04/BLOG

Notes from the workbench.

Tutorials, build write-ups, and the occasional post-mortem where I explain — at length — exactly what went wrong.

Build write-up

I gave my plant a microcontroller it didn't ask for

Soil moisture, pump control, an ESP32, and a tiny PCB. The plant is fine. The project is overkill. The write-up is here.

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Tutorial

KiCad in 90 minutes — schematic to fab files

A no-nonsense walkthrough. No design wizardry, no "easy" shortcuts that aren't. Just the workflow I actually use.

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In progress

The fume sniffer that keeps yelling at me

A particle sensor + RP2040 on the bench arm. It works. It also thinks toast is a hazardous material.

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Post-mortem

Three reasons rev1 boards never work

Footprints. Decoupling. Hubris. Pick any three. A short list, written from the smoking ruins of a prototype.

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Build write-up

A pocket SDR scanner that I probably shouldn't carry around

STM32 driving an RTL-SDR in a 3D-printed grip. Battery life is honest. Reception is suspicious.

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