After the first build I have been thinking about the build, what I did and what could be done better - it was my first and I learned a great deal.
Firstly, I now know some of the components need to be fixed in place in the box before soldering any wires to them because with wires attached, things get very fiddly in the small space.
The full sized male USB the charge circuit comes with makes it very annoying to place in the box and means a large cutout it needed - the part is the cheapest I could find but I can get mini USB female connectors very cheaply too and just remove the full size USB from the circuit and wire it to the female mini USB. This would give greater flexibility in the placement of both the circuit itself and the connector (might even be possible to mount it on the bottom).
I need to practice my skills with the hobby tool, my grinding was a little sloppy and if I was building for someone else they would not appreciate the little "quirks" I have manages to blemish my mod with.
I should prepare the box a day in advance as far as using epoxy putty goes, since it would be good to be able to have it completely set before I work with it e.g. smoothing.
For this build I used quite chunky wire, for all future mods I will use equipment wire (colour really doesn't matter), while it is more brittle - it is much less bulky and easier to place accurately.
I also used the hot melt glue gun a bit for convenience and speed, this is a bad habit and I should only really use epoxy resin glue as it is much neater giving a better visual aspect to the wiring.
To make positional mounts for switches and PCB's I should use the epoxy putty (milliput) but slightly roughen the surface it is being put on slightly to improve bonding.
If I am to go ahead and build more, I need to source more buttons to go with the V4 microswitch - if needs be I will buy a bulk order of mini laser pointers as I really like the miniature rounded metal button.
The reason being it feels so different to the ABS so you can find the button easily by touch - and I set it so it requires very little pressure to fire the unit - meaning the metal will not end up making a finger feel tender with continued use.
That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure more will come to me.
Firstly, I now know some of the components need to be fixed in place in the box before soldering any wires to them because with wires attached, things get very fiddly in the small space.
The full sized male USB the charge circuit comes with makes it very annoying to place in the box and means a large cutout it needed - the part is the cheapest I could find but I can get mini USB female connectors very cheaply too and just remove the full size USB from the circuit and wire it to the female mini USB. This would give greater flexibility in the placement of both the circuit itself and the connector (might even be possible to mount it on the bottom).
I need to practice my skills with the hobby tool, my grinding was a little sloppy and if I was building for someone else they would not appreciate the little "quirks" I have manages to blemish my mod with.
I should prepare the box a day in advance as far as using epoxy putty goes, since it would be good to be able to have it completely set before I work with it e.g. smoothing.
For this build I used quite chunky wire, for all future mods I will use equipment wire (colour really doesn't matter), while it is more brittle - it is much less bulky and easier to place accurately.
I also used the hot melt glue gun a bit for convenience and speed, this is a bad habit and I should only really use epoxy resin glue as it is much neater giving a better visual aspect to the wiring.
To make positional mounts for switches and PCB's I should use the epoxy putty (milliput) but slightly roughen the surface it is being put on slightly to improve bonding.
If I am to go ahead and build more, I need to source more buttons to go with the V4 microswitch - if needs be I will buy a bulk order of mini laser pointers as I really like the miniature rounded metal button.
The reason being it feels so different to the ABS so you can find the button easily by touch - and I set it so it requires very little pressure to fire the unit - meaning the metal will not end up making a finger feel tender with continued use.
That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure more will come to me.
