Quick up date:
As some of you know - I broke my wrist. "To add insult to injury" it's my right hand. I'm all thumbs on the left. I call it my "stranger" :)
Thanks to all that are still waiting for gauges - you've been more than understanding! I'm back on it, and it might be a bit more time, but I'll keep you updated.
NEWS:
I keep looking into getting PCB boards manufactured for me, but there are three problems with that.
1.) No company in the USA has competitive pricing- they all are over 10 times as much for a small run as other places - so that means I have to order from China. Shipping is no problem, for a buck or two more, FedEx will knock kindly on your door 1-2 days later. The problem is if I order from a US company, each board would cost about $23. SO.....I have mixed feeling about outsourcing something to china - for many reasons. A friend of a friend when to china recently, and found some company there with US standard working conditions and quality. I'm looking into it.
2.) I need to learn Eagle Cad. It's just another piece of software, but it will take a full week to get up to speed.
3.) No matter how careful you are, you always screw up your first order to china(as I'm told) That's fine - it's a steep learning curve - it's just that I don't have a few extra hundred bucks to throw at the problem right now.
Even if I could order boards, there minimum size is 0.5" SQUARE. I'd still have to make these by hand.
I've had to make a few "jigs" to align thing - I compleatly under estimated how important this would be - and how long it would take to get it right. Currently there are about $400 worth of gauges in my trash can. $5 of wood and glue fixed that.
What you can't see is that this "jig" allows me to glue the button into the case accurately. It turns out, that I need to match the depth of the gauge button to your other buttons, or it would look weird.
I also had to special order heat sinks for a DIP(dual in-line package) package - In bar mode, I was starting to stress the driver chip. But the only heat sinks I could source were too tall for a DIP in a socket. So I have to manually file them down by hand to fit. 0.13 inchs does the trick.
I ruined a few gauges when gluing the display into the button. It's easy to get the button off centered. So I bought some laser printer transparency paper and made a jig to help me alight the display to the button.
It's now easy to alighn, when I can't see any light fromt he display, I know I'm 100% aligned. I at first I tried the inverse, but this works much better.
As some of you know - I broke my wrist. "To add insult to injury" it's my right hand. I'm all thumbs on the left. I call it my "stranger" :)
Thanks to all that are still waiting for gauges - you've been more than understanding! I'm back on it, and it might be a bit more time, but I'll keep you updated.
NEWS:
I keep looking into getting PCB boards manufactured for me, but there are three problems with that.
1.) No company in the USA has competitive pricing- they all are over 10 times as much for a small run as other places - so that means I have to order from China. Shipping is no problem, for a buck or two more, FedEx will knock kindly on your door 1-2 days later. The problem is if I order from a US company, each board would cost about $23. SO.....I have mixed feeling about outsourcing something to china - for many reasons. A friend of a friend when to china recently, and found some company there with US standard working conditions and quality. I'm looking into it.
2.) I need to learn Eagle Cad. It's just another piece of software, but it will take a full week to get up to speed.
3.) No matter how careful you are, you always screw up your first order to china(as I'm told) That's fine - it's a steep learning curve - it's just that I don't have a few extra hundred bucks to throw at the problem right now.
Even if I could order boards, there minimum size is 0.5" SQUARE. I'd still have to make these by hand.
I've had to make a few "jigs" to align thing - I compleatly under estimated how important this would be - and how long it would take to get it right. Currently there are about $400 worth of gauges in my trash can. $5 of wood and glue fixed that.
What you can't see is that this "jig" allows me to glue the button into the case accurately. It turns out, that I need to match the depth of the gauge button to your other buttons, or it would look weird.
I also had to special order heat sinks for a DIP(dual in-line package) package - In bar mode, I was starting to stress the driver chip. But the only heat sinks I could source were too tall for a DIP in a socket. So I have to manually file them down by hand to fit. 0.13 inchs does the trick.
I ruined a few gauges when gluing the display into the button. It's easy to get the button off centered. So I bought some laser printer transparency paper and made a jig to help me alight the display to the button.
It's now easy to alighn, when I can't see any light fromt he display, I know I'm 100% aligned. I at first I tried the inverse, but this works much better.
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