We are finally back to work again after the Holiday and New Year break. We hope everybody had a chance to relax and recover during the break. Students lost no time getting started with their projects, and we saw a lot of great work during the week.
Senior Matt Stricker ’26 continued work on his 6 legged robot. He writes on his blog:
At the start of this week, I was trying to figure out how I should control my hexapod robot, and my shop teacher suggested using an esp32. Ive never used an esp32 before, so I was trying to figure out how to use one, but i wasnt getting very far. I think I looked at like 4 guides, but none of them worked, and they all told me different things.
I was kinda fed up with trying to figure out the esp 32, so I decided to try and solve another problem that I realized existed. When I was making the 3d model, I used dimensions that I thought were accurate, but apparently were very slightly off, so there was a gap between where the motor bracket things are, and where the holes are.
In order to fix this, I simply put extra nuts in there since they were pretty much the exact size, but I knew this would not be a solution that would last a long time, so I needed to do something about it. I redesigned the place where they would connect and just added a little bit of material. I also began printing my second leg, and I hope it turned out well today.
I then duburred the frame fully, since before I had done a bit, but wanted to see if the motor fit before I committed to it, and luckily, my worries were unfounded, and the motors easily fit. I then decided to sand the frames as well, to give them a nicer finish and remove any burrs left over. They both came out really well.
I then tried to fix a Santa toy, but the maker of it was clearly lacking some skills, since the PCB looked like it came straight from hell. I cut open santa and it turned out that a capacitor had exploded and a fewwires had come off, so I decided to ditch helping Santa since it would take much too long. I also found the santa online with a beautiful description.
Read more about Matt’s work on his website linked here.
Junior Andrew Huang ’27 was working on a custom keyboard. On his blog he writes:
got some work on the case done, and also got some help from tim with designing the case.
probably not the final design, still a wip
while i deviated away from the silicone bowl design, tim thought of a design which uses leaf springs and the top plate to secure the pcb.
also, to mount the top and bottom cases together, i’ll use m3 screw.
still need to make the hole go through the top case. i’ll be working on that soon
in addition, due to the length of the screw being imperfect, and needing two different screws, i decided to use a 22mm screw, and just machine it down to size (20mm and 16mm)
also got most of the code done before break, finishing when we came back
print("Starting")
import board
from kmk.kmk_keyboard import KMKKeyboard
from kmk.keys import KC
from kmk.scanners import DiodeOrientation
from kmk.modules.layers import Layers
from kmk.extensions.media_keys import MediaKeys
keyboard = KMKKeyboard()
keyboard.modules.append(Layers())
keyboard.extensions.append(MediaKeys())
keyboard.col_pins = (
board.D5, board.D6, board.D7, board.D8, board.D9, board.D10, board.MOSI,
board.MISO, board.SCK, board.A0, board.A1, board.A2, board.A3)
keyboard.row_pins = (board.D0, board.D1, board.D2, board.D3, board.D4)
keyboard.diode_orientation = DiodeOrientation.COL2ROW
keyboard.keymap = [
# base layer (https://github.com/KMKfw/kmk_firmware/blob/main/docs/en/keycodes.md)
[
KC.ESC, KC.N1, KC.N2, KC.N3, KC.N4, KC.N5, KC.N6, KC.N7, KC.N8, KC.N9, KC.N0, KC.MINS, KC.BSPC,
KC.TAB, KC.Q, KC.W, KC.E, KC.R, KC.T, KC.Y, KC.U, KC.I, KC.O, KC.P, KC.LBRC, KC.BSLS,
KC.CAPS, KC.A, KC.S, KC.D, KC.F, KC.G, KC.H, KC.J, KC.K, KC.L, KC.SCLN, KC.QUOT, KC.ENT,
KC.LSFT, KC.Z, KC.X, KC.C, KC.V, KC.B, KC.N, KC.M, KC.COMM, KC.DOT, KC.SLSH, KC.NO, KC.RSFT,
KC.LCTL, KC.LCMD, KC.LALT, KC.NO, KC.NO, KC.SPC, KC.EQL, KC.RBRC, KC.NO, KC.RALT, KC.RCMD, KC.MO(1), KC.RCTL
],
# fn layer (KC.MO(1) held down to activate)
[
KC.GRV, KC.F1, KC.F2, KC.F3, KC.F4, KC.F5, KC.F6, KC.F7, KC.F8, KC.F9, KC.F10, KC.F11, KC.DEL,
KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.UP, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS,
KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.LEFT, KC.DOWN, KC.RGHT, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS,
KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.MUTE, KC.VOLD, KC.VOLU, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS,
KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.F12, KC.TRNS, KC.TRNS, KC.PGDN, KC.PGUP, KC.TRNS, KC.HOME
]
]
if __name__ == "__main__":
keyboard.go()
the second layer (fn layer) has a few random commands that i wanted to add for fun.
pcbs arriving
while working on improvements to the case design with tim, the pcb’s finally arrived
pcbs for both the macropad and the keyboard
so i decided to finish case design later, and started unsoldering the macropad for the components
problem was that since i used via’s in the switches, and soldered both the top and bottom side of the swithches, i don’t think it’s possible to get the switches out.
this resulted in me being short 5 switches for the macropad. i’ll probably order them sometime and hope they arrive by the time i start creating the case.
pcb
encountered two problems early on.
since i’m still inexperienced with designing pcb’s, especially smd boards, i ended up putting two switches in the location where the kb2040 was, and a diode.
you can see the little legs of the switch standing out
the switches weren’t a huge problem, as i could cut down the plastic legs and hope solder was strong enough to hold the swithches in place, which it was
however, i still had to deal with the diode. i contemplated about using a thin wire to wire the diode in a different direction, but ended up just not soldering a diode for the escape key, thinking that there’s no shortcuts so a diode wouldn’t be needed.
with that in mind, i decided to solder the kb2040, which ended up being flush, just how i wanted.
with that done, i started soldering the sod123 diodes.
using solder paste and the hot air gun, i took quite a while soldering them, then had to test them all with a multimeter to check if they worked.
thankfully, there were no errors, and i cleaned some of the excess solder on the board.
only thing left was the switches, which was way easier to solder than the diodes.
testing
transferring over my code from the kb2040 i was using for testing onto the kb2040 on the keyboard, it worked out perfectly… except for one issue.
as the video shows, all of the keys worked, except for grave “~” and escape, which are all mapped to the same key… the same key i didn’t solder a diode for.
i’m not too sure why it didn’t work without the diode, as the keys have worked without diodes before, and should work. i even probed the two switches under the kb2040 before soldering the kb2040, but there were no issues.
going forward, i’m gonna have to desolder the kb2040 and test why that key isn’t working.
next steps
now that i’m all done with the pcb, the only thing left are keycaps.
since i already have them all made, i just have to start resin printing all of the keys yet again. before doing so, i want to test my current pla keys made from the 3d printer to ensure that everything looks right.
additionally, i still have to work on my case and make sure that’s done, and still buy the foam and the extra switches
Read more about Andrew’s work on his website linked here.
Our Sophomore’s began working on creating their own websites that they will continue update for the next 3 years in the shop. We will begin to include them here when all are complete.
Next week we will be welcoming our new Freshmen – we are very excited!
MVTHS Engineering 
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