PolkaDot

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/otherfab/the-othermill-custom-circuits-at-your-fingertips?ref=live This is one I saw; going for around $1300.

Recently had my first go at printing a board and soldering surface-mount components. It's a straight-forward breakout for an FT230XS. Technique: On the etching side, I used a 2:1 mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide solution and Muratic Acid. Initially clear, it turned a lovely neon green when the copper started reacting! Etch took maybe 5-6 minutes. I used an "ultra fine tip" Sharpie as the resist; learned the hard way that the 'Micron' brand of super fine tip pens doesn't work for this application :-( . I was struggling to mark the pads with the sharpie, so instead I drew a dark box across an

So TI puts out a lot of awesome $2 chips, many of them QFN packaged (especially in the wireless world). But idly looking around, having a board with any number of lead-less packages assembled is super expensive! I mean >$10 per board at ~1000 volume. I understand it's because they X-ray the boards to evaluate the solder joints, and you can do it yourself with hot air, but it seems like there's a jump from maybe 100 (DIY) boards to 10,000 (mass produce) to maintain reasonable cost. Is there no way around that? It just seems odd to put out a bunch of dirt-cheap chips, but exclusively

Very cool! What's your total slide length?

On loading blink I'm getting a "CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified" I'm running Windows 7, 64 bit. Lay the knowledge on me

I do want the CC3000 board.. but I think a friend is giving me one for free 8-)

I think this would be extremely useful; reference to some sample code or nuances learned the hard way, as I see in these threads, is invaluable.

Bumping this back up because it seems there are a few CC3000MODs scattered across a few distributors, and I'm hoping to rekindle some discussion on the Boosterpack/Energia libraries TI's boosterpack still isn't available, though I got my sample module a couple weeks back.. and I think I saw TI has the design files online. Perhaps we can print a few? Also just generally, what do the Murata and LSR modules actually add beyond the reference design? I'm just trying to figure out where the $40 price hike comes from.

While we're here, can you recommend or link to any recommended software packages? Much appreciated

I'm in; made this for the pcb logo thread, decided to make it my avatar, then saw this--perfect! It's a raccoon, because engineers like cute fuzzy things.

Or a curious 'coon, because why not. https://www.dropbox.com/s/fam980m7xvn8xbs/43oh%20Racoon%20Polka.png

Perhaps something that sleeps a lot.

I was never a huge fan of images as text, myself. I feel like good graphics and good font should coexist. Or maybe 43oh needs a mascot ;-)

Maybe try this guy on for size? https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1t9e04y6oxvkgl/43oh%20Polka.png Sorry for the link, but couldn't put it in the post. Also ignore that weird black stuff..

CorB, good to know, thanks! Of general note, in Code Composer Studio 5 I had to alter the ISR syntax to get it to compile: #pragma vector=PORT1_VECTOR __interrupt void PORT1_ISR (void) //Instead of: //interrupt(PORT1_VECTOR) PORT1_ISR() One of my boards seems to be getting stuck in the RFSendPacket() function, though; it makes one transmit but never returns. This is puzzling me, since both boards are running the same code, and the other is fine.