8/27/2026 - 17th Update!

ok, 10:39 PM, lets speed through this!

ok, quite a bit of rotating stuff on jlcpcb’s side, but here it is!

it should mostly be good? only thing im not sure of is the crystal but yeah!

hopefully when i reload the page it saves…

no it doesnt. well, thats annoying.

well, 11:21 PM, made an application for the sd card thing to actually get a model, so yeah, not much i can do today, unfortunately? just kididng, cad could use some work, brb

ok, 11:47 PM, im back!

shrunk the middle section from 1.4cm to 0.75cm! nvm its back at 0.95cm, anyways, total height decreased from 2.1cm to 1.5cm! ok, 11:54 PM, brb!

back at 12:44 AM, i guess its a good time to assemble a bom? (for the other parts)

well, 1:07 AM, that wasnt really much… yeah, gotta wait till the 3d model for the micro sd card slot appears or i just gotta replace it, idk, but yeah, i guess ill check tomorrow evening, if its not there, i guess ill just replace it? but yeah, 1:21 AM now (yes i got distracted), so yeah, good night!

8/26/2026 - 16th Update!

well, welcome back, it’s 3:00 PM here in nyc right now, a bit of a warm day, i kinda want to get this done, its taken far too long (its been a month already?). i kinda have more important things to sort out, but they can wait a bit, they’re not like extremely time sensitive!

ok, 3:10 PM, im actually back now, ive been considering removing the encoder (yet itll look crazy weird, i know), imo, most features should be still possible without it, just a bit more annoying to navigate with long presses and stuff, idk.

eh, whatever, im gonna first play around with the layout to see if its possible first

ok, audio jack moved to the bottom (and added the 3d model!), lets run drc… uh, suspiciously no error?

quick commit!

had a great idea (flipping the switches upside down for more space)

uh it would probably be better to keep the data lines short right

hold on did i reverse the audio jack direction… anyways, 5:10 PM, micro sd card is there and all drc errors fixed! gonna commit real quick and then run to the bathroom…

ok, 5:38 PM and back!

ok, did a bunch of via stuff so all the grounds are more connected, fixed up some silkscreen text, the only thing really left is to fix the silkscreen art stuff, but yeah!

so yeah! gotta double check that audio jack direction again (it should be correct now?), but yeah, it’s 6:33 PM, off to dinner, brb!

9:48 PM, did a good amount of work off camera fixing the silkscreen and stuff, but yeah, pretty happy with where it is now! could probably start exporting stuff now? gonna quickly commit first though…

oh yeah, also checked the length of the traces that should be equal (usb c connections), they’re still good!

ok, 11:32 PM, im back for a bit, time to export stuff! (again!)

12:23 AM, lots of part picking, gonna brb!

im back at 1:53 AM, lets quickly finish this up!

i really cant find an led that works. well, had a little help, but C524052 works!!!

well, that said, it’s 2:43 AM, the bom has been exported and should be there, im gonna go to sleep now, gotta wake up earlier tomorrow for something, so yeah, good night!

8/23/2026 - 15th Update!

so. how much silkscreen art can someone make? turns out, not enough, but i think im at the point where im mostly satisfied with the decoration and the layout, in theory, we can kinda finish everything today? it’s 6:01 PM right now in nyc, im just gonna get ready to post yesterday’s (well, two days ago’s) updatelog onto the website

oh yeah, another cool thing, i figured out how to fix my s key! its staying in there pretty well so far, so let’s see how it holds up…

ok, ive posted it there, what do we have left?

• finish the pcb clean up (not much, really, just notes and checks)
• drc again, check its all updated and good
• export and do the jlcpcb stuff, create and calculate bom/prices
• decide whether or not to use female headers for the removable screen
  • on one side is the audio jack, repairability and, well, the art
  • on the other side is increased height and possible connection issues
  • its really just that the audio jack probably doesnt fit
• make the side heights readable (this cad is abysmal)

well, what are we waiting for? let’s get to it!

i, in fact, did not lock in. just kidding!

this looks good for the header stuff i was talking about, id say the screws should also be able to secure everything, so thats another plus!

quick commit, one second

ok, 7:35 PM now, gonna go to dinner now, lots of cad work!

ok, see ya in a bit!

back at 10:57 PM, let’s just finish this :p

so. i just realized something.

it’s not a good realization.

the sd card is on the top.

the microphone jacks is on the top, that’s fine, but the sd card holder is on the top. why is this an issue? well, i was particularly avoiding double sided assembly for the costs. and then i forget about this.

i guess we cant avoid it then, 11:44 PM, these docs are confusing

im back at 1:52 AM, im gonna try this again

thanks to this help article! i guess doing it manually instead of the fabrication toolkit or something back with hackpad was needed…

ok, 2:15 AM, im basically not able to do anything right now. im pretty sure i cant keep going with standard pcba, since it gets crazy expensive (yeah, im trying to not make it super expensive) and it has some weird setup thing that i really dont want to figure out (something about adding extra rails to the side? i mean, thats not optimal here). so yeah, i cant do anything for now. what that means is that i have to do a ton of redesigning, specifically moving the sd card and audio jack to the bottom (maybe ill remove the encoder for it??? who knows), and of course the leds (just kidding, maybe the resistor, but the rest is staying on top! ill just have to do some (abysmal) hand soldering…)

so yeah. that’s where things are at, it seems. ill probably have to remove the female pin header row and just direct solder it then? but yeah, that’s it for now. well, i guess theres more to do know, it’s 2:21 AM, so yeah, good night!

8/21/2026 - 14th Update!

so… where have i been? it’s 10:51 PM, one second…

though it may appear like ive locked out, ive spent like a least three hours drawing the silkscreen stuffs!

yeah! looks pretty nice, along with that, fixed a whole bunch of errors and warnings, so now, the only warning are just silkscreen stuffs (and that the debug pins arent connected). also, yeah, added the run pads, idk how useful that is, also, the only warnings right now are that and the fact that we had to make one of the audio chip holes bigger (shouldnt be a problem i hope? i mean, the things are already connected so…)

might have to look into that one

anyways, yeah! added more vias here and there, cleaned stuff up a bit! mostly was working on silkscreen art, probably shouldve timelapsed it but its really whatever, idk if it wouldve counted anyways, but yeah

so… what now? yeah, tha’s pretty much an update of where ive been, idk what happened the third day i wasnt here, i think a reasonable goal is shipping this by the end of the month, then fermion work starts

brb!

ok, back at 2:40 AM, obviously not an eventful day and more of a catch up and commit thing, snuck in a couple more jokes and references, they’re under the oled! (the 128x32 display, not the other one) well, that’s it for me today! it’s 2:41 AM, so good night!

8/18/2026 - 13th Update!

a little later, but here nevertheless! it’s 10:02 PM in nyc, and yeah, here we go! goal today is to mostly (???) finish the pcb!

so uh, i ran drc and the whole thing froze, 73 errors and 200 warnings, wow, anyways, most of the stuff is complete! well, issues aside, we still have to add the test points and stuff, but yeah, good progress! it’s currently 11:40 PM, gonna brb!

via spam go brr, anyways, yeah, see ya in a bit!

back at 1:23 AM, yeah, earlier than usual, back to pcb work!

so i kinda dont have anywhere to place the test/debug pins. yeah.

well, 3:10 AM, all DRC errors solved! theres some goofy shenanigans to get U9 to have the thermal relief to zone incomplete error to go away, but its really whatever, nothing really changes about the real area! now, we have a ton of warnings (lots of them are about silkscreen size), but its really whatever, its more for aesthetics anyways, at least the smaller text!

so yeah! i think thats a good place to end for today, that said, it’s 3:14 AM (wow, pi digits huh?), so good night!

8/17/2026 - 12th Update!

is bro actually locked in? 8:55 PM today, the goal’s to finish most of the pcb today! which would kinda be insane

good news! its the right connector. bad news? its kinda too big in the current setup. so yeah.

we have three choices

• flip the rp2040 into the middle
  • lots of moving and redesigning i dont really want to do
  • increased chance of hitting the things on the bottom of the display
  • silkscreen on the bottom would be cooler
• make the center thicker
  • makes the entire thing bigger, idk
• move the rp2040s closer
  • makes size stuff tricky/annoying to deal with
• evil upside stuff
  • probably the best but definitely the most jank solution
  • shouldnt do it since its not really designed for it

so i. uh. dont understand my own cad. why did i make this so unreadable

i think making the center thicker is the best choice here

sd card wired, idk how necessary similar trace lengths are needed, but i did it within 5mm so it should be alright according to some random sources?

ok, 2 hours later, it’s 10:57 PM! the audio stuff is wired together, havent added it to the rp2040 yet, it’s kinda a bit wonky right now, might need to rotate the stuff to properly add it, so yeah!

ok, gonna brb!

some three hours later and back! it’s 1:51 AM, let’s lock in real quick

another bit more than 2 hours later, a ton of stuffs wired up! mcu communication and displays, the audios to the mcu pins, buttons, and more!

so yeah! good progress today, that said, it’s super late now, since it’s 3:59 AM, so yeah, good night!

8/16/2026 - 11th Update!

ok, 6:23 PM, and some 10 days later, the one week project turned into three, yeah, i got demotivated again

however, after practicing jumpstyle out of nowhere, something flipped in my head and now i just wanna lock in. yeah. thats really the only reason why im back lol. anyways, pcb time, im thinking that we dont really need to expose so many pins, but its ok if we need to

vscode looking a little different today. huh. anyways, pcb time

ok, the base is done! all the holes should be laid out, added some extra effort and added curved edges!

wow, 10:42 PM! 4 hours and 10 minutes later, straight lock in and pcb work, mcu a is done! at least, mostly done, havent double checked for issues yet

so yeah, gonna go watch a movie, brb!

2:13 AM and back, here we go! ok a bit thirsty, pretty sure that the tap water here in nyc is very good, anyways, its a nice cool rainy night here in nyc!

so uh, idk if theres a faster way to like copy paste what i just did

ok, 1 hour and some 37 minutes later, it’s nearing 4am (it’s 3:55 AM), so i think here’s a good place to end! great lock in today, around 6 hours of work done!

so yeah! that’s pretty nice, good start to pcb stuff, should go pretty smoothly from here? idk lol, anyways, it’s 3:58 AM, good night!

8/6/2026 - 10th Update!

double digits uh oh, 9:37 PM, gotta go fast (sonic reference?)

we do need a schottky diode (like a specific one) (no way, did i spell that right? wow)

ok, lots of things assigned footprints, cleaned some stuff up, fixed some ERC stuffs, imports schematic to pcb well, no errors other than the rotary encoder, gonna look into that real quick

oops didnt use the switch version

ok, thats fixed, updates well, some warnings but no errors, gonna look into that in a second but for now, quick commit! (yes i undid all the pcb stuff so that it actually updates when we do real stuff)

ok 10:37 PM, gonna go watch a movie now, brb!

back at 1:23 AM, let’s quickly fix it, idk why my shoulders hurt a bunch today…

ok, looked in a bit deeper, shouldnt be an issue! hmm thinking about layout and we probably should break up all the gpio 20 pins into sections based on what they do for debug rather than in header form, since, well, it’s not gonna be fun to route around them. yeah, probably will do that tomorrow… or why not now?

so uh, idk why the crystal size is off, gonna look into that tomorrow, but yeah, pin groups made!

the spi and uart and run pins have headers in the lower area for mcu communication (outside of the picture), so yeah, got a couple things to double check, but pcb work should be able to start soon!

and yeah! it’s 2:27 AM, so that’s about it for today, good night!

8/5/2026 - 9th Update!

yeah, took a day off yesterday for some silly art, anyways, 5:15 PM, and we’re back!

ok, added the updatelog from 8/3/2026 onto the website, so we have to finish the schematic today!

todo

• update pins to add spi communication between the two mcus
• add backup for uart or some other communciation method
• add redundancy for other peripherals
  • other audio jack formats other than TRS, USB, etc.

and more lists

MCU A

• 0-3: SPI0 MCU (to implement)
• 0-6: Buttons (switch to 4-10)
  • updated, GPIO10 is the connector
• 8-11: Micro SD Card (switch to 11-14)
  • changed RX from 8 to 12
  • changed CS from 9 to 13
  • changed SCK from 10 to 14
• 12-13: OLED 128x32 Display (switch to 18-19)
  • changed SDA from 12 to 18
  • changed SCL from 13 to 19
• 16-17: UART0 MCU (backup) (to implement)
• 23-25: RGB, Board, Boot LEDS
• 26-28: Audio

MCU B

• 0-3: SPI0 MCU (to implement)
• 0-5: LCD 128x160 Display (switch to 8-13)
  • changed BLK, generic from 5 to 13
  • changed CS, SPI1 CSn from 1 to 9
  • changed DC, generic from 0 to 8
  • changed RST, generic from 4 to 12
  • changed SDA, SPI1 TX (MOSI) from 3 to 11
  • changed SCL, SPI1 SCK from 2 to 10
• 16-17: UART0 MCU (backup) (to implement)
• 23-25: RGB, Board, Boot LEDS

ok, stuff updated, gotta implement the connection now, ok, pin set thingy added, also gotta consider how to do the board connection thing since it’ll be more repairable if we have an array of pins headers instead of soldering the display directly to the board, but for now, quick commit!

so, in trying to rename a commit, i seem to have deleted the commit for 8/3/2026… uh, my bad

oh the timelines messed up a bit… uh, let’s ignore that, 6:24 PM, off to dinner!

im back at 12:53 AM. no, dinner was not 6 hours lol

added a TS audio jack, then learned that, according to the docs under section 3.4, its not exactly for headphones but is meant for amplifier inputs (they do work with high impedance headphones but idk whether i have those)

huh kicad just went black

ok, back from kicad, just did a bunch of audio stuff, idk how much of its correct, but it’s kinda 2:18 AM right now so yeah, here’s a picture!

yeah, had to mvoe things around a bit, idk, still gotta look more into this, had to pull up the datasheets lol (pull up? like pull up resistors???)

anyways, it’s now 2:20 AM, so yeah, good night!

8/3/2026 - 8th Update!

9:20 PM, let’s go

ok, figure 23 on page 25 of this raspberry pi documentation seems good, did a bit of research, seems that pcm is better than pwm here for audio use cases, with the tradeoff of requiring more electronics

ok, so its like 11:16 PM, here’s the progess! audio thing and sd card thing should both be done, need to look into how to program them (and to verify that its correct), but seems nice so far! still need to work on the display stuff, might also add some leds, quick commit!

ok, back at 11:57 PM (as in, i took a bit of a break), time to do the display and leds (maybe? idk)

ok, everythings looking good! still need to check if the spi for the displays are correct, but now we also need to consider how we’re gonna do the communication between the rp2040s! 1:03 AM, gonna take a second to rest, quick commit!

ok, its a bit later now, i think im gonna end today here, decent progress, really need to finish the schematic and start layout tomorrow!

yeah! that said, it’s 1:48 AM, so good night!

8/2/2026 - 7th Update!

3:56 PM, goal for today is to finish the schematic, verify it, then start work on the pcb itself! looking forward to that, seld reminder to double check what should be close with what and trace width too

welcome back! its actually 4:22 PM, i am not locked in

mfw i learn that you can flip components in schematic

ok, back at 5:35 PM! good progress, just placed a bunch of the out pins, of course, we’re not exactly gonna use them, but it would be cool to actually just use them as a devboard as well! anyways, quick commit!

ok, 5:41 PM, brb! (bro is not coming back for a bit)

ok, 9:50 PM, im back! back to kicad…

idk what im doing, made a footprint though!

ok, added the stuff, assigned a bunch footprints to stuff, hmm still gotta wire the stuff

back at 11:40 PM, added the 128x160 display footprint and symbol, along with the switches and encoder wiring! gonna need a jumper thing there, probably should implement them more? idk

also, one more thing, i forgot. yeah, oh right, we need an audio jack thing (or some speaker? idk, research time)

quick commit!

ok, 1:17 AM, yeah, didnt get much done between then and now, didnt really feel exactly motivated to get back to it? anyways, idk how, but my short video on the capacitor text flying off screen has amassed 400+ likes and 8.8k+ views in 10 hours (which is like x20+ the amount of views the spark edit had, which took 5 hours lol), not complaining though!

so yeah! that’s the progress on the schematic so far, good amount of assigning footprints too! anyways, at the time of writing, it now has 9k+ views. which is kinda insane. anyways, yeah!

so, that’s it for now, it’s 1:24 AM, good night!

8/1/2026 - 6th Update!

its 5:26 PM, time to lock in, new month by the way! just moved yesterdays log onto the website

i dont think i can design it to have the top of the screws flush with the surface, idk, it might look better without that? who knows

cad work is pretty good! time to move the work to kicad… (also, do note that the main screens gonna have some stuff so it can actually align well, we still have spacers and tabs to cad!) the main point of getting the case and layout

ok, 6:56 PM, made the kicad, gonna get started after dinner! quick commit

ok, 8:56 PM now, wow, basically exactly two hours later! no, i didnt eat dinner for two whole hours (yes ill keep making this joke)

anyways, pcb time, seems like theres no dedicated kicad wakatime/hackatime thing, thats kinda sad (im also on kicad 8 lel)

just checked the stardance site, why does my updatelog from yesterday have more views/reactions than any of the posts in spark lol

i have no clue where to start. probably gonna heavily reference this guide back from blueprint for resources! well, what am i waiting for? here we go! once i get lookout/timelapse thing set up!

ok, 10:14 PM, lots of stuff done! basically, im up to adding the io stuffs, but since we’re not making a devboard (im still gonna break out a good amount of pins), we’re just gonna gloss over that…

anyways, yeah, quick commit!

so uh, ive been thinking. how does one power/program this. well, the idea right now is three usb c ports, one for only power and controlling everything, and the other two for individual power/flash! its a little jank, but idk how the power stuff is gonna work (at least for the capacitors)

we also need diodes aaaaaaa

ok, 10:45 PM, gonna go watch a movie, brb!

back at 1:39 AM, why am i scared to make changes, i have version control…

mfw there are 67 footprints in total (according to the assign footprints list), anyways, 2:37 AM, with that, i think here’s a good place to stop for today, discovered the blue boxes existed and had a ton of fun with it!

so yeah, that’s it for tonight, it’s currently 2:40 AM, good night!

7/31/2026 - 5th Update!

well, it’s 9:41 PM, on the last day of july. quite a month lol

anyways, gotta lock in, back to cad!!!

since when were headers (long side, past the black square section) 6mm? guess they always were

we should also probably have a simple oled on the top for the text, with the graphics beneath it… it could probably be driven by the main rp2040 since its not that intensive

hmm might be better to put this on the second? idk, i dont think im gonna add a scrub bar (as in saying the progress of the track) in order to save processing power, i actually dont know, it might be a good idea actually

ok, some ui drawing later, we have a 128x32 image! probably not gonna actually put an image on the disc place, shouldnt take much effort for anything to update it (since its both monochrome and only 128x32) (maybe we can do some optimization to only update section of it if that’s possible? idk)

this looks pretty good, time to cad the picture! nvm, it doesnt have the pin locations in the picture…

this is also pretty good, this time with the pin locations in the diagram! wait it doesnt have the side profile

mfw these are like the exact same products, just gonna go with the first one

erm this things gonna be 1.5cm tall in total, at least currently, thats pretty compact!

self reminder to add extra clearance on the sides of the display

ok, 10:42 PM, movie time, brb

back at 2:05 AM, so the layout of this things gonna have to be super super super annoying, gonna draw something out real quick, actually its probably faster to write it, basically, the base is obvious, just pla, but after that, we’re gonna need some form of four screws to hold everything together, with spacers in between!

mentioned yesterday, with the ideas of the buttons on the side, it’s still possible, but i’d say unlikely. it’s not exactly easy to make easy push buttons on the side, we’ll probably have to have some mount, which is also not pleasant to make, especially with the fact we have to wire that up. i’d more prefer if we could have it on the board itself, but that’s obviouslly not possible

or is it?

turns out, while write that, i remembered that, since the height’s 1.5cm, we can, in fact, have a couple of switches on the bottom! like, actual buttons!

we cant really fit full keyswitches there… well, we can fit three, and have the rotary encoder on the top

we might be onto something, speakers are gonna have to wait, probably unlikely, headphone jack is gonna be on the side, probably next to the power section

back to cad work

so i just researched 18650 batteries again. probably best to just use a charger. idk, still like the jumper for usb c and battery power idea

erm hows it 2:43 AM, ok, did a bit more cad work, here’s the state of stuff

yeah, that’s gonna be it for now, i should probably design this with more space, the x direction right now is set by the display itself, which is quite interesting, gonna probably have to make a protection thing so stuff doesnt collide, havent considered if i actually am gonna add a battery to it and exactly where (would need to find a battery holding unit and get the dimensions, probably gonna quickly grab that from the 18650 battery holders from raven or something)

anyways, 2:47 AM right now here in NYC, good night!

NEW PROJECT WOOOO

I probably should’ve started writing this sooner

Anyways, welcome back! After Open Sauce, I’ve been brainstorming plans for my next build, ????? (you’re gonna have to check my updatelogs on github for the secret name :p), where there are some constraints on the build that I’ve planned that might require it to have a custom PCB…

Looking at that now, it might not happen, but who knows, fun to explore custom pcbs anyways! The goal for River? Basically to create a cursed setup where it just stores and plays music, which displaying some synced graphics, similar to something like the Internet Archive (and Milkdrop inside it)! It’s kinda an evil RP2040 devboard in a sense, which the twist being that… theres kinda two RP2040s (at least, the plan is). Simply, one is to work on the music, the second is to work as a display/graphics controller!

So, what’s been done? Currently, a LOT of benchmarking with circuitpython (and C (wow, scary!)) to measure whats a reasonable way to do this. As mentioned, we’re gonna probably have to use C for reasonable speeds for the graphics controller (which appears blazingly fast! no, not gonna try rust lol). Currently, 128x128 with an SPI interface seems like the plan!

Talking about the display, today (7/30/2026) has mostly been part sourcing, specifically for the display, as that’s what everything’s gonna have to revolve around! One was found (check the repo and today’s updatelog for the link), and CAD has started!

Well, that’s it for now! See ya in a bit!