Gangsta

Published on 2017-01-15 in Tote.

As I wrote in the previous logs, I’m going to be upgrading Tote to use some more expensive, but more powerful and easier to use components. But what about the poor students? If you are really concerned about the budget, the original Tote is almost what you need. Almost, because you would still need to order the PCB for it. Or would you?

Of course not! The PCB doesn’t have anything you can’t easily reproduce on a vero/strip/perma board! Here’s one example of a Tote on a strip board:

Sure, you will need to remap the pins in the code, but that should be quite easy. Yes, I went wild in Fritzing, and it’s barely readable. Here’s a clearer picture of the strip board you will need to make:

It even has the voltage divider for monitoring the battery. Oh, right, and don’t use alkaline batteries like on the picture. Use a LiPo from a quadcopter or from an old cellphone.

I have to admit that one thing they say about Fritzing is true: it sucks for making schematics:

I wonder if I should fork this version off the main Tote, and keep a repository with the Arduino code for it, with remapped pins and so on…