While I’m struggling to find the time to finish assembling the Chronometers, I did manage to throw together a new pin badge – this time with blinking LEDs!
When 65daysofstatic asked us to bring “pixel accessories” to their Wild Light anniversary shows in September, I might have taken that request a little too seriously.
I really like the aesthetic of the “Wreckage Systems” version of the band’s logo and I thought its simplicity would lend itself well to an LED pin badge.
Once I’d settled on a size (3cm x 3cm), the design came together very quickly. This badge is essentially a rearranged Roberto badge, albeit with blinking red 0805 LEDs instead of the 1206 LEDs that I’m used to. Early on in the design process I had considered 4 LEDs, one for each quadrant, but there wasn’t enough space on such a small PCB.
This badge required a slight change in my workflow. I was struggling to get svg2shenzhen to correctly generate front copper and soldermask layers that were properly aligned – a small amount of the copper would always be peeking around the edge. After trying to fix the issue in Inkscape I eventually ended up switching over to svg2mod which generated the layers perfectly. I suspect I’ll keep both tools in hand for future projects.
As usual PCBWay managed to get these to me within a week of me ordering them which was timed well with the slow blinking LEDs arriving from AliExpress. These are a little fiddlier to assemble than other badges of mine due to the smaller 0805 LEDs but the result looks fantastic.
These will be available on Tindie as usual, I really want to get these into as many people’s hands as possible for the gigs in September.