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I just noticed the Sparkfun Eagle file for a size 0805 capacitor
defines a very much smaller pair of pads than the corresponding file
in the Adafruit Eagle library. Of all the areas where I would have
expected everybody's spec to be the same, this would be on the short
list. It's one more thing that is driving me to the conclusion that
making/using my own component library isn't just about making up for
components that have no CAD files. (And another realization close on
the heels of this one: if I end up having to do custom device
description files anyway, what is the real advantage of the
"relatively vast" set of Eagle files out there vs the corresponding
ones for KiCad? I think the only remaining reason to use Eagle for
full custom designs is that there never seems to be time to stop and
learn KiCad.)<br>
<br>
A few nights ago I did an initial, trivial first test of my new
reflow oven. It worked perfectly, although there was a minor
temperature excursion during the cool down part of the cycle. As
soon as I can remember where I put the bag of itsy bitsy FETs I'll
try out the oven with some Adafruit bare breakout boards that look
like this:<br>
<a href="https://www.adafruit.com/products/1230">https://www.adafruit.com/products/1230</a><br>
<br>
It wouldn't be within the rules for the TriEmbed meeting room to
actually run the oven next month ("second Monday" the 13th, meeting
room TBD), but if folks are interested I could do a quick 20 minute
"start to finish" tutorial about designing a simple board, getting
the PCB made, soldering it, etc with, say, 10 minutes for Q&A.
Maybe I'll have the software for the very powerful Adafruit USB
microscope figured out by then so it doesn't create weird color
distortions. But the distortion can be kind of cool. Here's a shot
from the recent TriLUG Holiday Demo party: <a
href="http://bitser.net/images/FXOS8700CQ-on-paste-stencil.jpg">http://bitser.net/images/FXOS8700CQ-on-paste-stencil.jpg</a><br>
<br>
If anybody else has an idea for a short presentation please "speak
up." I say "short" because we seem to be doing well with a format
allowing plenty of time for folks to network and see and talk about
the gizmos and gadgets brought to the meeting, current problems,
etc. This would seem to work very well as a complement to TAR
(Triangle Amateur Robotics) meetings @ NCSU on 1st Mondays. I think
if we get announcements and short presentations out done by 8pm at
the latest we'll preserve this format for TriEmbed meetings.<br>
<br>
Don't forget there is a TriEmbed meeting at Splatspace in Durham
starting at 2pm on Saturday the 21st. Scott Hall is back in mostly
sunny North Carolina but has a conflict and can't preside over this
meeting this month but will presumably resume his duties in January.
My bias for this month's meeting will be the hands-on activities
that we could do at meetings at TechShop but cannot do at the NCSU
meetings, namely soldering, drilling holes, the occasional
accidental loss of magic smoke, etc. If you'd like to join in this
fun or just want to watch or get help or get in out of the cold,
please consider attending. Details are on the web page at<a
href="http://triembed.org"> http://triembed.org</a>, but there are
Meetup pages for this meeting and another meeting that will overlap
this meeting and that might be of interest:<br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.meetup.com/splatspace/events/dhqlpgyrqbcc/?gj=ro2_e&a=ro2_gnl&rv=ro2_e&_af_eid=dhqlpgyrqbcc&_af=event">TriEmbed
Meeting @ Splatspace December 21st, 2pm</a><br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.meetup.com/splatspace/events/154053902/?gj=ro2_e&a=ro2_gnl&rv=ro2_e&_af_eid=154053902&_af=event">DigiFab
Meeting @ Splatspace December 21st, 1pm</a><br>
<br>
NCSU students and faculty staff: Charlie West did a great job of
being the official NCSU rep at past TriEmbed meetings, but he needs
a break. We need one or more students and/or faculty or staff
members who can simply agree ahead of time to be the official rep(s)
for a given meeting to satisfy the meeting agreement with the
university. There doesn't need to be anything specific involved with
this beyond attendance of the meeting, although helping with
pre-meeting communication within the university would be very
welcome. If you can help with this just drop a line to <a
href="mailto:coordinators@triembed.org">mailto:coordinators@triembed.org</a>
and include your name and (emergency) phone number and the
meeting(s) you can commit to attending. There's zero harm in having
multiple reps and we can hopefully arrange something like signup
genius for subsequent meetings. Charlie, Paul MacDougal and I thank
you in advance for helping with this!<br>
<br>
-Pete
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