October 2014 updates

Maybe not really obvious but a lot of stuff is going on at the humble Low Power Lab. Let me just throw in some announcements and updates:

• Moteino R4s, MoteinoMEGAs and ATXRaspis are now coming in ENIG gold finish. This is to move towards more professional looking PCBs and to meet RoHs lead-free status. This costs a bunch more to make but instead of raising prices I actually discounted the Moteino options and will do my best to lower prices even more. I am trying hard to keep Moteino a high quality product at an affordable price for makers and businesses alike.
  
• I’ve been busy putting together the requirements for my THP entry. The top 5 finalists will be announced around October 13. If Moteino Framework makes it in the finals that would be quite cool, but would put more stress on me to meet the extra criteria required by end of October.

• One of the things I’m working on is getting a Motion-OLED shield for Moteino ready for production. Here’s a peek of it:
  
• I’ve been having a blast with my new pick and place. I am transitioning all my designs to panels and adding fiducials for vision correction. I can’t help but mention that there’s a world of difference between professional machines and “DIY Open Source” type of machine that are just toys. Before getting my assembly equipment, I was doing manual assembly with a $20 modified aquarium pump and reflowing in a slightly enhanced toaster oven. Other than me physically being there I still think my previous methods were better and more productive than a lot of these makeshift pick’n’places.
  

  Something tells me that people are fascinated with “DIY open source pick and place machines and 3D printers” and other not really “connected” devices which was the main point of the Hackaday Prize contest. I know exactly why we’ve not seen even one such successful Pick’n’Place project, not even close, and my prediction is we will not see one too soon either based on my experience with a real one. I will expand on that more extensively in a future Pick and Place article.

• There is a new revision of PowerShield, mostly PCB changes and making stuff more obvious to understand and use: