Programming

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As a recap there were several issues with my heart-shaped samD11.

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After many attampts at programming and trying to fix the board, I devastatingly had to decide my pretty board was a lost cause.

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Leo walked me through SVGPCB where I just added a button to an existing hello world board with a LED. I made a few mistakes which lead to new lessons like needing to expnd the artboard so my exported image wasn't cropped and adding more space on the edges.

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Here are my working outline and trace files, I used to mill.

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After milling I carefully gathered components and soldered them on.

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I then plugged it in to my computer, downloaded files off of Leo's site. I opened the OpenOCD.cfg file folder in the terminal and typed openOCD. Then the programmer (provided by Leo) was able to program my board!!

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I used instructions from Leo's site https://github.com/leomcelroy/fab-notes/blob/main/PROGRAMMING_SAMD_CHIPS_ARDUINO.md to program. I tested a bunch of delay options and decided on this one.

It can be seen blinking in this video. I tested serveral different patterns until i found one I liked.

Can Alexia get a light to blink? Maybe...

This "week" was really rough. I first attempted to program my heart shaped programmer in a walk through with Ibrahim, to which I do not have significant documentation, regrettably. It did not work out. The board was not fully being recognized by the device but we couldn't find any shorts after testing with the multimeter. I kept trying to clean up the board but to no avail. My confidence was really knocked down by this one. Eventually, I had a session with Leo where I learned how to use SVGPCB and made a really simple board. My super simple board ended up working, FINALLY!! It was an all night effort that ended up in multiple laughing fits at how everything goes wrong for me and how the universe does not want me to create pcbs after burning it, and nearly having my dog eat it before I could document it. I finally after weeks of delayed progress gained enough confidence to walk several of my peers through the process.

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Merch inspired by week 6

As I mentioned, This week was A LOT. We really have a sense of community between students in the Harvard cohort so people were constantly asking me how I was doing... Normally I respond with a "okay" or "been better days" but at one point I cried from the sheer amount of stress and sleep deprivation. It caught everyone off guard that that one question could trigger my bawling. As I backed away I laughed and said I would be back tomorrow with a note card that said "Please don't ask me how I'm doing. I will cry."

I made this design and threw it on my redbubble if anyone shares the same sentiment and would like it displayed on a totebag, sticker or t-shirt.

If you'd like to shop

click here for the tshirt

or click here for the totebag