Voltlog #15 – Kit Assembly LED Rotating Persistence of Vision Kit

The assembly of this LED persistence of vision kit started well but it soon went bad because of poor design and lack of instructions. There is no documentation on how to assemble the mechanical parts so you have to figure that out yourself. There is no mention or pictures of how the LED’s should be soldered and to my surprise they need to be soldered on the edge of the PCB. There is no information on how to load the firmware or custom text patterns. After some research I did manage to find a chinese app which is supposed to work with this kit but I had no success in writing/uploading anything to the microcontroller.

I even spent an hour or so with google translate and, translated to english most of the buttons and messages in the app.

At this point I’m not sure if my problem is in the hardware(unlikely) or if I need to program the microcontroller, or if the microcontroller has some firmware and I just need to upload a custom display pattern using that chinese app.

Too much time & effort has been wasted so I’m not going to follow this anymore. My recommendation: don’t buy this kit unless you have too much free time and you enjoy solving complicated (chinese) problems.

Voltlog #11 – InTheMail ICR18650-26F NCR18650B Mifare RC522 RFID Xiaomi 5000mAh

Another VoltLog InTheMail, this time I receive the following items:

  • ICR18650-26F 2600mAh 3.6V Rechargeable Li-ion Battery.
  • NCR18650B 3400mAh 3.7V Rechargeable Li-ion Battery.
  • 3S JST connector cable.
  • DC-DC 0.9V-5V USB Output Charger Step Up Power Module.
  • ESD Anti-Static Shielding ZIP LOCK Bags.
  • Mifare RC522 RFID Induction Reader Module.
  • 100 Pcs 0805 SMD LED Diode 5 Colors.
  • Original Xiaomi 5000mAh Ultra-thin 9.9mm Power Bank.
  • TI Precision Amplifier Quickstart Kit AMPQUICKKIT-EVM
    OPA313, OPA314, OPA316, OPA170, OPA171, OPA172.

VoltLog #7 – In The Mail

A list of the items I show on this InTheMail video:
2.4 inch 320×240 px TFT display module based on the ILI9341 lcd controller, complete with touchscreen, uSD card slot, 128Mbit flash, independent font chip and the required power circuitry.

ESP8266 modules (3 different variations), a small solar panel, waterproof enclosure and Li-ion battery cells. uSD card holder thing. 13W LED 5050 E27 lightbulb. Breadboad + breadboard power supply + jumper cables. 0-30V 0-2A Adjustable lab power supply kit, unassembled. A bunch of components I ordered from Comet Electronics.