The last items from The Robot Shop finally arrived, I feel like a kid on Christmas. So we begin with the Fuse Break Out Board (hence forth known as “the board”), keep in mind I haven’t soldered anything since I was in Junior High School – yes I’m that old, middle schools didn’t exist then. I couldn’t find my soldering iron so I had to order a new one from Amazon. It has an on/off switch, 5 tips, solder wire, a stand and other cool stuff. I’m happy with the purchase but still have minimal idea what the Hell I am doing. After 30 minutes I managed to assemble the board. No I am not showing anyone my soldering job.
Now the big question is, will it work. Before adding the board to the project box, I snapped on the 9v adaptor to the D cell battery holder then plugged the adaptor into the barrel Jack on the board. I took the front section off of a flashlight containing the bulb and reflector (known as the head of the flashlight). On the inside where the batteries contact the bulb, I attached the positive line (red wire) to the copper clip in the middle of the cap. Added the D batteries to the holder then touched the alligator clip to the dome on the back of the head – the bulb came to life – party on Garth!
My attention now switched to the project box, ok it is a Raspberry Pi case, don’t be so critical. The box comes with 3 USB or Network cable ports, an opening for the GPIO connector and a variety of slots for SD cards, IO cables, etc. figuring I will blow the fuse and to make access easy I decided to install the board under the GPIO slot. This way I can swap out a fuse easily (assuming I have a spare) and use the USB port as the point of ingress for the barrel Jack and an SD slot on the opposite end as point of egress for the terminal wires.
So how to mount the board to the box without it becoming a permanent addition. I set the board in the box and made marks to coincide with anchor slots on the board. Using the rubber feet that came with the box I placed them over the marks, applied a little guerrilla around the rubber feet (that self adhesive glue on the feet never lasts). After the glue dried, set the board on the feet and screwed it in place. Slipped the gator wires through the SD slot and attached them to the vout terminals, making sure Red was attached to the + side and attached the top. Plugged in the on/off switch, now we are ready. Cant tell you how proud of myself I am, I admired my creation for days. Do you think Steve Wozniak felt this way?
Next step, making the nickel acetate (electrolyte) solution…
Chronicles of a Fountain Pen 