Made the site!

I tried to speedrun this mission and my timer is still counting as of writing this! I made the whole site and deployed it! It has a search bar, where you can search on DuckDuckGo or YouTube (if you start your search with “@yt “)!

README and more URLs!

Heya! Really short devlog, but it’s worth mentioning! I have made my README.md file for my GitHub repo, and I have added two more URLs to the projects section of the site! One is currently commented out in the code, due to the project still being in review on Modrinth. That’s it already!

CSS Update & Alias Creation!

Hey there! Today I updated my extensions CSS! It’s far from finished, but it already looks way better than the plain default HTML styling.

Since the last Devlog, I have also implemented the creation of aliases! This means you can simply press “Create” on the main page and the extension will generate a new email alias for you! This is the main feature of the extension.

My next step is it to redesign the list of aliases on the main page of the extension, and to add the deletion of aliases!

Created the interaction base!

I managed to read the MIDI commands my devices send to my computer! I made a small “interpreter” (not really), that handles inputs and turns them into movement such as WASD, sneaking, sprinting, and so on! I sadly have no other way of showing this in my screenshot, so I have to show you logs here! These logs show all the devices the mod detects

Made the base site!

This is the base site I made! I personally really like the design. It features a music section, as well as a code projects section. I also added a footer with a spam trap email (because bots kept spamming my old email )

Hey there, moving my project here from Macondo, therefore these are two devlogs in one! I have NOT shipped this project to Macondo before.

Jul 29:

Hey there, everyone! I finished the main setup for the tool today! It
loads the host URL and API key from a credentials.json file and then
prompts the user to select an email address. It then displays all the
email aliases that exist for this email address!
I already managed to create aliases with the API, haven’t really
implemented that yet though. At least it works and just requires some
polishing. :)
I am planning to make this a browser extension, so you can simply
generate new email aliases whenever you sign up for a new service or
website. This way, you can easily see where spam emails come from, and
you can just delete the alias for it!

Jul 30:

Yay, finally! I started working on the extension yesterday. Most of the
UI is just filled with white pages at the moment but this is obviously
subject to change! The extension features an onboarding flow that asks
for the server URL and an API key.
Today, I made the creation page. It’s still far from perfect. The
creation of aliases does not work yet, but the rest of the extension
does! (sorry for how pixelated this image is, I had to edit it in MS
Paint)

My project is almost finished! Today I made some subtle changes to the PCB. More changes were made in CAD today. I know I’m a CAD noob, so I took quite a while to do some simple things :>
This is the result of my work today:

I moved the SD card slot because I was scared it might not fit into the case. I also made some space for the Picos USB port.

I added space for two M2 screws at the bottom of the case!

I also added a hole through which the on/off switch can be used.

Hey there!
This is the first devlog for Slack.fm, so I’ll give you a broad explanation first!

The bot simply uses the last.fm API to fetch data about users. The goal is it to send last.fm data directly into Slack channels, so users can share what they are listening to! This project is inspired by .fmbot on Discord!

What did I do in this devlog though?
Well, I first setup the bot with the “Make a Slack Bot” mission from Stardance! I used this to create the ping command, but quickly decided to instead create a full command handler. I really like my projects organized, so that’s the best choice! Now, I can put my commands into different files in src/commands, such as src/commands/fm.ts! The commandManager searches for these command files and imports them.

My next goal is it to set up some more stuff and request an API key from last.fm!

Hey there!
This is the first devlog for Slack.fm, so I’ll give you a broad explanation first!

The bot simply uses the last.fm API to fetch data about users. The goal is it to send last.fm data directly into Slack channels, so users can share what they are listening to! This project is inspired by .fmbot on Discord!

What did I do in this devlog though?
Well, I first setup the bot with the “Make a Slack Bot” mission from Stardance! I used this to create the ping command, but quickly decided to instead create a full command handler. I really like my projects organized, so that’s the best choice! Now, I can put my commands into different files in src/commands, such as src/commands/fm.ts! The commandManager searches for these command files and imports them.

My next goal is it to set up some more stuff and request an API key from last.fm!

Welcome to Stardance!

More CAD improvements!
I made the front of the case again!

I also remade the controls and added a system so the buttons can’t fallout (reference) the case!

On top of that, I wanted to add two screws at the bottom of the MP3 player that keep the case together - I’m splitting it into two parts! This way, the assembly should be a lot easier (and possible lol). I ended up reverting my changes though because I was not finished and ran out of time.

Enough for today!

CAD progress!! I deleted the whole case I made yesterday, I think it looked insanely ugly. I wanted something sleek and somewhat elegant (to the extent it’s possible with a 3D printer). Therefore, I remade pretty much everything from scratch, but it looks a lot better now!

This is the case I made:

If you paid attention, you might’ve noticed a few things:

• I made stand-offs for the PCB
• There are two holes for the audio jacks
• There’s also a hole for the microUSB slot
• The microSD card also has a space in the case already!

Take some pictures!
This is the microUSB slot. I was not entirely sure how big it should be - I genuinely thought the Raspberry Pi Pico uses USB-C, because of the Orpheus Pico I have laying around - sadly it does not. Maybe I gotta mod it myself :)

The holes for the audio jacks are not too spectacular:

This is the hole for the microSD card (which is blue in this picture). I’m not sure if I even put it in the right way, I guess there’s only one way to find out:

And here are the PCB stand-offs. Not very spectacular either.

This is what the assembly of the case looks like with the PCB:

Enough CAD work for today :)

Yay, finally CAD! I switched from Fusion360 to Shapr33D. Best decision ever. This is so much more fun and it genuinely does not feel like the software is working against me anymore!

Importing the .STEP file worked without any problems. I just noticed the audio jacks had that weird height offset again, seems to be a KiCad problem. Oh, and my PCB is green as well for some reason - but whatever! Here’s the PCB in Shapr3D:

Shapr3D feels way more intuitive. The sketches work really well and everything is genuinely “assisted” (like the A in CAD). I’ve made some sketches for the case!

This is the result for today! This is super unfinished and needs a bunch of polishing…

More CAD work soon!

I am genuinely struggling.

Today I made SOME PART of my case, I just don’t get this program… I might try out OnShape soon, Fusion just seems like it’s working against me.

I moved some parts on my PCB closer to the border so their connectors are accessible easier (the Pico & the AUX jacks). For some reason, Fusion did not like me and displayed the audio jacks higher than they were placed in KiCad. I did not find a solution for that other than just moving them down manually. Below is the new layout!

Since I moved the Pi, I had to rewire quite a lot of stuff - didn’t take too long though.

This is the start of my case. Yes, the start… It takes ages and I am not getting along well with the program. In the image below, it still uses the old layout. Apparently there is no way to import a .STEP file into an already existing project in Fusion- WHAT? Just why? Okay, anyways, the promised picture:

Yep, I don’t like Fusion if you didn’t notice that already.

I did not do too much stuff today. I mostly experimented with Fusion and did some tiny improvements. Genuinely, I hate Fusion… I don’t understand why everything has to be so complicated…

Okay, so I made this small 3D battery model with nimits help! Thank you!

I then attached that to my MP3 player in KiCad by creating a footprint for it and adding that 3D model there. It now looks like this:

Pretty cool!

For the rest of my working time today, I just TRIED… to make a case. I failed. Fusion makes every single feature (that should be easy) extremely complicated. Just why.

Thanks for reading this, I’m so done for today…

(also, why is that thing green again???)

Batteries always seemed fun to me - trust me, making circuits so they don’t blow up, really isn’t. Nimit recommended me to use a DW01A chip with my TP4056 chip for my battery management system. After quite a bit of research, I did not find a pre-soldered module I can use - so I built it myself! What helped me is this schematic I found on the internet:
[Source]

After downloading some footprints from LCSC, I used them to make a similar circuit myself!
You can ignore the buttons on the right, they are for the menu controls. The circuit charges the battery if it receives power from Pico VBUS (which is the Picos 5V output), and uses the batteries energy to power the circuit, if the switch POWER_SW is turned on. The voltage then goes through a voltage booster to ensure, that the 3.7 Volts, which the battery supplies, is being boosted to 5 Volts - which is good to power the Pico!

The new components are hidden under the screen in the state of final assembly. Below is a picture which shows their position!

Another minor change: the board now uses the same mounting holes everywhere. I have adapted to the screens mounting holes - why use two different sizes, if one works as well? I hope that makes my life easier later. This means I only have to get one sort of screws and the designing of the case should be a little easier. I have also attached a picture below:

Today I did not work too much on the project, so these are all the changes from today!

Today I have done a bunch of things!

I have done some research on which battery I could use - my main searching aspect was the size. I did not want to make my PCB larger just for a bigger battery. I ended up going with a 3.7V 1200mAh battery with a size of 48mm x 30mm x 7mm. This is enough so it still fits inside the case I am planning to design!

To make space on my PCB I had to re-route some things… (I ended up doing pretty much everything routing-wise from scratch again)
Well, now the routing is so much cleaner and also looks a lot better and more organized - you could say I have learned from my mistakes. Take a look at this amazing new routing:

One new thing you might’ve also noticed: I added a voltage booster for the battery! Since 3.7V is not enough, this thing boosts the voltage up to 5V so the whole circuit should be working - hopefully.

Here’s a photo of my new rendered design.
That’s the front:
And this is the back:

The area with all the lines is meant for the battery! If the measures on AliExpress are accurate, it should fit in there - let’s hope so.

I think that’s pretty much everything I did today!

(PS: in my last journal I have said that I am getting closer and closer to production - I would’ve never guessed how wrong I was…)

I’m getting closer and closer to production! Today I have made some breaking changes!

I have replaced the old 1/4” audio jack with a normal 2.5mm audio jack. I’m not really happy with this change, but it was the only option: I would’ve liked to keep the big jack, since I have hardware that uses it, but it is just too big for the PCB and the possible enclosure / case I want to make for this project. My MP3 player now features two normal aux jacks!

If you looked at the photo precisely, you might’ve noticed one thing: the PCB is black now! It just looks so much better :)

Additionally, I have added a footprint for the screen I want to use. Thank you @Di, I just ripped it out of your schematic off GitHub since I couldn’t find it on the internet :)) (PS: I asked afterwards, it’s fine !!). Here’s what it looks like now:

From the 3D model you can see in that picture, I have removed the pre-installed SD card slot as well as the connector pins for it. I’m using my own SD card slot since I can place it where I want it to be! Additionally, I am not sure how reliable this SD card slot actually is, so I’d rather not use it.

I have also moved the buttons down, since the screen was larger than I expected (not really, but I have not really thought about button placement before and just placed them where it looked good to me). For a picture, check the one above.

I also added a bunch of mounting holes so both the screen as well as the PCB itself have a good connection to the case.

Possible plan for tomorrow: I am uncertain if I am actually going to do this, but I was thinking about rotating the Raspberry Pi Pico by 90°. This would give me the advantage of a bigger battery, since there would be more space at the top of the PCB, behind the screen (on the other side of the PCB).

Okay, that’s it!