andrewdotnich

Earlier this year, I resolved to complete more projects, and this is the first!

In just a few months time, I’m going to become a father for the first time. Being an expectant parent, and having some electronics lying around, I thought I’d combine the two!

The idea for this came from a Tessel blog post - taking readings from their modules and sending them directly to a cloud data service. I didn’t want (or think I’d get away with!) bare circuit boards in my newborn’s nursery, so I decided to make a small cover for the board as well.

I’ll be upfront: it’s not quite finished yet. I’m annoyed about that. But in the interests of accountability & transparency, iteration 0 is done!

I made a couple of errors, which I’ll fix when I do iteration 1.

• I got the holes almost lined up correctly, but not enough to make the bolts sit smoothly with the PCB. I’ve got to be more precise.
• I also painted the boards before drilling the holes (because I was ready to paint but not to drill) - sometimes you just have to be blocked.

What I wanted to discover

• That I could simply pick up a new skill, and easily execute what I wanted to do. (This looks really embarrassing when I write it down!)

What I learned instead

• I’m not as good with my hands as I thought.
• Knowing what I want might be a good step towards the result, but it’s foolish to think I can get there in one step.
• For me, better preparation is more important than feeling like I’m moving.
• Iteration is totally acceptable.