Today I was excited to bring together my latest code with my newly assembled circuit boards (see this week's "Photo of the Week"). The first board worked as expected and I was using it to test out new features in both my firmware and interface code. Part way through the morning I decided to move the electronics over to my desk (don't ask me why I wanted to work in the comfort of my mess). After porting my kit to my workstation I connected the power supply. A heartbeat later I realised something was wrong and I quickly unplugged the cable. It took me a couple seconds to realise I had connected the power supply into the wrong jack and in the process I killed a pair of components on the board. It's frustrating that the mistake will cost me a few dollars, it's annoying that it will take me a couple days for replacement parts to come in, but ultimately it was a foolish and avoidable error. The lesson learned is nothing new and it reminds me of sage advice from my old boss in a machine shop; he said, "Think about every step you do, before you do it."
Moving on, after lunch, I was able to program the micro controller on the second board (the smaller board) I showed in yesterday's image. This was exciting as this was the first PCB I've designed where I populated and program my own processor. All the other circuit boards I've made have been "accessories" to development boards that already had a processor chip. I shared my excitement with our school's electronics technician, but we ultimately decided my record was 1:1 for the day, and I need another success to end the day ahead.
Thus, with a couple hours left in the day, I went back to programming. I made some great progress and have a clear spot to jump into my work tomorrow.
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