My goals for 2023 were the following:
- get good at PCB design
- get good at app development
Following some of the first PCBs I made, I realized how time consuming and difficult it is to make them by hand. First of all, you can't even trust your design. Second of all, you can't trust your assembly. Third of all, you can't trust your software!
I had been following Stephen Hawes on youtube since 2020, and he was a big driver on why I studied computer engineering. I love the fusion between hardware and software.
Anyways, he open-sourced the lumen pnp. I was cheap and built it myself, but you should order it from him.
On a whim during finals weeks, I ordered all the parts and started building. I printed all the parts in one night, taking up 15 prusa minis.
Integration hell was real, but it was mostly my mechanics. I switched to a new version that had linear rails, and that solved a LOT of my software bugs.
I actually got some contract engineering work doing pnp work, which paid off for the material costs (not time).
Some highlights:
- got kicked out of the makerspace for being too cool (taking up space making cool stuff)
- started an unofficial pick-and-place club of uc san diego that got 100 unofficial members, including Stephen Hawes 😂