Custom ESP32-S3 development board — professionally manufactured by JLCPCB. A far cry from where it all started. It Started in a School Science Lab — Around 1998 Most people who get into electronics start with a kit, a tutorial, maybe a breadboard and some LEDs. I started by sneaking ferric chloride out of a school science lab to etch my first PCB. That was around 1998. I was living in the Maldives — a small island nation in the Indian Ocean — where there was no electronics supply chain, no maker community, no local PCB fab. Just a chemistry cabinet at school, a copper-clad board from somewhere, and a lot of curiosity. This post is about what the next 25+ years of PCB prototyping looked like from there. The early wins with proper chemicals, the years of improvisation when those chemicals disappeared, the real injuries, the failed boards, and finally — the moment JLCPCB changed ever...
During the last trial runs the boat just flipped over by an wave and sunken, but with help from a friend i was able to rescue it. When it was rescued almost all the electronics was under sea and started to corrode. With lots of cleaning and soldering i was able to run it again. But with new motor, ESC, SD card and battery. So after that i modified the boat a lot and the final result was very successful. Earlier the propeller was bit high and it don't cut enough water. Now the shaft and everything is lowed around 1 half inch. New brushless motor and ESC was tested for two weeks for speed controlling and finally a bit more water proofing. Old shaft coupler removed and made my own coupler for shaft and motor. Most of the firmware also cleaned up ;) After all these modifications i finally did a wonderful trial run. :) Early morning checked the tide table and it was perfect for test so packed everything and went to testing area. Today i have done continuous for ru...