Got some more stuff! Things have been a little slower moving around here because of work-related reasons and the nice weather we’ve been getting doesn’t seem to want to align with the weekends I have off. Nevertheless, here is what I managed to get done…
The postman brought me a package containing 2 hella boxes:
The boxes actually contain my new smoked turn signal lights:
I wasted no time on the installation as I was quite excited to see them:
These are going to match the new color nicely!
The bulbs also showed up for the inner headlights:
Circuit Board Etching!
One cool technique I have been learning is how to etch my own circuit-boards. This process basically involves printing a pattern onto a clear transfer sheet, then ironing the transfer onto a sheet of copper clad PCB and dipping it into a vat of acid eating away the areas not covered by the toner. To get acquainted with the process I have designed a board called “matrisee”. It’s basically just a board that lays out a 24×24 pixel panel for the LED matrices. These are scalable (right now only sideways as the board is rectangular by design at the moment, version 1.0 was square) and will come in handy for more than just cluster projects. I plan on creating a page eventually to share my experiences in PCB etching.
I started by designing my top and bottom layers of the circuit board and then printed and test fitted using regular paper: (Version 1.0 shown)
After you’re happy with the design you then print each side on to your transfer sheet and cut them out:
The images are printed in “mirrored” mode to the transfer is the correct orientation once it’s ironed on:
After ironing and etching you’re just left to drill the holes and then you have a circuit board: (version 1.1 shown):
There is much more to the process and soon I hope to have a page up that goes in-depth instead of just touching on the issue. That is all I have for now, I plan on ordering up some neat sanding blocks (maybe friday?) to help speed things along in the body work department. I am almost ready to commence glass removal and start prepping the entire vehicle for paint.
Check back next week!
– Doogie
