting into Hardware

by dweller - 2019-04-08

You know I like software. [2024 edit: are you sure about that?] I like making it, but you can’t hold software in your hands, and I always wanted to make something that I can hold in my hands.

So what’s this all about? Well, I finally got into some hardware, and I decided to write a little update about that.

Recently I made a small hardware hacking station for myself, it’s nothing much, just a soldering iron, a hot glue gun, a multimeter, and a bunch of parts.

A desk with soldering iron, multimeter and electronic components on it

My coworker gave me a quick lesson in soldering, and I watched few more videos online, and then just did some practice runs. It was fun!

So naturally next up is to make something more or less useful, for that is my desk lighting. I want it to change colors like redshift does. So I thought about using arduino, but decided to go with ESP8266 so I can also control it with my phone.

Instead of ready made ESP8266 devboard, I decided to make my own, so I can practice more. I used KiCAD to make a schematic and then just went at it.

ESP8266 devboard schematic

Badly soldered underside of a ESP8266 devboard on a perfboard

ESP8266 devboard on a perfboard

So next up is to jig something up to drive my LED strip with the ESP (Since the LED strip works at 5V, and ESP at 3.3V). I bought some BJTs and MOSFETs, so that is probably what I am going to use.

My other hardware project is to use old ATX PSU as a lab power supply. It’s not going to variable or anything, just 3 rails (3.3, 5, and 12 volts), but should be enough for me.

Anyways, that’s about it for this small update.

Been some time, eh? Well, I’ll try to get back into blogging bit more. ;)

Digital Cabin

Getting into Hardware