Bit Banging LCD + Touch + USB on the ch32v003

[@youtubecom3474]

Well done! Clearly the data sheet is only a recommendation for CNLohr.

[@CNLohr]

And vague at that.

[@yasirrakhurrafat1142]

​@@CNLohr what the- Why do they love you soo much?! Also what is bit banging mean?

[@ThylineTheGay]

@@yasirrakhurrafat1142 iirc, doing in software a task that's usually done with hardware

[@gillsejusbates6938]

​@@yasirrakhurrafat1142 Roughly; bitbanging is a form of communication that is managed at a higher level than say for example I2C or SPI. I2C and SPI protocols have a part of the chip that is entirely dedicated to managing those protocols, offloading a lot of processing that the "main thread" otherwise had to do. Bitbanging however is done by "higher level" instructions, setting GPIO voltage and timings, coming directly from the main thread(or ISR), meaning all other tasks your program are at chance of being interrupted during the bitbang instructions if not managed correctly. You want to use bitbang if your microcontroller has a decent clock, your program doesnt rely on strict timings, and if your microcontroller lacks silicon for other communication protocols

[@lohikarhu734]

If you don't know what bit banging is, you ain't got no idea about real electronics!

[@makeit4less]

Whenever I start to get a little over confident I come watch a video on this channel and very quickly remember I don't actually know anything 😆 awesome work as always!

[@CNLohr]

Aww, I'm hoping to help push people upwards to doing things themselves!

[@leobardostephenlincolnstrangez]

​@@CNLohr You do it, 10 years ago I saw one of your videos and it motivated me to change my career from studying physics to designing hardware and programming microcontrollers, now I am a hardware engineer and every time I see a new video of yours I remember that I can learn and improve every time. Thank you very much!

[@markustopfer1605]

Well; I feel the same way sometimes. But if you look closely you can break down a lot of that complex stuff into very basic principles for analysis or go the other way round in case of building stuff. For example microcontroller programming is in it's core mostly to find out which bits to set in which register (be it a special register like adc or PWM) to fulfill your task. Then uploading it just to find out that you completely fried you controller either by setting wrong pins as outputs... Or because you where tired and left some solder snippets or wire on your prototyping board... Charles YT-channel remains one of the most inspiring sources for me... So thanks for the video.

[@justanormalperson]

i'm always impressed with what you do with these microcontrollers, keep up the good work

[@CNLohr]

When you find a hammer you really like, everything becomes a nail.

[@pixlfactory]

I am truly speechless! Such a small task, yet it is a profound achievement! Kudos!!!

[@CNLohr]

Yeah, some of the parts of this area are so pretty.

[@notabagel]

when i was a kid I thought your videos were as impressive but now as someone who occasionally has to write firmware I have profound respect for you

[@CNLohr]

Thanks. I remember when I was a young engineer, I would look to so many other engineers and see them as absolutely titans of the craft. And there are still some that absolutely blow me out of the water. But I've learned to stand and do things that a younger me never could imagine. And you can too. Just push forward even when everything tries to drag you back.

[@kidenscruton1923]

This resonates with me, great message

[@geeko321]

Well done! I like to call this sort of activity "spec bending," where you take a piece of technology well past what it's specifications allow for.

[@CNLohr]

They're just suggestions, no one needs to ask permission to ignore the datasheet.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

On most MCUs you can do touch sensing without an ADC - just measure the time it takes for the internal pullup to pull a pin high after forcing it low. Typically in the low tens of uS - longer with a higher external pullup resistor. This works well for resist covered PCB touchpads. You can get better sensitivity/resolution in a few ways - using comparator/reference to increase the input threshold & lengthen the charge time, and input capture peripheral to get better timing resolution.

[@brouettebredouille8320]

I feel like it was 10 minutes for so much work behind. Trying and achieving to do something nice with such tech is so satisfying. Keep it up man

[@CNLohr]

Thank you for the encouragement. I do a lot of projects, it's just so hard to turn them into videos.

[@Chriva]

"Press [F] to pay respect" 😂I see what you did there :D

[@CNLohr]

It felt so satisfying to do that in the end!

[@phrozenwun]

I pressed F and all I got was a full screen video, mad respect all the same. Thanks for sharing!

[@TheFinalRevelation2]

Welcome back on youtube. I got your video recommended, i did not even realize it was you till 3 or 4 mins into the video

[@1kreature]

That was awesome! Now, start playing around with the peripherals in the chip in ways they did not plan on. If the DMA can be set up with any internal address (memory mapped peripheral register you know) as target you can do a lot of fun things. Toggling the LCD signals for example. Writing to the screen buffer is simply transforming the data to the pattern required on the LCD pins and then letting the DMA repeat. If you find you can not "throttle" the DMA sped properly, use a loopback device in the chip together with the DMA so one DMA sends data via a peripheral (either in loopback mode internally, or via a external pin bridge) to itself and another DMA transfers the received data to the target register to update the pins pullup states. Once you start abusing peripherals like this it is hard to stop. It is so much fun!

[@CNLohr]

Oh yeah! the DMA in the 003 is absolutely baller. And you can pipe it from memory to GPIO triggered on a timer.

[@1kreature]

@@CNLohr Oooh, DMA triggered by timer is a luxury item! Wow! Makes everything so easy.

[@lis6502]

long live risc-v for their insane price 2 power ratio! and yeah, saying "very cool" seems almost like an insult for containing THAT much functionality in such compact form, you're an artisan artist dude.

[@CNLohr]

I LOVE RISC-V now! It's so simple, fast, solid, and easy to use.

[@JoeyMoreland]

Well gosh, this is crazy impressive

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@maor1993]

as usual a masterpiece of engineering

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@OmarMekkawy]

I am speechless, hats off to you. You are crazy. I think that you know that microcontroller more than the manufacturer himself !! 😂

[@CNLohr]

I do try to do things with parts that the original designers would expect to be impossible.

[@Otakutaru]

How small can you make it with a battery? You realize this is prime fidget material, right? In the realm of tamagotchi

[@mortenmoulder]

Would love to hear the power consumption too

[@CNLohr]

oh that's a good point. yeah, you could totally do it with a battery kinda thing.

[@CNLohr]

Admittedly the 003 doesn't have super great battery life. It uses around 400uA in low power mode, and about 11uA in sleep mode with timer on.

[@GnuReligion]

I can imagine a Number Invaders game, like on those early 80's calculator watches.

[@atltvhead2840]

Awesome! Your projects are always inspiring!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@Conservator.]

5:37 Aaaand is gives the board a nice red touch! 😁 Very cool project though! I admire your perseverance and skills!

[@DESX312]

My recent projects have involved the nRF52 and nRF54 dev kits for their BT functionality. I ordered some ch32s 2 weeks ago that i am still waiting on, but im blown away by what you have accomplished here. Makes me excited to dive into the risc-v world! Very impressive stuff. First video ive seen and i hit the subscribe button!

[@CNLohr]

I'll be happy to have you join!

[@jonnyphenomenon]

Clear lcds are so cool! Back in 1985, I had a handful of little battery powered lcd clocks which i would take apart and do stuff with like removing the silvery beige backing film and replacing it with different colors of paper, or flipping the polarizing film so the lcds would be white on black. I was 11 at the time. I thought i was a wizard.

[@SplitScreamOFFICIAL]

Charles back at it again with the obscure and amazing uses for cheap microprocessors

[@hardronix]

I love it... Also, I didn't think about ITO glass like you did until now, lol

[@CNLohr]

It's funny how those things work.

[@joehopfield]

I appreciate your work keeping things tiny. I used to toggle a boot loader into a pdp 11/23 with 248k total mem - your ch32v003 work warms my heart.

[@CNLohr]

It's got plenty of room here playing with microcontrollers, you may like it!

[@noawe_]

Men will see this and think "Hell yeah!" Big banging is always fire and I'm genuinely surprised how well your connectors worked. Btw your font choice is absolutely on point.

[@CNLohr]

Which font?

[@Simon_Rafferty]

Several very clever bits of inventiveness there!

[@SinanAkkoyun]

I love your USB bitbang projects!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks! It's a lot of fun to go back and use things created in the past.

[@kajatoth9151]

Would be funny to make a keybord out of them

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Would have been much cheaper if you put multiple PCBs on a panel - JLC will panelise for you.

[@saitamatechno]

wtf have you done? that's insanely amazing. I couldnt follow with my knowledge after 5th minute

[@CNLohr]

Aww. I really try to make my content something you can watch a few times to get all of. Or maybe after getting an 003 and playing with the project and code yourself!

[@saitamatechno]

@CNLohr yep I have a ch32v003 with a custom board. But I couldn't upload my code. I have a 10uf capacitor but maybe the solution is having a 100nf capacitor. You have a lot of experience, do you know is it really obligatory to have a 100nf capacitor. My wchlinke can communicate but cannot configure mcu. I even used the link RV mode but no clue :(

[@LuneyToonz-lk2de]

This is cool, but as soon as you brought up the code lines, I knew I was in over my head.

[@CNLohr]

I try to explain what I am doing without needing to understand the code diectly.

[@alexdev404]

I remember watching videos from you as a kid in my dad's office while waiting for him to finish up teaching his classes 😭 You inspired me so much and I'm so happy to see you're still creating videos! Keep it up!!! :D

[@BenM0]

Thanks for sharing this awesome project. Fantastic job!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks. Yeah! I share a ton of stuff on my github, but it's just hard to get myself to make yt vids.

[@mikiex]

Always good when you post a video :)

[@CNLohr]

I know! It feels so good to get it over with.

[@billkillernic]

For people that want to learn how to do this stuff life streams with you drying to make the driver (and fail and try something else until its done) would be gold..

[@TechwithHari]

God level! Really inspiring tbh

[@wolpumba4099]

*Creating a USB-Enabled 3-Digit, 7-Segment LCD with Touch Capabilities for Under $1* * *0:03** Introduction:* The video demonstrates creating a USB-enabled device with a 7-segment LCD and touch sensor using a cheap RISC-V microcontroller (ch32v003). * *0:31** Cheap LCDs:* The project utilizes incredibly affordable 7-segment LCDs sourced from AliExpress, costing around 21 cents each in bulk. * *0:58** The CH32V003 Microcontroller:* The core of the project is the ch32v003, a ~10 cent RISC-V microcontroller, chosen for its low cost and versatility. * *1:03** Bit-Banged USB Stack:* The ch32v003 lacks native USB, so a custom bit-banged USB stack was implemented to enable communication with a PC. * *1:21** Custom Bootloader:* A compact bootloader (1920 bytes) was developed, allowing firmware updates directly through USB without a dedicated programmer. * *1:37** Connectorless USB-C Design:* The project features a unique connectorless USB-C design, where the PCB itself acts as the male connector, held in place by the LCD. * *2:24** PCB Fabrication:* The PCBs were ordered from JLCPCB with a 0.6mm thickness and ENIG finish for reliable USB connections, costing $79.39 for 25 boards. * *3:24** LCD Packaging Issues:* The LCDs arrived with damaged pins due to poor packaging, though none were found to be faulty. * *3:36** Initial Firmware and Bootloader:* Basic firmware was written to drive the LCD, and the custom USB bootloader was successfully tested. * *4:56** USB-Induced LCD Interference:* Inserting the USB connector initially caused LCD segments to malfunction due to shorting. This was resolved using UV gel nail polish as an insulator. * *5:44** Driving the LCD:* The LCD is driven by manipulating the COM and SEG lines with specific voltage levels (1/2 VCC) to illuminate segments. * *6:49** Driving at 1/2 VCC:* A custom assembly loop was created to generate the required 1/2 VCC (1.6V) for driving the LCD, as the microcontroller couldn't do this natively. * *7:41** Touch Sensing Implementation:* The LCD is repurposed as a touch sensor by driving all segments low, applying a pull-up resistor, and measuring the voltage rise time with the ADC. * *8:45** ADC Sampling and Oversampling:* The ADC samples the voltage for 375ns to detect the presence of a finger, with oversampling used to improve accuracy. * *9:45** Hysteresis for Touch Detection:* Hysteresis is added to the touch detection Error: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'NoneType' and 'str' Conclusion:* The project successfully demonstrates a functional, low-cost USB device with an LCD and touch sensor, highlighting the versatility of the ch32v003 microcontroller. * *11:19** Addendums:* UV glue is recommended for insulation, and one LCD output pin is used as the RESET pin, requiring option byte reprogramming. I used gemini-1.5-pro-exp-0827 on rocketrecap dot com to summarize the transcript. Cost (if I didn't use the free tier): $0.02 Input tokens: 15522 Output tokens: 777

[@dalewheat]

Very cool project! Thanks for sharing.

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@GnuReligion]

Nifty gadget! Perhaps the new Digispark for open arch RISC-V? Was not aware of this USB bootloader for the ch32v003. Sounds like they made a thing like Micronucleus (tiny85). WCH makes many USB bridge chips in the CH32 line, am a little surprised you picked one w/o the interface for this project. Ah yes, (looked it up), there is a CH32x035 with USB-2 in a 20-pin package. Probably more expensive.

[@TrentSterling]

Very nice USB thing!

[@CNLohr]

I mean do you have a better word for it?

[@CNLohr]

I mean I still haven't found a better name for it.

[@SinanAkkoyun]

LCB or LCD-C, even if it's not super accurate it still sounds cool and it's a tiny name

[@andrew2004sydney]

This is VERY IMPRESSIVE!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@seanocansey2956]

Bro, you're a wizard

[@juanma4978]

amazing video and project!!!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@thomasvnl]

Every time I see a video from you Charles you always amaze me with your ingenuity.

[@CNLohr]

Thank you.

[@punpck]

nice, very well done 👌 I was almost rolling my eyes when I read bit banging LCD because you see so much crap everywhere that effectively destroys the LCD. But your solution is really well implemented and I would trust it the life of my LCDs 👏

[@SusanAmberBruce]

Mostly a bit over my head, but I think it's fantastic work and well presented.

[@davecreelman]

It's pretty cool getting this cheap chip to talk USB. Though it's software-driven, for many projects, this could be quite adequate. It would be interesting to know the bandwidth of the USB being driven by software in this way. Very very cool getting the LCD to be a touch sensor. Perhaps the next step is to get the CH32* to run an LLM 🙂?

[@CNLohr]

It depends on how you're setting it up, but typically I get about 40-70kBytes/sec.

[@CNLohr]

It is quite adequate! It is between 40 and 60 kB/sec depending on how you use it.

[@Reman1975]

I'm thinking that these could be pretty cool if you got 9 or 12 of those screens laid them out in a grid, put an addressable RGB LED behind each screen, replaced the solid coloured backing with frosted translucent film, then programming it all to work like a stream deck type input device with abbreviated button labels. I guess it would all be down to how responsive and reliable the touch recognition could be made. 🤔

[@CNLohr]

A few people have recommended trying with an RGB LED. I admittedly did not think of it. But, now I am curious! I put an LED behind the display and it glows, so it may be worth giving it a shot.

[@cj.tranzistor]

You can connect two gpios together and enable pull-up on one and pull-down on another and get 1/2 VCC.

[@a6dulsalam511]

I thought about using lcd as touch sensor one day, but didn't have this knowledge to achieve it as you did, you did great job here and can you make it sense touch on each segment or even on each part of the segment or it only the whole lcd act as single touch sensor?

[@asmotaku]

Brilliant !

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@amigator7789]

Hi, can you please tell me, what font do you use in your code editor in 7:05 ? I like it a lot :) It kind of reminds me font which was used in Turbo/Borland Pascal editors in 90's...

[@ljuberzy]

this is sheer crazy stuff!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks.

[@FilmFactry]

Very cool. Have you played with one of those cheap USB C cables which displays voltage and wattage? I would be interested in a teardown and see how they are driving the LED, all for about $3.

[@CNLohr]

Oh yeah. I love those things. But sadly, I dunno, teardowns aren't really my thing here.

[@FilmFactry]

@@CNLohr I found a teardown in case you want to see what's inside. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oaWUfWR7itZrbNk

[@SirEngelmann]

Did you consider panelization as a manufacturing option? This may allow for huge per-piece cost reduction. Many manufacturers offer free panelization, so you even don't have to do it yourself.

[@CNLohr]

For larger runs, absolutely worth it! For tiny runs, I just let it roll. The cost is with the human factors in doing assembly.

[@JonMurray]

Awesome man! New subscriber ✌🏻

[@CNLohr]

Glad to have you.

[@jishk8980]

this dude is smart on another level, and I love it. truly inspiring man, keep it up!!

[@CNLohr]

Just hoping to get other people to do cool things too!

[@TheMLover]

Hey, amazing video as always. What do you think about the Padauk MCU's? The PMS150G is about 3 cent.

[@CNLohr]

I really wanted to use them, but it was just too hard. Needing multiple voltage rails, no good on-chip debugger. Not RISC-V. The 003's just got it all!

[@ronnetgrazer362]

Nice! Now mount a minecraft server on top of the LCD glass :) Very inspiring, thanks!

[@CNLohr]

Maybe someday I'll run Minecraft on an 003. But that day is not today.

[@dhj5]

i did the USB thing on a board a couple years back and just went with standard HASL. It's worked for at least a thousand insertion cycles. The only problem is having to order the PCB so thin. The board i am soon to replace it with has a standard USB C connector on it now because of this.

[@CNLohr]

That's encouraging. I feel like the tabs in USB C are more fragile than in USB A, but it would make sense for it to be able to survive it. It just makes me really anxious. And also, I worry about oxides forming or flux hanging out on the HASL.

[@Stabby666]

This was a great hack - thanks!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks for watching.

[@TT-it9gg]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing~ Best

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@juliusmakes]

This HAS to learn to talk (SPI, I2C something) and become a module for us the smoother brained mortals out here.

[@Scrogan]

Did you need to use the V-cuts? They definitely add to the manufacturing costs. I think JLC also offer programming of chips so you might be able to get your boards made with bootloader included. Not that I like bootloaders. I’ve got myself a selection of CH32V chips recently, I should really get to installing the software stack.

[@CNLohr]

I do prefer v-cuts, but I had another manufacturer do it in a slightly different way that was much more cost effective. I may do a video on that. And I've done my best to make the ch32v003fun software stack approachable.

[@CNLohr]

I don't neeeed v-cuts but they make the edges so nice. One other thing a different manufacturer did was panelize the design in a really convenient way, I may be making a video about that project some time soon.

[@Scrogan]

@@CNLohr Yes your CH32V003fun stack is definitely what I want to use. Personally I’ll be needing the advanced features of the higher-end CH32V chips for my projects (especially CAN on the V307), but if I recall there’s experimental support for the others too, so it’s probably worth going for that instead of some bloated manufacturer-made Eclipse skin + HAL. I guess the V-cut edge makes for a nice edge to the type-C connector. The extra cost of panelisation made me just combine multiple boards and cut them apart via hacksaw.

[@Aerobiker1]

You trully are a wizzard. I can't even fathom tackling such a amazing project. You trully inspire me. Have a great day.

[@CNLohr]

Go go go! Learn and do some fun things yourself!

[@CNLohr]

I hope you do something very cool! Go go go! Don't let the difficulties of doing cool things stop you.

[@lynes2peters438]

Pretty neat! Whats the quality of thats Microcontrollers ADC? Im most familier with the STM32 family due to my job but open for cool alternatives. Are the ADC as noisy as the Esp-32? Could believe how bad they were on the recommend devboard

[@akak5128]

This is amazing, will make great projects. Thanks for sharing buddy, legend. Press F in the end loooool

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@kidenscruton1923]

Have you thought about turning it into a touch sensitive programmable keyboard- maybe you’d require a host microcontroller to register all the keystrokes and controls for the lcd- what do you think?

[@guatagel2454]

You are my hero

[@CNLohr]

That's quite a lot to put on me! But, I appreciate it. I hope it spurs you to go on and do some fun things yourself.

[@286EN]

WOW WOW WOW WOW !!! AMAZING

[@herzogsbuick]

if it went fishing for crab in the bering sea, it would be in Touch Harbor [ducks]

[@CNLohr]

I know there's a joke in here but I just don't get it.

[@CNLohr]

I am sure there is a joke in there somewhere but I don't get it.

[@Ski4974]

Wish I understood anything in this video, it seems super interesting

[@CNLohr]

I hope it makes you at least a little curious to learn more. Even it's not all in one go. I try to make my projects something that anyone given some time and effort can reproduce and exceed.

[@markrix]

I can dig it

[@CNLohr]

:)

[@flipschwipp6572]

Are you using TopoR für the routing or is there another nice router out there?

[@CNLohr]

No, all hand routed. I haven't used TopoR in over 10 years. Though I would love it if someone would make an open source TopoR-like autorouter.

[@SKElectronics]

Love it.❤

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@TheChillieboo]

absolutely epic!!!!!!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@DiyintheGhetto]

The question I have is how did you get the thickness the right size to fit in the usb connector? A lot have tried and failed.

[@CNLohr]

0.6mm FR4 PCB, with ENIG. that's it.

[@DiyintheGhetto]

@ oh thank you for that. I have a few projects that I want to make with usb pcb.

[@Howei1337]

Very interesting !

[@CNLohr]

Thanks

[@user-jp1qt8ut3s]

I can see the name of my village at 7 55!!! 😊

[@CNLohr]

That's so cool the way that people connect over the weirdest things. Who knew a random screen on the route to your village would be on the wikipedia page for LCDs.

[@DasIllu]

Wait, you DO exist, it wasn't just my imagination!

[@CNLohr]

And I've got a lot of videos.

[@DerSolinski]

Oh no... he found a rabbit hole again...

[@CNLohr]

Oh my it's a series of holes I have been falling into with this 003! I mentioned about 20-30 designs. I just can't slow down long enough to make a video.

[@DerSolinski]

@CNLohr one might say they are recursive rabbit holes. Please return some day, you know, to prevent a stack overflow, they are unhealthy.

[@MoritzvonSchweinitz]

But does it output anything (like touch events) to the USB port?

[@CNLohr]

Yes! I show it in the video, either as a USB keyboard or the "amount" of touch.

[@fiveangle]

hell yeah !

[@tetraquark2402]

smart fellow

[@CNLohr]

thanks!

[@TecraTube]

was that a casket? WTF lol side note: i think heard the words PCB and USB 100 times each in this 11 minute video

[@CNLohr]

Is a meme! And one of my favorite!

[@TecraTube]

@CNLohr the Jamaicans carrying the casket dancing. that one's good

[@randomlegodev]

very neat

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@xlmao]

now put 2 of those side by side (or top and bottom) and make me a smart watch with these dumb but uplifted parts :D

[@SynthOSphere]

Brilliant!! Now no one tell the Chinese or they will ramp up the price!! lol

[@CNLohr]

That's western thinking. Chinese just want to sell you products and make money on them. If it means selling you more product they're happy to do so. It's only the west where they want to try to extract every cent from your cold dead corpse.

[@5vart5ol]

You are cool.

[@Psirust]

I was wondering how on earth your PCB price was $80... then I saw the board. lol You forgot to take advantage of their panelizing feature .

[@eekpie]

I bought these 7 segment dip package lads but in 8 digit. All failed in a year sitting undriven bleeding in from the border. Caution

[@CNLohr]

I can totally believe they may not be the best stock, but as I mentioned in the video, so far I have 0 failures in over 15 tests.

[@CNLohr]

I am worried too, but somehow zero out out of my 14 I tested have failed.

[@ua420]

You could probably order 100PCBs instead and sell them to subscribers for $5 each.

[@thetinkerist]

nice hack!

[@CNLohr]

Thanks!

[@skiptoacceptancemdarlin]

You are a super useless genius. Kudos!

[@klebestiftlp5943]

And they say makeup is useless. See here you all are proven wrong 😂

[@CNLohr]

I don't think this is the usefulness my girlfriend had in mind.

[@klebestiftlp5943]

@@CNLohr Still a win dont cha think?

[@oqueeuseisobre]

Você é tão bom nas gambiarras que parece que és brasileiro! kkk

[@CNLohr]

Haha, are Brazilians known for that? I do sometimes feel like I'd do better in another country where I could really do a lot, with less.

[@bogganalseryd2324]

Now Make a keyboard out of lcds 😂

[@CNLohr]

that would be pretty fun...

[@lordhelix1458]

Now install DOOM on it

[@benholroyd5221]

5:17 We all know its not your girl friends...

[@muctop17]

When will China copy and sell this project? Patented?

[@CNLohr]

Oh my no! I will consider it a success when someone finally takes one of my designs!

[@TheRainHarvester]

Why bother with the expensive usb pads. Won't it take 1000s of insertions to damage a usb cord? A damaged cord will be alot cheaper than an expensive $6 pcb. Great jarb!

[@1kreature]

It takes 1 insertion, then the very thin tin layer deposited on the contacts may oxidize into tin oxide which is non conductive so next time you use it you have all sorts of issues. Nothing ruins a gold plated contact faster than a coating of tin. The wiping action of the insertion will help a bit but the oxide is really tough stuff. Anyone who has probed an old solder joint knows how hard they sometimes have to press to break through.

[@TheRainHarvester]

@1kreature oh i had no idea. What are the cheap usb cable's PC end coated with? What is the reason that coating isn't available on pcb pads?

[@dhj5]

@@1kreature For a proper product this would be an issue. for a prototype its not that big of a deal. I have a project that has been in service for over a year with over 1000 insertions and it is also left outside under the hood of a car and it works just as well as the first day i used it. I will be switching this out in the future mostly because i don't like that the PCB has to be so thin for this to work.

[@CNLohr]

It's usually gold. And that's one of the reasons I chose gold coating for this PCB.