Hello world!
My name is Chris and I’ve been working on electronics for 10+ years. I’m hoping to learn more about embedded and do a bunch of fun electronics projects while on CE.
I’m creating this post as a template for others getting started on the forum. The first thing new members should be doing is posting to the build log as a placeholder and introduction.
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Excellent, I’ve been doing software for 20+ years and learning electronics, I’ve done some embedded software development and would love to help out where I can.
This weekend I’ll be building up the “Shine On You Crazy KiCad” boards (videos here: Early look for forum members - Community - The Contextual Electronics Forums). I just got all the parts in today:
https://twitter.com/Chris_Gammell/status/868223416389775361
I also will be building up my Whizoo reflow oven and posting more videos here!
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Still need to build up the Shine On boards, which shouldn’t take too long. The RPi programming will likely take me much longer.
I also decided to take on a project with RS485 transceivers. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and decided i needed to stretch my layout muscles (without filming it). Will update as it gets built:
Repo if you want to follow along:
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Just got two of these beauts in the mail, time to start playing around. Maybe another CE header breakout?
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Update: the blink has blonked!
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Just realized my notifications were all messed up on the site, so I haven’t been subscribed to certain topics. If you w ere waiting for a response from me, I’m sorry about that! Also, if you call out my username with an @ symbol, (ie @ChrisGammell) it will ping me even faster.
Achievement unlocked! 
Built up a new RS485 board for the CE header. Not actually planning on making this first rev into a course, just wanted to build some electronics for myself. Excited to test it out, hoping the CE header continues to be a good fit for future projects!
Of note for future boards…need to add some kind of “legs” to the edge of the board if I’m going to have a significant overhang like this, it doesn’t balance under its own weight.
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Nice, I’d be interested to try RS485. I’ve not used it before.
Also, I noticed your Isopropyl alcohol in the background. Do you use that to clean flux?
Yep, I do. But this is particularly weak isopropyl (72%) so it’s not that great.
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Should be able to get at least 91%+ up to 99% at any local drugstore, if I was closer I’d pick some up for you.
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Yeah, think I got this with my grocery delivery, need to stop by the drug store next time.
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What is the best way to apply to the board?
I’ve heard toothbrush. Thus far I’ve used eye glasses wipes but they don’t work very good. I ordered these from Amazon yesterday so look forward to trying them out:
I’ve seen many examples on YouTube using KimWipes with a brush. I picked some up a few weeks ago, they seem to work as advertised.
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Hi Chris can you send me your email, I wish to refer an advertiser to you.
Hey @ChrisGammell, I’m excited to see how these Beaglephone-Pocket boards turn out. Are these going through the Whizoo reflow oven?
Got my PCBs back, look decent. Parts come in today. pic.twitter.com/dPxFdWleJg
— Chris Gammell (@Chris_Gammell) October 24, 2017
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Actually planning to take those to the reflow oven at mHub, think it’s a Manncorp