Readit NewsI hope someone digs up a proper source for that because this one is a pile of AI slop illustrated with more AI slop.
Edit: I could not find anything yet.
_Microft commented on Ultrathin business card runs a fluid simulation github.com/Nicholas-L-Joh... · Posted by u/wompapumpum
I was thinking of throwing in a game like Tetris with just accelerometer controls. That'll be after I find a job though. Numbers were actually the first things I displayed, I actually still have all the code to display them still sitting unused.
Text has been less of a success. Having the letters be easily legible takes more space than I would have thought, and the small pixel fonts don't look great with the big spacing between the LEDs. Maybe some scrolling text would look good, but I haven't focused on it too much. I tried getting a QR code displayed, but it didn't want to scan.
For buttons, I'm kind of married to the idea of no buttons. The accelerometer does recognize clicks and double clicks in different directions, so that might be useful for something.
I encourage anyone who wants to fork/contribute/post issues on this to do so and I'll try to be a good maintainer.
Thanks for the detailed reply. I actually like the idea of using the accelerometer as input device and the design choice of using no buttons.
What’s the update rate of the LED matrix if I may ask? Maybe the combination of an accelerometer and the LEDs lends itself to a persistence of vision display?
_Microft commented on Ultrathin business card runs a fluid simulation github.com/Nicholas-L-Joh... · Posted by u/wompapumpum
If you are curious what PCB designs or schematics look like, you can use an online viewer for KiCad files to find out yourself:
https://kicanvas.org/?github=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FNich...
@creator of the card (phirks?): have you considered further interactivity or maybe using the LED matrix for showing text or other information?
You could use touch buttons for control as they basically add nothing to the BOM?
Edit: this is of course really awesome as it is
Deleted Comment
The cost of the PCBs must be driven by assembly, right? The board itself should qualify for JLCPCB's budget offer at least: 2 layers (judging by the KiCAD-screenshot), < 100mm, HASL, nothing special about solder mask or board thickness either from the look of it. I'm not not sure about the plated slots of the USB connector, though? Do these cost extra?
How many did you get assembled per version? Just two of the boards or all five of them? Did you try to stick to using the standard parts or extended library? Which difference would it have made to do some work on the PCBs yourself, e.g. by soldering the through-hole connectors by hand?
Either way, it is definitely an amazing project!
Edit: as soon as any part is from the extended library, all different components (even standard ones) incur a cost for loading them into the pick and place machine, right? So minimizing number of different components is the only way of keeping the cost down, I guess.