Hacklet #17 - Brewswitch; problems and solutions
The brewswitch boards weren't totally right; no major issues but not where I want them to be.
First up, I didn't take advantage of the fact that Fritzing manufactured boards can have tracks on either side; meaning that I ended up with a number of jumpers. Not a major issue, but more stuff to solder up.
The 2nd issue is that I'd just used an RGB Led from Fritzing and not checked whether it was common anode or cathode. Turns out my board needs a common anode, and the LEDs I bought were common cathode. So in the interests of getting a board working, I found a common anode LED and soldered it up with long wire legs so it would fit.
3rd up, OOPS! I managed in the design to connect GND and +V on the Atmega chip. A little creative soldering and that was resolved too!
The 4th issue was that I missed that the LCD required a link to ground from pin 5. Again, no problem with a bit of wiring.
And finally, I found that I'd forgotten to put a resistor connecting the data pin of the temperature to +5v. I wired that in line, and off we went.
All of these issues will be rectified in the next version of the boards, but considering its my first crack at getting something made, I'm pretty pleased with the results. Especially as it does actually work!