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 runs and it was perfect. The best part was the coupler and shaft modifications was perfect. It runs in water smoothly without the noisy motor sound (earlier there was high motor noise due to misalignment) It runs like a champion and the new speed controlling code was much perfect then before.
Sorry that i was not able to capture some video because the phone was kept at home charging. :)
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 runs and it was perfect. The best part was the coupler and shaft modifications was perfect. It runs in water smoothly without the noisy motor sound (earlier there was high motor noise due to misalignment) It runs like a champion and the new speed controlling code was much perfect then before.
Sorry that i was not able to capture some video because the phone was kept at home charging. :)
Comments