2022 #03 update

Hello world,

This update marks the third update of 2022 which, as scary as it might sound, already completes 25% of 2022!

But don’t be scared, because we just did an amazing PCB design sprint. On the first day of March we decided to make a new revision of the development board, and somehow, on the last day of March we have a completely new revision of the board in our hands!

Let me tell you what changed:

Firstly we switched platforms, previous PCBs were designed in EasyEDA, lovely software, and very friendly for learning how to make a PCB. But now we switched to KiCad, this is open-source software in which it is a lot simpler to control versions and to build for large-scale projects. Both me and Jure had to learn how to use it, but we managed to figure it out! That said, I still don’t fully understand the complete scale of KiCad, but it seems good software.

Next up we rearranged some components so the LEDs are nicely in the middle of the PCB and different test setups can be mounted to it.

This time we also made sure that the silkscreen marking is done properly 😅.

And lastly, we added some input and output to start the scanning sequence and to indicate the status of the Plastic Scanner!

Our main goal for March was to make this PCB and be able to share it with you, and I think most of it worked, we are still finishing the documentation, but it should be done soon! The instructions will soon be on docs.plasticscanner.com but remember, this is a development board, it requires a computer connection and it only outputs the measured values. In the coming months, we will work more to make this a streamlined process, but for now, we need to take small steps at a time.

That is it for this time! Hope you liked the update, and check it out again next month!

Greetz, Jerry ✌️