(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best semiconductor products

Hey there! I work with LEDs a lot (but only strips of LEDs, not singular small pieces, but it's one and the same), and I'm a foamsmither too! Here's some of my work!

For LEDs, you can use any 3V small coin-battery operated LED like this. To power them, you can just use any 3V coin battery like this, perfect for what you're using! You may also opt to use a holder like this, if you want to wire them and easily replace them (instead of having to leave the coin in between the LEDs). They're easy to set up, the longer leg is positive, the shorter is negative.

If you're looking for transparent pieces you could use acrylic plastic, but that's a little expensive too. I use acrylic all the time, and getting a round piece is very tedious. The problem with dark red acrylic sheets is that the LEDs do not shine well through them, or at least, in bright lights like con settings, they don't show very well. Here's an example from my Project Zed blades, they shine well in the dark, but not well in the light.

If you do wish to opt that route, you can order a sheet of red acrylic plastic from here. I use these guys all the time, they're great. You could ask them for a commission, but it's like a $100 minimum (which is super expensive). It might take a few days to get out to you if you're on the East Coast like I am.

With painting, you are supposed to prime and paint with EVA foam. The best way in my own opinion (there are lots), for both ease of durability and quality of paint is to spray with plastidip, and then use acrylic paint like Liquitex Basics to paint over it (my favorite brand). When you're done painting it, spray a coat of plastidip over it again to seal it. Unless it rubs against other pieces or touches anything, there's a good chance it won't chip or scuff at all. After I made the switch, a lot of the paint job on my armors held up really well!

I've never worked with wood glue before, I've used gesso and that worked really well at showing off the colors I wanted to, but it's very susceptible to chipping when rubbing, unless you put a lot of coats on it. If it's foam, I don't know if moisture would not rub off of wood glue, but it definitely doesn't on plastidip. I walked through a huge rain storm for NYCC and just wiped the rain of and it was like I first painted it.

Apologies to you for the follow up wall of text (and shameless plugs) but feel free to message me or comment if you need additional help! :)

I don't have anything specific I can share, but the absolute best way to start with microcontrollers, IMHO, is to pick one of the big three (PIC because it's the academic standard, Arduino, Pi) and get intimately familiar with it.

PIC controllers are the gold standard for learning embedded development in an academic setting, and there's a thousand lectures and tutorials available on youtube and a wealth of cheap textbooks on amazon and half. They're not very practical in the real world because nobody really uses them outside of academia, but they will get you safely to the wealth of knowledge you need to do real world development.

Arduinos have a huge community and tons of wiki-like resources available for consumption, plus the same amount of youtube content as PIC, and there's a million practical applications and projects right out of the gate. If you need a quick satisfaction feedback loop to keep you interested, these are a good choice.

Lastly with the Pi, they're mostly geared toward regular old programmers I'm finding, more so than your standard microcontroller lover, but they're still fantastic and let you run a full *nix environment while tinkering if that's what you're comfortable with.

Pick a microcontroller you want to work with, and get a copy of "[X] for Beginners" or even "[X] for Dummies" and walk through the whole book. Don't skip anything. Then get a book for intermediate, then advanced, and just keep going. Build as many things as you possibly can, that's the best way to learn.

If you need to learn how to read schematics to really digest what the books are throwing at you: http://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/reading-schematics/

If you're dead set on soldering shit to a board, learn to solder correctly first: http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/solder.htm

If you'd rather do breadboard-style prototyping, pick up a few little kits like this: https://www.amazon.com/SOLDERLESS-EXPERIMENT-BREADBOARD-PROTO-TYPING-TIE-POINTS/dp/B00MED3WGU

Or hit up your local Barnes & Noble and check out their "Games / Projects / Crafts / Hobbies" section and look for breadboard kits, pretty much every store has them now. They might be branded for kids, but they're the same shit in a more colorful box. I learned in a college environment with an Engineering PhD breathing down my neck, so I'm not super familiar with picking this stuff up on your own, but that's the best advice I can give at the moment. Also, there's Reddit communities around each of these microcontrollers and I guarantee they have FAQs and beginner guides a-plenty. Go read those.

Good luck!

Sure thing! I used a Teensy 2.0 with this code: github link. More info on using the teensy as a joystick can be found here. My code should be commented for clarity, but let me know if something doesn't make sense.

Most of the main parts came from adafruit.com or Amazon:

• Raspberry Pi 2
  
• 5 inch HDMI screen
  
• Power/recharging circuit
  
• 6600 mAh Li ion battery
  
• Audio amplifier circuit/volume control
  
• Headphone jack
  
• Tact switches for bottom buttons
  
• PCB for bottom buttons
  
• Power switch
  
• 0.5mm pitch FFC/FPC connector
  
• 0.5mm pitch adapter board
  
  Assorted wires and cables came from Amazon or adafruit, make sure to find ones that are very very thin.
  
  Using the original WiiU buttons was a nightmare. I do not recommend using the original button assemblies unless you are confident in your soldering abilities. Scrapping the original assemblies will also provide a ton of extra interior space. Connecting the 0.5mm pitch flex cable was awful, I was constantly afraid that I was going to burn through or rip something. I did actually over-solder one of the pin connectors and spent about 30 min with an iron and a needle trying to re-separate the pins. If I did this again, I would mount tact switches to a PCB and attach that to the front face of the controller. That would also save a ton of space on the inside and wouldn't require code modification.
  
  Adafruit's Super Game Pi tutorial was also a good reference for wiring the power and audio components.
  
  I'm happy that I could help you out with your project. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

> MSP430F2x/4x

That is exactly what I thought of too!

u/blue_dreamer has the right idea here. Arduino is okay if you have money and time to throw at it and dont mind "gilding the lilly"...everyone likes arduino, and I am no exception, but in this instance its kind of overkill when a better, cheaper solution that takes less time can be produced more elegantly. An Arduino board will set you back {$25.00](http://www.amazon.com/Arduino-UNO-board-DIP-ATmega328P/dp/B006H06TVG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1409167668&sr=8-2&keywords=arduino) compared to the cheaper Launchpad boardand that is just the board...whereas you can probably get a free MSP430 chipset (without any board) for free as a sample from Alibaba or Texas Instruments if you ask.

Get an Arduino and you will have an ocean of help from 1000 laymen who all know what they are talking about, probably. Get the MSP430 and save a buck or two and get INDIVIDUALIZED ELITE ASSISTANCE from an electrical engineer who knows EXACTLY what he is talking about; and it sounds like he is willing to hold your hand each and every step of the way---which, as an electrical engineer myself, I can tell you is no small thing to offer a stranger. You are a better man than I, /u/blue_dreamer!

Correct but I found that using the Rasberry Pi 3 was difficult to configure and use screen flip mode also the Raspberry Pi uses HDMI and most cheap monitors you can find on Craigslist or a thrift store use the old VGA connectors and the HDMI to VGA with the little 3.5mm speaker output are at best iffy. I tried to get it all working for quite a while before I threw up my hands and bought this thing from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Arrival-Classical-upgrade-Arcade-Machine/dp/B0103X7KXS
Although many of the games are duplicates or require an 8 way joystick or a roller ball like Centipede. So by the time you turn off all of the games you don't like or are not really compatible with a cocktail game (no screen flip etc), you might as well get this board which is actually better. https://www.amazon.com/Easyget-Classical-Arcade-TV-Plug-Play/dp/B01L1UT0R6 You just need to buy little stand offs to keep elevated so air can flow around it. You can get the stand offs and the power supply you need and the harness by getting a kit like this https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Multigame-Multicade-cocktail-control/dp/B00F1YQ9LO but I bought extra buttons (illuminated kind) and a blue knob so that player one is red and player 2 is blue.

But yes, if you are thrifty the build cost is at about $500.00

Glass: I found a lady selling two glass top end tables on craigslist for $50.00 so $25.00 worth of glass

Monitor: I found a guy selling used LCD monitors. I paid $25.00 and I regret it. I walked into a goodwill just to see what they had and they have a bunch of old LCD monitors for $5.00. I used a 19" Dell but a 17" would actually fit the bezels better.

For the wine barrel again Craigslist. There are quite a few people that get them from wineries and resell them. $75.00 - $125 is common. I paid $100.00 because I got to pick the best one he had. You want a fresh one that still smells like wine and hasn't been sitting outside in the elements for months.

For the control box I used MDF. I had the guy at home depot do the rough cuts for me for 25cents per cut because I have tools to do the finish work. If you don't you could plan it all out and have him do all the cuts for you. :)

MDF was about $50

The artwork was the expensive part. The printing for the bezel was about $100.00 and the vinyl graphics from ebay that I used for the control panels were about $75.00.

I also bought a switched power receptical so I could plug it into the wall and have a switch to turn the arcade on and off. Also a cheap power strip hot glued to the inside of the barrel for the monitor and computer power supply. I found some old computer speakers that I ran in series to make them 8 ohm and connected them directly to the computer box. Put them wherever you feel you need to but keep in mind these old games don't need the best sound quality and you can hear them plenty loud under the bezel and glass. You don't need them in the front panel facing the player.

That's pretty much it.

Don't get too hung up on 24-bit audio. What's more important is to get equipment that'll allow you to tell the difference between 24-bit and 16-bit (depending on your ears, this might not even be possible).

Your home theater will be centered around either a receiver or a processor (If you're not prepared to spend more than $5,000 on the project, it will be a receiver). Gaming consoles, blu-ray players, and PC's will all be able to transmit uncompressed (PCM or TrueHD) surround sound to a receiver via HDMI.

In the meantime, we need to get high-fidelity stereo audio from your PC. This can be accomplished many ways, including the following:

• DAC + Powered Speakers: The cheapest and easiest solution, but the quality isn't going to be mind-blowing. Get a FiiO D3 if your existing sound card supports S/PDIF-out, or an HRT Music Streamer if it doesn't. As for powered speakers, the Swan M200MKIII are hard to beat.
  
  
• Receiver & Passive Speakers: This solution will be the easiest to upgrade when it comes time to build your home theater. I'm not hip to receivers, so you will have to ask elsewhere for advice on which to buy. You can use a pair of high-quality bookshelf speakers, such as the Monitor Audio M2, in the meantime. When you upgrade to 7.1, they can be re-used as your rear speakers.
  
  
• DAC & Amp & Passive Speakers: With this solution, the quality of the end result is only limited by your budget. You can use one of the two DACs I linked above, or something more high-end like a Musical Fidelity V-DAC. From there you need either an integrated amp or a separate power amp and preamp. Add a pair of high-quality bookshelf speakers for a truly hi-fi experience. I can't really tell you what to buy, since there are so many options, but you should be able to find a ton of advice online. Your selection isn't affected by the fact that you're using a DAC; you're looking for the same amps and speakers as people using turntables or CD/SACD players. Many amazing deals can be found on Audiogon.
  
  
• HEADPHONES: The combination of a DAC, headphone amp, and a pair of audiophile cans will net you much higher quality than a speaker system at the same price. Combining an HRT Music Streamer, a Little Dot MKIII, and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT-990 600-ohm will give you incredible sound for your money. There's a ton of other good options for cans, amps, and DACs, so shop around.

Sorry for resurrecting a two-week old thread, I didn't see this earlier for some reason.

I don't bother with a lot of the steps you're talking about here. For example, I don't heat/agitate in the etching tank at all. I just wear nitrile gloves and dip the board in a plastic container of etchant, pull it out, dip it in, pull it out, occasionally turning it over... it gets enough oxygen from the air to make the process go fairly quickly. No need to get fancy, especially when working with nasty chemicals. Keep it simple, keep it safe.

My purpose in DIY PCB fab is to prototype a board and verify that a design works with a turnaround time of hours rather than days. So I aim for "good enough." If I want it pretty, with solder mask, silkscreen etc., then I'll send it off to a fabricator.

Building your own spin coater is going to be potentially dangerous work (possibly flinging carcinogenic solvents everywhere, if not the board too) and it's really, really not worth it for solder mask. When I used a spin coater for photoresist at school, we had it going at 3000 rpm, under a fume hood and yellow lights, in a cleanroom. The board was held in place on the spindle by vacuum. You can get really, really nice results etching with a 5 micron layer of photoresist.

But at home, I use a negative dry film photoresist with a laminator and UV light. I use it to etch, not for solder mask, but I'm sure you could use it for that if you wanted.
https://www.amazon.com/INSMA-Photosensitive-Circuit-Production-Photoresist/dp/B01C5SUMAC/
Use cellophane tape to separate the protective plastic film layers. Then you can use a clothes iron on the lowest setting to apply the photoresist to the board, but you'll get more consistent results with a few passes through a laminator set at about 110C.

Make sure you follow the recipe for the developer solution closely (~1% by weight of sodium carbonate to warm water, or about 10 grams per liter). If you use too much of the soda it actually takes a lot longer to develop. Even with the right mix, it's not like those presensitized boards you can buy that develop in seconds. Normally it takes about 5-10 minutes to develop, I use a soft toothbrush and nitrile gloves and just scrub gently in the developing solution for about twice as long as it looks like I need to.

Other random stuff:
I don't do solder mask, but I do put my boards in liquid tin for 5 minutes after I'm done etching them. You can re-use that stuff almost forever. It is kind of nasty, but I don't think it's any nastier than used etchant. It keeps the copper from oxidizing on the hot plate, which can make rework soldering a bitch. I also use a dremel drill press, but drilling sucks so I use SMT/SOIC parts as much as possible.

For the UV light, I don't think polarizing film will help. Sunglasses don't keep you from seeing stuff that's not directly in front of you, right? You'll still get radiation at incident angles. You probably won't need it anyway unless you're doing super fine work, in which case you would need a collimator. I guess you could make one by cutting strips of plastic and gluing them into a grid or something like that, but like I said, I wouldn't bother. If you do this, put it close to the light, you don't want it too close to the photoresist. I'd probably try moving the UV sources farther away first if I was having trouble with exposure angles. You can get really nice results with angles up to about 20 degrees, it doesn't have to be perfect.

I don't like transparencies, and neither does my laser printer, or my wallet. The good ones are a dollar each. Heavy clear vellum (tracing paper) is much cheaper, seems to take more toner, and is still UV transparent. It's a little harder to get layers lined up if you don't have a light table, but still no big deal. The thin vellum you can find at the office supply stores will work too, but tends to jam in a laser printer. I can't find heavy 95gsm clear vellum (65# in freedom units) locally, so I buy it online:
https://www.amazon.com/Vellum-Value-Pack-Pkg-Clear-95gsm/dp/B0086XIBCW

Theres a lot of guides out there and most of the hard work has been done for you. You can buy a kit with a pcb, case and switches.

However if you want to build a fully custom keyboard you can try to follow what I tried the other day.
Theres a few things parts youll need for a keyboard.

1. Layout: You can make your own layout or you can use one of the popular layouts. Copy the raw data.
   
   
2. You can buy a case and plate, 60% are fairly common and universal. However you can build your own. Paste the raw data from (1) and generate a CAD file for your case. You can have it laser cut out of wood, acrylic or Aluminum. If you are using Aluminum for the plate, get 1.5mm thick aluminum so the switches will snap into place. However if you use something like wood or acrylic, you'll need something thicker. I found some scraps of 5mm wood. The switches wont click but you can hot glue them in place.
   
   
3. Switches: choose the kind you like.
   
   
4. Youll need to buy: Wires (20-22 gauge wire will work, but I just stripped and old ethernet cable), Diodes (Someone already did the research and decided this one is the best one. You'll need one for every switch.)
   
   
5. MicroController: Teensy 2.0/3.0 or ProMicros. These are well supported.
   
   
6. Lastly you'll need an QMK. Paste the raw data from (1) or you can use one of the presets. Choose the type of controller. This is where you will create a firmware for you keyboard. Save the Hex file.
   
   
   You'll need to wire your switches into a matrix. Make sure the switches are in the right orientation. Wire them to the pins on your microcontroller. Make sure they match with the rows and columns that you chose on the QMK. Lastly, you need to flash your keyboard. Theres a few guides online for this, but if you choose the teensy you can follow this.

No responses, but of course I did my own research in the mean time and here's what I came up with, in case others come upon this and have the same questions.

This looks like a pretty popular project, so there were of course some pre-existing products and open sourced solutions such as growerbot and gardenbot http://www.growerbot.com/blog/page/2/ http://gardenbot.org/. Based on some of their choices and perusing through other forums I decided on the following:

• Lux / light sensor: Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sensor Breakout http://www.adafruit.com/products/ 0.1 - 40,000 Lux
  
• Soil Temperature: Going by this design: http://gardenbot.org/howTo/ http://www.amazon.com/TEXAS-INSTRUMENTS-LM335Z-TEMPERATURE-TO-92-3/dp/B00DKC5PKA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405110565&sr=8-1&keywords=LM335 -40C to +100C temp +-1C accuracy
  
• Soil moisture: http://www.amazon.com/Soil-Moisture-Sensor-Arduino-Compatible/dp/B00B886H7S#productDescription | more prodcut info: http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_2159381_-1 Measures dry soil to 'in water,' with an approximate DC voltage out
  
• Humidity and Air Temperature: DHT22 temperature-humidity sensor + extras http://www.adafruit.com/products/385 0-100% humidity with 2-5% accuracy | -40C to +80C temp +-0.5C accuracy
  
  I thought this was a pretty good start but for future consideration I may want to include PH and CO2 measurement. I didn't find a solid result for PH measurement, but it looked like it would be more complicated and pricey. I found a good CO2 sensor, but since it's price is half what I've paid for everything so far I decided it would be good to put off until later http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1023.

Well I tend to get carried away. You will use fewer LEDs than you expect. I have a pile of the things, and dont think I will need to buy more for a decade. The first thing I ran out of in the kit was 10k resistors, and the first thing I had to buy that the kit didnt have were a bunch of 2n2222 transistors. Best bet is to find a list of projects that interest you and buy the parts for them. Buy more of any parts that are present in multiple projects. I bought capacitor, transistor, and diode kits from amazon that have some of the most common of each.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XSFNYFP/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H1W6VV6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077KM7XTY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you plan on making your own circuit boards (which you will if you want to keep your projects,) there are cheap perfboard assortments that are handy too. Last thing, because this list is getting out of hand, when I first started, I had electrical experience, but no electronics experience. When I started making my out circuit boards, I was using stranded wire, and tinning each wire before inserting it in the board. Worked just fine, but "hook up" wire (which I had never heard of), is solid core wire that doesnt need to be tinned. Good gravy did that speed up the process.

I thought I was done, but then I thought of more. I2C LCD screens are cool too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K1N4XM6/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Qunqi-Serial-Backlight-Arduino-MEGA2560/dp/B01E4YUT3K/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1522421759&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=i2c+lcd&psc=1

They only use 4 pins including ground and power, instead of 12 or whatever the crap the standard ones need. Super easy to set up and use. Alright Im done. You wont be able to get on the plane if you try to take home any more than all that. :D

That sounds about right. Even if it ends up not working out I would recommend you try anyway because your next project could be a success.

This will most likely also require soldering experience. I suggest you get a pack of crappy plated perf boards and a big pack of resistors and just spend an hour or two doing nothing but soldering.

The physical assembly steps could be interesting to live stream, but be careful because a lot of people will start making suggestions that may or may not be good that you would be better off ignoring.

I do stuff like this professionally, so if you have questions that aren't getting answered (or don't want to post something publicly) feel free to PM me.

Edit: Plated perf board that will work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072Z7Y19F

Resistor pack: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L851T3V

Feel free to hit me up with questions. I have always wanted to design a sex toy, so I learned a lot of relevant skills, but unfortunately I have a job that uses all of those skills now and I am too busy to work on my passion projects.

Hey there everyone! Sorry for the late followup. I've been unpacking from graduation and the like... Also, as a neat update to my earlier post, I was just contacted by the College Football Hall of Fame to display my cap in the Hall for a few weeks. Neat!

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures during the build process, but here's my general construction setup.

Supplies needed:

• [12,000 mAh portable battery pack on Amazon (might be overkill)]
  (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SSY1AJU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
  
  
• Teensy 3.2 microcontroller running Arduino firmware
  
  
• 32x32 LED matrix with 6mm pitch
  
  
• [SmartMatrix SD Shield v3 - for Teensy 3.2]
  (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1902)
  
  
• Solder/Soldering iron
  
• Boxcutter
  
• LOTS of hot glue
  
• Male USB-male barrel jack cable (or a means to create one. Just requires cutting and soldering two wires together)
  
• MicroSD cards (Formatted in FAT32)
  
  Steps:
  
  

1. The first step is to assemble your SmartMatrix SD Shield, as described in the tutorial here. This attachment will allow you to easily connect your Teensy 3.2 microcontroller to your 32x32 matrix, as well as display animated GIFs off of an SD card. Follow all of the steps, and make sure to cut the connections on the board where the guide indicates.
   
   
2. Download the Arduino IDE here.
   
   
3. Install the Teensy Loader Application for your Arduino IDE here.
   
   
4. Connect your Teensy 3.2 to your Arduino IDE.
   
   
5. You will need to install the SmartMatrix Library for Arduino, located here. If you need information about correctly installing Arduino libraries, go here.
   
   
6. I based my project off of the SmartMatrix Library's AnimatedGIFs example, located in File, Examples, SmartMatrix_32x32, AnimatedGIFs. The guide located here may also be useful. Documentation on scrolling text is also located on the SmartMatrix Github.
   
   
7. The 32x32 LED display will not lay perfectly flat on a mortarboard with the SmartMatrix SD Shield and Teensy 3.2 attached. You will need to do some cutting from the top of the mortarboard and assembly with hot glue to make it stay. I mounted the LED display to the mortarboard with the display's included four mounting screws that attach to the back of the display.
   
   
8. Plug in your USB battery to the barrel jack on the SmartMatrix SD shield, and verify that the Arduino is powered and the display is operational
   
   
9. Success!
   
   General Information
   
   

• YES I realize I mounted the display a little crooked, and it bothers me as much as it does you... Cut me some slack though, it was 2AM the night before graduation and I'd already hacked half the cardboard in my mortarboard to shreds :P
  
  
• The 32x32 LED matrix typically draws around 2A, ~4A MAX when all LEDs are white and at full intensity. The 2A from the USB battery should do the trick though, and will likely last for around 4-5 hours.
  
  
• Total build cost was around $70-80
  
  
• Total time to build was roughly ten hours.
  
  
• In order to display animated GIFs correctly, they will need to be formatted as 32x32 .gif files on the SD card. Sizing, as well as where to put the GIFs is covered in the guide in Step 6.
  
  Picture of the Grad Cap During Graduation
  
  
• http://i.imgur.com/tEyHURP.jpg
  
  Link to Source Video
  
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-VXwk23DyI&
  
  Arduino Source Code
  
  
• http://pastebin.com/yBsZisqG

Wow thank you so much, this was very helpful. :)

​

If i am understanding you correctly, this is the new diagram (https://imgur.com/a/Y6XohGa).

1. Use the red and white power lines from the wall and connect them to this buck converter.
   
2. Configure the buck converter to change the voltage from 16 volts to 5 volts.
   
3. Connect wires from the buck converter to this bridge rectifier to convert the power from AC to DC.
   
4. Connect the wires from the bridge rectifier to the two power ports on the WiFi Relay
   
5. Solder the wires from the relay on the Wifi Relay to the two pins that activate the buzzer
   
6. Voila! :D
   
   ​
   
   One question I had was can I use the existing red and black lines to power both the original unit and the buck converter/bridge rectifier/wifi relay? Would i just cut off some of the plastic coatings of the black and red wires somewhere in the middle and wrap the other wires around the two?
   
   My thinking is that this would effectively make two "ends" for the wires that i can use to power the existing circuit board and the buck converter/bridge rectifier/wifi relay.

A few tips. Use a hotter setting, the faster you get in and out the less heat spreads through the board. But not so hot you burn out the flux. If your joint turns from shiny to grey it got too hot. I would recommend picking up these and practicing.

Good luck and have fun!

I've used several of those boards in the past. They're more commonly known as "Perf" boards, or perforated boards, instead of PCB's, because there's really nothing "printed" on them. I found the easiest way to make connections between components is to use one of their legs as the trace between 2 points. This site has a good example of that.

Alternately, you may prefer to use a bus board or solderable bread board instead, which will have printed rails included that will keep your resulting soldering much cleaner. I'm a big fan of these Sparkfun solderable bread boards. They're really solidly made, double-sided, and even cheaper than these single-sided bus board proto boards from Amazon. You may still need to create unique traces on your own, but with the bus board or solderable bread board, it's easier to do this with jumper wire.

My biggest issue with converting anything to LED is going from AC from the magneto to the DC that most LED setups require. On top of that, you will probably need 12 Volts since most mopeds are a 6v light circuit and that's kinda weak when it comes to LEDs.

SO, with all that in mind, you will need a 12v coil and a full wave rectifier to convert that 12VAC to 12VDC. half wave will covert 12VAC to 6VDC. If you are still going to use filament bulbs, you will also need a regulator or like 14.7v or whatever it is bulbs. Even though it's a 12V coil, it will probably shit out like 14 or so and that will blow those bulbs pretty quickly if left unregulated. LED stuff usually has a range of voltage it will accept but not always, so be sure to check that.

Anyways, this coil is cheap and already has a floating ground making the DC conversion easier.

These will work well for rectifiers (i'd put one at the tail and one at the headlight) or you could get a trail tech reg/rec if you don't mind the pricetag

I hope that makes sense.

BTW. You can buy some prototyping board (like this) and some through-hole resistor (like this) to practice your soldering, as soldering diodes and switches are pretty much the same technique, and they are super cheap. ;)

For a homebuilt project just for yourself yes. For a production something or another that you sell or give to use then no. The goal is to have the quality of the latter be what you normally do in homebuilt. Unless it's just not that critical and you're throwing something together.

But at the same time, you want to have good habits and procedures.

Dead bug construction probably is the way to go if you want to get something together with the least amount of hassle and don't care about appearances or end usage that much.

I personally never have been fond of dead bug. I've used experimenter solder boards (or something similar since Radio Shack closed. They really seem to have the right mix of convenience, solderability, and neatness all the way around that I feel good with the construction. Also, it's easier to use salvaged and other components with shorter leads like this without adding on leads.

Cool, I have been messing with some stuff I have at home already, I am going to go with a Tennsy setup for this. The Teensy 3.2 is small and plenty powerful enough.
https://www.amazon.com/PJRC-6485230-Teensy-3-2/dp/B015M3K5NG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510164964&sr=8-1&keywords=teensy+3.2

it has an add on board that handles everything else called a "prop board" for doing projects exactly like this. 10DOF motion, 2W amp, controls LEDs also.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZYN7LLC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

price is still cheaper than a sound board, and way more configurable.

I got it from amazon.

Playing around with it, I'm impressed that it can even identify and measure things like coils, capacitors, resistors, etc.

If you want to have the easiest possible transistion from breadboard, I would recommend either this , this one or these ones.

Those would be a lot easier to switch to since they already have the connected rails that you're familiar with, the only problem being the cost.

Parts list for the interested

From amazon:

[perf baord](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ARTP1J4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
) $6, or any would do really.

[Battery](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY0W11T/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
) $8

[Screen](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045IIZKU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
) $18

[buttons for x/y and shoulders](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0177ALAAE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
) $6


From Ebay.

[Shell](http://www.ebay.com/itm/GBA-Nintendo-Game-Boy-Advance-Replacement-Housing-Shell-Screen-Lens-Glacier-USA-/201114796639?hash=item2ed360425f:g:0Q4AAOSwV0RXufqw
) $12

[Speaker](http://www.ebay.com/itm/361510390912?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
) $5

[USB breakout board](http://www.ebay.com/itm/381578685439?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
) $0.99

From Adafruit.

Pi $5

Jst cable $0.75

Power boost 1000c $18

Mono audio amp $4

From Radio shack.

[Headphone jack](https://www.radioshack.com/collections/connectors-adapters/products/radioshack-1-8-stereo-panel-mount-phone-jack
) $3

[Volume wheel](https://www.radioshack.com/collections/trimmers-thermistors/products/radioshack-10k-ohm-wheel-potentiometer
) $2

Components for the low pass filter as also from radioshack, about $8.
Total without shipping: $100.

Neat. that said I have so many spare perf boards for making prototypes, and that's generally what I use. perf board amazon kit

Using this ADC and using this sensor hooked up to a raspberry pi and breadboard with pi cobbler type attachment. Still waiting on the ADC to come in from Amazon.

Here is mine I followed this guide. When I bought mine it was only $14 on Amazon. If you start with the Jellycomb Numpad, you don't have to buy switches or a case... Just the Teensy 2.0 and the diodes.

There may be other options, this one is very easy to get you started.

Seems like a great idea, reminded me of this tool I bought. This thing isd badass. I pop a transistor in and it tells me what pins are bce, as well as beta values and misc info. Also test all other basic components, esr to test capacitors in circuit, it also has a built in pwm, signal generators, etc. this thing is a must have, I'm posting it to so you can take a look and give you more iudeas for your project. But look at the pricing and how much people will pay. this thing is $25 and basically tests everything but ic's. An ic tester would be badass. Maybe even have a usb where the home user could update it to test new ic's you add to the firmware? Is firmware the right word. I haven't messed with anm ardrino yet and I have a couple in my lab. Working 6 days a week and don't have the time :( I really wanted to leanr how to use the damn thing.
http://www.amazon.com/Yosoo-Display-Transistor-Cymometer-Generator/dp/B00OOQC2E8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

If it helps, they sell FR4 with the bredboard layout. I use them sometimes, they're handy.

This is what I'm talking about

I don't really wanna post the code for ethical reasons (I started with some basic Adafruit code for bluetooth and turned it into a full OS). But here's a feature list:

1. Bluetooth, where time, battery percentage, and location are automagically updated by a companion app (a modified version of this app by Nordic Semiconductor.)
   
   
2. A stopwatch, accessed by pressing the left button.
   
   
3. A flashlight, turned on by one of the switches
   
   
4. A "dumb mode" in which only the time is displayed, accessed by flipping the bottom switch
   
   
5. In the future, notifications.
   
   I used u8g2's u8x8 mode for the screen drawing, as it requires no ram.
   
   ​
   
   Here are my parts:
   
   Voltage regulator (takes 8.4v down to 5v)
   
   22pF capacitors
   
   16MHz Oscillator (required for standalone board)
   
   DIYMall blue OLED
   
   Knockoff Arduino Uno
   
   Adafruit UART-Capable bluetooth module (makes sending data easier)
   
   Spare ATMega 328 processors
   
   Li-Ion" 9V" (8.4v) batteries (rechargeable)
   
   Switches
   
   9V battery clip
   
   Soldering Kit
   
   Elegoo prototyping PCBs
   
   Jumper wires (makes life easier & tidier)
   
   Elegoo Starter Kit (Comes with LEDs, resistors, and buttons)

Also, continuous vote tallies are suuuper duper close to being ready to go, and I got the ADC I need to get moisture monitoring set up, sometime...

The Naze32 was my first FC, and I had basically no prior experience with soldering. With a little reading or watching of YouTube tutorials, the soldering involved isn't very difficult. You could also pick up some cheap bits of circuit board to practice. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00FXHXT80/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1479110310&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=circuit+board&dpPl=1&dpID=51sjhgnpTGL&ref=plSrch

Wouldn't recommend the Naze32 now though. You can get so much more for barely any more money.

If you are set on the style that uses pads, I'd go for KISS above Lux. I've seen too many people have issues with the 6500 gyro.

Here's a diagram - https://imgur.com/a/oS7iO7I

And here are the parts (doorbell not included):

1. Sonoff SV
   
2. Bridge Rectifier
   
3. Capacitor
   
   I will note that the rectifier and capacitor that I have listed are likely grossly oversized, I just used what I had on hand since it was a one off project, and I didn't feel like figuring out the proper specifications for them.
   
   I have the Sonoff flashed with Tasmota. You can set the doorbell button up as a button on GPIO 14 through the configuration menu, then set the PulseTime option to 2 (0.2 seconds) in the console, so that the bell doesn't get stuck on if someone holds the doorbell button down.

https://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Chanzon-KBPC5010-Rectifier-Electronic/dp/B079KDL8Y5/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=50a+bridge+rectifier&qid=1558967574&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Appropriate rectifiers are cheap and commonly available. You don't NEED a capacitor to make a rectifier work, either, and for this particular application, it wouldn't make any sense to use one.

Getting back to the parent question - a rectifier would work just fine, and only add a few dollars to the cost of the showerhead. I suspect a rectifier WOULD make such a showerhead somewhat safer, too.

I've been looking at

this: MCP3008
and
this: Using A Joystick On The Raspberry Pi Using An MCP3008

Reckon that could work?

Replace the Arduino with a Teensy3.2; it runs Arduino code and is very small in comparison (with more RAM than the Arduino Uno). Solder the connections to the Teensy. Power the Teensy directly from the battery bank and use a micro USB breakout to convert the battery bank's output to wires that can be soldered into the Teensy. The LEDs should receive power in parallel, not in series. I've found the capacitor unnecessary in every wearable LED project I've done. If you only have single-core wire, helix the three strands together to make a neater cable. I usually build a holster from a coat hanger to hold the battery pack on the hat. It can also go in your pocket.

Because the flasher works with the resistance (or impedance) of the bulb to make it flash as a certain rate. Without the correct impedance, it will flash MUCH quicker.

Your headlight is probably running on an AC circuit right now. Do you to LED, you need a full wave bridge rectifier to convert it to DC.

This little guy will do the trick. https://www.amazon.com/NTE-Electronics-NTE53016-Rectifier-Recurrent/dp/B007Z7LXVQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1539133809&sr=8-3&keywords=full%2Bwave%2Bbridge%2Brectifier&th=1

I use a Musical Fidelity V-DAC II to do exactly that (except via RCA rather than 3.5mm) and it works fine.

Jeg har et par af dem fra en kit.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adafruit-MCP3008-856-Converter-Interface/dp/B00NAY3RB2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?imprToken=8T6MevTUTkATMIt6M60Umw&keywords=MCP3008&linkCode=g13&qid=1563247307&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Diodes and Teensy model I'm considering

Those are the most common type. You can get those off ebay or amazon(i got these recently). Probably cheaper off ebay, but you may wait about a month to get them.

Would this work? https://www.amazon.com/NTE-Electronics-NTE53016-Rectifier-Recurrent/dp/B007Z7LXVQ

Actually I guess I do have a question! Im using the
MSP430G2 dev board:

https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-Educational-Products-MSP-EXP430G2/dp/B004G52S82/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480834698&sr=8-1&keywords=MSP430


Would I be able to do any of the stuff thats linked after lesson 7? Since I know it states it uses a different board....like are they gonna be WAYYYY different?

Here is the mobile version of your link

Buy a speaker. Buy a little triwing screwdriver. Buy a soldering iron and a bit of thin rosin-core solder.

It's a straightforward repair, and pretty easy as far as soldering goes, but it might make some sense to buy a small section of protoboard and some segments of wire to get used to the feel of soldering, before attacking your childhood Game Boy.

You can see the patterns in judgement on the graph in u/pieman445's comment. There's gaps where you simply can't hit the arrow. It could lead to lost steps or late judgements even though you stepped on time. I switched over to a teensy microcontroller and it completely eliminated the problem