Devlog 8 Hydro Garden

• for some reason all my shop orders got fried and that included my 3d printer that i was going to get, so this might be left on hold until it is sorted out

• and i didnt get my stardust back so i have no clue what is happening (over 1k stardust)

• did pcb stuff

Devlog 3 - Smart Bin

• got some feedback from the hardware reviewer
• said that my costs were too high and that I should switch to AliExpress and other sources for cheaper things
• looked into AliExpress and digikey for cheaper sources
• delivery fees are really high, so I swapped only the things that were free delievery
• cut down around 80 dollars from the BOM

Devlog 7 Hydro Garden - TANK RING AND THE PI CODE

what i did

• redid the tank lid as a screw on cap and printed the ring it screws into, so no gamma seal
• wrote all the pi code, its 5 files
• pushed everything to the repo

the tank

• the lid plate is a cup now, it screws into a printed ring that snaps over the bucket rim on 12 fingers
• the drain base drops onto 4 hooks on the cap and twists 20 degrees to lock, so the tower is actually held
• all 3 parts built in cadquery, imported into onshape, assembly is 17 parts
• bom went 467 to 454 🎉

the code

• python on the pi, no microcontroller. config.py, control.py, store.py, web.py, dashboard.html
• control loop reads everything once a minute, csv first then mqtt, runs the lights on a schedule and the dosing pumps
• dosing is a state machine. dose, wait for it to mix, check the reading actually moved, fault if it didnt
• wont touch a real pump until the flow rates and ec per ml are measured

whats next

• the pcb
• get it ready to be funded

Devlog 6

updated the case as per reviewer

btw the screws on the front link up to a bar on teh back to keep it even more secure (reviewer look at this)

Devlog 24: StudyBuddy

so a lot of the feedback said “cool but it needs ur gpu on”.

• that made it seem like a PoC, so now its running on the free tier of openrouter.

making the free tier work

• one request per question was never going to fit a daily cap. extraction now sends up to 10 pages / 25 questions per call, sorting and answer key go 10 questions at a time. ~4 requests per worksheet instead of ~42
• the homepage and upload page count the day’s calls. 80% says busy, 100% stops reading and points u at the samples.

samples

• upload page leads with the three samples as one-click cards; ur own pdf is the second option and says how much of the shared allowance is used.

removed

• phone photo uploads (highly innaccurate on the free tier of models i have)

Devlog 5 - NotGoingToBeLateToSchool

• fixing the repo for submission
• adding mounting holes for the display
• made the entire thing like 4mm larger to make the display fit better

Devlog 6 Hydro Garden - FULL CAD ASSEMBLY

what i did

• built the drain base and the tank lid plate
• added all the parts into one assembly
• the drain base and tank lid just lift the tower slightly off of the bucket

the sensor

• the sensor had to be mounted differently, and deeper in the bucket
• the total storage of water went from around 16.5L to around 11L

the assembly

• its 16 different onshape parts
• rn its a 4 module design
• 862mm tall
• 267mm wide
• rod holes line up thru all the modules and everything so that fits perfectly

whats next

• the pcb
• the code
• updated the repo with all this stuff

Devlog 5 Hydro Garden - Water Spreader and the Lids

what i did

• built the water spreader and both lids so the top of the tower is done
• spreader is a 45 degree band, 140mm outside 90mm inside, on 3 legs that come out of the collar around the pipe
• it helps distrubute the water to each level equally

i miscalculated the water pressure

• i orginally calculated that the water would flow 30mm from the top of the pipe, but it was actually just 4.5mm on MAX flow and like 0.5mm on LOW flow (i mixed up one of the variables)
• made the lid catch the water in a bowl thingy and split it into 4 holes (basically like the gutter in each module)

top lid

• my first design didnt have a top cover on the lid, now it does
• added overflow holes incase something goes wrong

whats next

• building the drain base

Devlog 4: Adding all the reviewer feedback

went through every review from the last ship and fixed what was asked for.

• search: “LCD display” found nothing because the whole phrase had to match one field. now every word has to match somewhere.
• filters: tag, package and value dropdowns next to the search box, so you can cross-check values without typing.
• remove button: it sat outside the project table. it is inside the row now
• stale pages: you had to reload to see new shopping list items. that was the back button showing a cached page. fixed.
• shopping list export: download it as csv or plain text.
• front page: the root url used to bounce you to the login form. now it explains the idea and shows the bench.
• phones: below 600px the button rows stack full width, forms go one field per line, and wide tables scroll in their own box.
• roster: opt-in from settings. your bench goes on a public list with its part count, busiest tags and biggest stacks.

Devlog 4 Hydro Garden - Root Grate + BOM

what i did

• built the root grate
• its a 180mm disc, 4mm thick, 8mm holes on 3mm ribs so roots sit on it and water still gets thru
• also chamfered 2mm off both bottom edges. since the cones are 45 and a chamfer is 45 they end up parallel so the grate beds flat on them instead of balancing on a corner
• skipped finger holes cuz i can lowk grab it normally

the fiberglass rod thing

• looked into it properly and it doesnt actually work
• fiberglass has no threads so theres nothing to tighten a nut against, and thats the whole point of the rods
• BUT while checking i found the actual problem. m5 is metric and metric threaded rod is like 15 bucks a meter at home depot
• switched to #10-24 which is the imperial one. its 2.98 for 3 feet. saves like 48 bucks and its actually SMALLER than m5 so it drops right into the holes i already made

money

• a lot of them had the wrong description and stuff
• the psu i had picked wasnt UL listed, swapped it
• led channel was 39.99 and i found the same thing for 19.99
• also found stuff i just straight up forgot to buy: tubing for the dosing pumps, wire, ph storage solution, and pvc cement
• ended at 481 which is under the 600

whats next

• water spreader

Devlog 3 Hydro Garden - Main Grow Module

what i did

• just built the actual grow module (the main part of the entire build)
• it has a 45 degree floor to collect water
• a gutter
• a area for the pvc pipe to go thru
• and 4 plant areas
• had to a lot of making sure it fits inside a 256x256x256 square cuz thats the largest printer I have access too (it does now)
• dont even need support anymore (might add them but i dont really know yet
• made the drop holes slightly larger to make sure it can handle around 3.5 liters a min (pretty much the max my pump should be able to pump after the bypass valve)

NEW DISCOVERY

• i was talking to my dad and he said I could switch from threaded rods to the fiberglass thingys they use when it snows (its a lot cheaper and could save like 50 bucks
• looking into ways to save some more money cuz almost 500 bucks (without the pcb included or filament cuz my friends wants me to pay for it)

whats next

• building the grate to make sure nothing gets clogged

Devlog 4 - NotGoingToBeLateToSchool

finally finished CADing the board (idk if thats a word)

• i kinda had to redo the entire board but oh well yk

the final case

• its in two parts the top piece which is gonna be glued down and the body of the shape which has posts to hold the pcb
• moved the xiao and the display header to the bottom
• i also decided to use headers cuz this is my first time soldering a pcb so thats smth that could make this slightly easier

the problem (cuz obviusly it cant be a smooth process

• the switch is 15.6mm across the plate flange and a 1u dsa cap is 18.4mm
• my keys were on 15.09mm so thats too small
• so the switches overlapped and so did the switch caps and i didnt want to have to cad the caps too
• rerouted everything to make sure it all fits

the new pcb

• 461 tracks, 14 vias, was 284 (basically cut down hella on the overlapping things)
• i still have to make all the angles not right angles (i didnt know abt that until i say it on slack tdy when i was checking my pings (good to know ig))

things that i updated on the cad itself

• had to shift the usb cutout down a ton cuz i didnt account for the header lengths before

firmware

• finished it. 4 alarms with their own days, info pages for weather, hackatime, now playing and world clocks
• put the spinning globe from my hackpad oled on the clock face

next: get it approved so i can get the kit

Devlog 23 - StudyBuddy

• i just had some minutes left on this so im just making the devlog

• still waiting for my ship to be approved (been waiting a few days)

• no big changes at all (waiting for feedback)

Devlog 3 - NotGoingToBeLateToSchool

penciled the full case design on paper (with dimensions and math cuz its annoying to have to figure that out by myself)

• paper first then onshape cuz thats easier and i can worry about things like pcb fitting and stuff beforehand
• switched to onshape from fusion and its kinda better cuz “create part studio in context” lets me model the case straight off
  the imported pcb step instead of retyping dimensions
• ill still prolly use fusion a lot, but like im more biased to onshape (thanks blare!)

the shape

• its like a right trapeziod which i shelled
• the pcb is gonna sit on those posts you see and then imma screw it in
• the screen is gonna be in the front openign with teh jumpers and stuff
• thats abt it

next: finishing the CAD

Devlog 2 - MiniPad

• built the case on fusion, and guess what. i did lapse the first part of the case like v1, but forgot v2 cuz i left for a late night snakc and forgot to rerecord

• its all on onshape so you can see

the case

• 102.38 x 96.90mm, 16.6mm tall closed
• 1.5mm plate, 14mm switch cutouts on 19.05mm pitch
• pcb sits on four bosses 10mm up, leaving 7.5mm under the board for the reverse mounted leds and the xiao
• m3 heatsets drop into the bosses from the top
• usb-c slot in the side wall, the only overhang in the print
• fillets on the outside corners and chamfers on the top and bottom edges so it doesnt feel like a printed box

minipad (i gave it a name)

• renamed all the kicad files, gerbers, qmk firmware, and repo

restructured the repo to match the ship criteria. everything you need to build one is in production/ now: gerbers, both case steps, the prebuilt uf2. also made a single assembly step with the case and board in it

Devlog 2 - Smart Bin

ml pipeline

• 6 modules, tensorflow only, three dependencies. cut it from 629 lines to 308, and the old one trained in pytorch then converted to tflite for the pi, so it needed both frameworks
• the split is by session, not by frame. frames from one session are near-duplicates, so a random split puts near-copies of your training data in the test set and the accuracy number means nothing
• evaluate.py prints both numbers and the gap. the frame-split one is there as the number not to believe

firmware

• 11 files. trigger, weigh, light, capture, classify, decide, tilt, log, serve
• the safety rule is enforced twice: a confidence gate at runtime, and a config check that refuses to start if the rules file would ever send an unidentified item to recycling
• weight adjusts the result too. paper over 40 g is probably wet, so it goes to trash

bom

priced everything out, then checked the parts against my own schematic. found five problems:

• the mcp3208 had nothing to measure. its only connected input is the battery divider, and there’s no 12 V source in the build, so i dropped it
• the load cell “kit” ships an hx711 module. my hat already has an hx711 on it, and those modules run at 5 V where mine is deliberately at 3.3 V. bought the bare IC instead
• camera module 3 at $36 to module 2 at $9.49. autofocus is pointless when the camera and the pan never move relative to each other

before: $283.52
now: $195.19

Devlog 2 - NotGoingToBeLateToSchool

firmware is basically done

• wifi + ntp so it knows the time without an rtc
• clock face
• 3x3 matrix scan
• alarm with a buzzer that speeds up the longer you ignore it
• 3 snoozes max, then it makes you type a code on the keypad to kill it

the display was the annoying bit. 284x76 is not a size the st7789 library expects, so it needs init(76, 284) and setOffsets(82, 18) or you get the picture shoved into a corner. and Adafruit_ST7789 makes setOffsets protected, so you have to subclass it just to call it.

posting the cad in more detail next time, sorry (scared of losing my streak)

this is my planned cad design

devlog 1 - idk what im calling this

just finished the pcb for my hackpad. its a 3x3 macropad for shortcuts - app
launchers on the top row, screenshot/fullscreen/calculator in the middle,
copy/paste/undo on the bottom

specs

• 9 mx switches on a 3x3 diode matrix (row2col)
• 9 sk6812mini-e rgb leds, reverse mounted so they sit in slots in the board and
  shine up through the switches. per key lighting
• ec11 rotary encoder for volume
• 0.91” 128x32 oled
• seeed xiao rp2040
• 96.38 x 90.90mm, 2 layers, chamfered corners, 4x m3 mounting holes for a
  sandwich case

firmware

also got the qmk firmware compiling. the oled shows a clock and a spinning globe
made from real natural earth coastline data. 24 frames, projected the land
polygons onto a tilted sphere so those are actual continents at 32x32 pixels

next up

the case in fusion 360