Engagement Ring Bearer
Complicating an important life event with a bespoke widget seemed like a good idea. Working in secret, an attempt was made to produce a ‘ring bearer’ to supplant the typical box a ring comes in. The concept seemed simple enough - a small geared down DC motor, an MCU and some LEDs. Stack it all up and stick it in a timber box then ship it. Not so unfortunately.
Initial Design:
KiCAD, FreeCAD. Note the horizontal flip to get the solder mask to reveal correctly on the ‘presentation’ side of the PCB.
Prototyping and Initial Fab
The deadline was rapidly approaching, parts were hard to come by and shipping was globally rekt. While cutting, drilling and hacking at sheet metal and veroboard, using precision instruments including a holesaw and a jigsaw - it quickly set in that I may need to abandon the project. Jumping ship for the world’s last STM32 bluepill from the original Microchip PIC16F1824 also was not boding well either.
