Status Update
After three hours at the post office taking up a teller line all by myself, we've got the last of the boards in the mail! Whohoo! Well technically, there are three boxes left, but I'll ship those when the participants send me their addresses.
We've got kits going all over the United States, Canada, Belgium, Columbia, and who knows where else. Whether or not they clear customs, I couldn't tell you, but I put tracking & insurance on everyone's order. And if you check your email, you should find a short, terse message with your tracking numbers. (Hand typed, so hopefully no mistakes). And everyone gets the new hotness -- the Raspberry Pi Pico
The latest the stateside packages should arrive is Monday 2/22, although, with current weather conditions in the southern states, that might be delayed.
As for shipping reimbursement -- I'm not going to ask for that at this time. Let me see if I can't get some of the sponsors to cover the cost first. I'd like to keep this free if possible -- most of you will have to invest money to get the boards up to speed anyway.
Unfortunately, the reels I was shipped didn't have as many parts on them as I anticipated -- they were mostly reel-leaders -- useless pieces of plastic used to align the parts in the feeders.
Next Steps
Finishing your board
Many of you will not receive a board that is ready to program. The missing parts will have to be inventoried, purchased, and installed. I do not recommend the BNO055 unless you have extensive experience with hand rework. It's too delicate. Focus on the ICs -- the SamD11 and the ATMEGA328 & support electronics.
Programming your Board
Some of you will receive boards that are ready to program. We've got to get ahold of Dr. Bob -- he's got the source code. I haven't reached out to him in a while -- I'll check in with him tomorrow or early next week and see if I can't get him to upload the code & instructions. This is his design, and I never had a prototype to program myself (which is fine, I'm a rusty code-monkey).
Request
Over the past few weeks, several users have sent me TMPCB success stories. I can't tell you how much I appreciated hearing those. It was certainly uplifting. I wonder if some of you might be comfortable making a short video about what you got out of the course? Alternatively, perhaps write a short "testimonial" about the course.
The Next Announcement
Give me a few days, but the next announcement you'll get from me will be about offering a critical review of the course (what worked, what didn't) and I'll share my plans for TMPCB round 2. We're going to go for a different design. All large parts that can be easily soldered at home (0603 and larger passives, TSSOP micros, etc...).
Take care and have a great night!