iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 29/03/2026

A Video impression of the #NoKings 3 march in #Springfield #Oregon It was a nice sunny spring day. The turn around was a good way to see the massive amount of people that joined the protest! #nokings3 #resist #resistence

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 22/10/2025

For Black Magic Probe v3 development, I designed a little breakout carrier. We will likely spend some quality time with a debugger hooked up to it so I think it will be a worthwhile. The SMT threaded inserts are really nice. I also 3D printed a base to keep the TH pins from scratching the table. ;)

Green Black Magic Probe v3.0 JTAG/SWD debugger and programmer with a built in GDB server. Mounted on top of a carrier board that provides a regular ARM Cortex debug connector and 0.1” pitch breakout pins for the debug lines and the AUX expansion connector. It also features a jumper to allow TPWR connection to the debug connector allowing the choice of how things are powered.

A 3D rendering of the BMP and debug carrier board.

The debug carrier being reflown on a miniware hot plate. (The bigger one not the original tiny one)

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 19/10/2025

A Video impression of the #NoKings 2 march in #Eugene #Oregon It was a really pretty autumn day. Lot's of patriotic people came out. I hope you get some good vibes from it as I did. :) #nokings2 #resist #resistence

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 18/10/2025

Some photo impressions from #nokings in #eugene #oregon It was _SIGNIFICANTLY_ bigger than NoKings 1 and way more cars were honking too! #nokings2 #resistance #resist

NoKings protesters. Some of the signs: “Due Process for All”, “Willie Nelso for President”, “Dump the Trump”. But the biggest one is carried by a person dressed in blue scrubs. Carries a “Operation Game” styled sign. A cartoon Donald trump is on the operating table and has a bunch of annotations. “Bird Brained Idiot”, “Forked Tongue Liar”, “Mean Hearted Bully”, “Taco Tits”, “Small D—K Energy”, “delusional Dictator”, “Cankles Crime King” he is holding also a crown in his hand.

More signs in the crowd. “I have a dream”, with police arresting Trump.

More people, “Hate will not make us great”

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 18/10/2025

I feel bad involving Germans in any of this. But it works in the US context very well to convey a message. (see alt text for description) #nokings #nokings2 #protest #USA

Caricature of a crazed Stephen Miller, holding a “naked cat”/“little baby” Donald Trump with empty eyes on his lap. Miller is pressing his vampire claws into Trumps back. On Stephen’s arm is a red armband with a part of a circle suggesting a “certain party” affiliation. The picture has a subtext “Peewee German’s Pet” which is a play on words with “Peewee Hermann” who was a US American comedy character known for being small and childlike. In the right lower corner is the date October 18th, 2025, the day of the second No Kings protest.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 09/10/2025

I might be using codeberg (aka. forgejo) more in the future. I am unreasonably excited to see how many merge options it offers, but mainly "fast-forward only" is in there! ❤️ Why can't I have it on GitHub 💔

Merge pull request dropdown:
* Create merge commit
* Rebase then fast-forward
* Rebase then create merge commit
* Create squash commit
* Fast-forward only

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 13/07/2025

First stable release V1.0.0 of bmputil! This Black Magic Probe Utility simplifies the process of keeping your Black Magic Probe up to date. New: the ability to automatically find and download the newest Black Magic Probe firmware. No need to find correct binaries any more! github.com/blackmagic-d...

Command line output of bmputil when invoked with no parameters.

-> bmputil-cli
Black Magic Probe companion utility v1.0.0

Usage: bmputil-cli [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Commands:
probe Actions to be performed against a probe
target Actions to be performed against a target connected to a probe
server Actions that run the tool as a debug/tracing server
debug Actions that run debugging commands against a target connected to a probe
complete Generate completions data for the shell
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
-s, --serial <SERIAL_NUMBER> Use the device with the given serial number
--index <INDEX> Use the nth found device (may be unstable!)
-p, --port <PORT> Use the device on the given USB port
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 04/07/2025

bmputil V1.0.0-rc.2 is here! This release is quite a big change from rc.1 to future proof the API before V1.0 release. See release notes for details. github.com/blackmagic-d... #opensource #rust #embedded #electronics #debugging #microcontrollers #jtag #swd

Screenshot of a terminal. Showing the output of `bmputil-cli`.
```
Black Magic Probe companion utility

Usage: bmputil-cli [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Commands:
probe Actions to be performed against a probe
target Actions to be performed against a target connected to a probe
server Actions that run the tool as a debug/tracing server
debug Actions that run debugging commands against a target connected to a probe
complete Generate completions data for the shell
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
-s, --serial <SERIAL_NUMBER> Use the device with the given serial number
--index <INDEX> Use the nth found device (may be unstable!)
-p, --port <PORT> Use the device on the given USB port
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
```

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 14/06/2025

The march! So many people! So many hand made signs! This is great to see! Thank you #Eugene for being awesome! #Oregon #nokings

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 03/06/2025

Here is the final invoice I got from DigiKey. I ended up paying 10% tax on the eval board and one of the MCUs, and 20% on the other MCU. They all have COO: China, I bet the tariff difference is dependent on when DigiKey imported them.

DigiKey invoice detailing Tariff codes, Country Of Origin and the Tariff amount paid on each item.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 03/06/2025

Interestingly DigiKey seems to be "eating" some of the tariffs…

DigiKey Cart, containing the same items as the Mouser one. The estimated tariffs are about 10% lower than Mouser.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 03/06/2025

GRRR... >_< iT iS NoT a tAx 🤡 It would be interesting to know which STM SKU’s are made in the EU fabs. But I bet they are still sending the DIEs to china for packaging.

Mouser order cart listing several STMicroelectronics parts. Each part has an extra line labeled "Estimated Tariff:" adding about 25% to the price of every item on the list.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 17/05/2025

Updated my STM32 KiCad Symbol generator! It now generates the modern library format and uses alternate pin functions feature. This results in more compact symbols. Plus a few other tweaks compared to the official KiCad library. Give it a try, let me know what you think. github.com/esden/stm32-...

Two sets of sub-unit STM32 symbols. One set for STM32G0B1C(B-C-E)Tx and the second set for STM32L452V(C-E)Tx.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 28/04/2025

Continuing the assembly marathon. Today assembling Black Magic Probe V2.3 JTAG/SWD debugger and programmer. #manufacturing #electronics #jtag #debug #embedded

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 27/04/2025

Today assembling ARM Cortex debug to legacy 20pin JTAG adapters. Slowly getting on top of the production backlog. :) #manufacturing #electronics #jtag #debug #embedded

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 26/04/2025

Another assembly day. Finally making more DVI Pmods! Soon to be back in stock :) #fpga #opensource #manufacturing #electronics

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 23/04/2025

Catching up on some PCB assembly in the shop today. Collected a little bit of a backlog. 😅 #fpga #opensource #manufacturing #electronics

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 05/02/2025

After surprising amount of music library cleanup. I took the #tangara out for a spin! Everything sounds so crisp and clear on the Tangara. It might be subjective but it sound better than the mac mini and to the scarlett outputs?! Setup was also very easy! Will likely get a second one for my wife! :D

OpenSource iPod inspired music player called Tangara. It shows some genres on the display and is sitting on top of some open back headphones.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 01/02/2025

Look what just arrived! The amazing #tangara the reimagined #opensource iPod. Thank you for all your hard work Cool Tech Zone crew! You rock!

A blue background with a printed carton saying “taagara”, an outline drawing of an iPod looking device, (square screen and a round click wheel on the bottom), CE and FCC markings as well as a QR code redirecting to the https://cooltech.zone/tangara/ website. To the right the #tangara itself with a pretty frosted transparent enclosure.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 02/01/2025

Finally assembled of the new epic-erebus bringup jigs! @dragonmux.network moved the pogo-pins a bit to make them work better. The pogos are tilted so the card is not bending them away from the landing pads when lowered. We also added a bunch more signal breakouts. They seem to work well now.

The Epic-Erebus board in the breakout board socket. The Breakout board is missing all the through hole parts but the card is fitting and lines up with the m3 screw stud correctly.

3D printed breakout base with heatserts allowing the board to be screwed onto the base with m2 screws. The pogo-pins have holes in the base to allow for accurate alignment during assembly.

A mean well power supply providing power to the breakout board. The breakout board has all the through hole parts mounted including the USB3 connectors that bring out the PCIe lanes out. The tigard board is connected to the JTAG interface of the breakout. The epic-erebus is loaded with a bitstream and is blinking.

Four development breakout boards for the epic erebus with thumbscrews for the m.2 card retention. All four are mounted onto the 3d printed bases and have their pogo-pins soldered in.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 19/12/2024

I also decided to tack down the inductors using some hot glue. I know it is getting warm inside so that might just create a huge mess, but it is worth a try. If that does not work out I will remove it and replace it with silicone. We will see™️ :D #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF RF board. The Toroid inductors have a big blob of hot glue melted into the center hole. The glue goes all the way down to the PCB keeping them in place. On the right the SWR/Power meter inductors have also a small dab of hot glue on the side. In the background the transformers also have some hot glue to keep them in place.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 17/12/2024

I got some silicone thermal pads for the TO-220s, so I have to take the radio apart and put them in. While I am at it I am also adding the optional TCXO temperature sensor. The instructions recommend to couple the oscillator and the sensor with some copper tape. #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF RF board with an SO-8 Temperature sensor soldered on. There is a copper tape shape bridging across from the SO-8 To the square oscillator package.

The same mcHF RF board but without the copper tape connecting the thermal sensor with the TCXO

The mcHF RF board before the temperature sensor was soldered in. The SO8 package is missing.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 14/12/2024

New toys arrived! I can now safely finish calibrating the mcHF radio. The dummy load is a bit of a handful but one can aspire to bigger things in the future… right? 😅 #electronics #hamradio #hf

On the left is a SWR/Power meter by SureCom model SW-102HF. On the right is a 50W dummy load held in the hand for size reference.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 09/12/2024

I don't think I posted about it. I mounted a dipole antenna above my roof crest. In the center there is a 1:1 balun, and it is running coax down to my office that happens to be near the middle of the house. The wire length is calculated for 40m band, but it is doing a pretty good job at 20m too.

A picture of a roof from the side. Showing vents along the roof crest as well as a wire going to a bipod in the center and continuing to the other side of the roof. There is also a VHF antenna in the left upper corner of the picture.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 09/12/2024

Digital modes like FT8 are quite amazing! I am able to receive messages from across the globe! (Also: Setting this up was shockingly easy with the mcHF. All I needed to do was to hook it up over USB and configure the WSJT-X software to use it!) #hamradio #mchf #ft8

Screenshot of the GridTracker software showing FT8 communication log. Some blue and green squares in the us as well as China and Japan!

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 09/12/2024

I have to wait for a dummy load and a few other bits and bobs to arrive before I can calibrate the radio and try to go on air with it. In the mean time I am trying to get familiar with the controls and while doing that I managed to receive some SSB on 40m! 🎉📻 #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 08/12/2024

And here we go! We have a fully assembled mcHF QRP radio! There is more work to do, but let's sit back and enjoy the view l for a little bit! :D #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF QRP radio fully assembled in it’s enclosure.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 08/12/2024

The front panel has some silicone buttons. But oddly enough these are not mats that fit the hole pattern. One has to clip the buttons apart and then insert into the button holes. It makes the assembly a bit awkward because the buttons love to fly out of position. #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The front of the mcHF enclosure in the background. In the foreground there are scissors holding two silicone buttons in a strip.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 08/12/2024

Now the UI board can be mounted on top of that. Let's finally remove that pesky protective film from the LCD display! #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 08/12/2024

Next: the RF board, followed by an RF shield. The enclosure comes with an RF shield but it needs a bunch of modifications. So instead of doing that I designed my own RF shield and ordered it from Send Cut Send! It worked out great. You can find the design on my GitHub. ;) #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF radio enclosure with the RF board installed. On top of the RF board is a piece of sheet metal with multiple cutouts for components. This is the RF shield to decrease the amount of interference from the UI board coupled into the RF board.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 08/12/2024

First thing for the case is to screw in and solder the wire to the speaker. #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

Speaker screwed into the back half of the mcHF radio enclosure. The speaker has a red and black lead with a connector soldered to it.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 08/12/2024

Remember how at the beginning we were missing a resistor for the electret microphone? It arrived, so let's solder it in before we assemble the whole radio into the enclosure. #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF UI board with the R8 resistor soldered in. This provides phantom power to the electret microphone of the handset.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 08/12/2024

To install the TO-220 PA MOSFETs and LDOs it is necessary to partially assemble the RF board into the case. It is really hard to get the nuts onto the chassis bolts so I decided to solder them onto the tabs. (these are the moments I praise having a JBC iron!) #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The two Power Amplifier (PA) MOSFETs in TO-220 packages. There are screw nuts on the thermal pads that have a dab of solder in the corner keeping them in place. The components are already soldered into the RF PCB.

The two through hole voltage regulators. There are screw nuts on the thermal pads that have a dab of solder in the corner keeping them in place. The components are already soldered into the RF PCB.

The voltage regulators installed in the radio enclosure. Showing that it is a very tight space making the installation of the screw nuts difficult.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 08/12/2024

After mounting one stray relay on the back side of the board, we can finally assemble the parts that go onto the "front side" of the RF board. Another funky balun, 3 relays, some connectors and a neon bulb to protect from the antenna zapping us. :D ⚡️ #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF RF board. Three white boxes which are the micro relays as well as a glass bulb with two electrodes inside. The bulb is a neon bulb connected to the antenna.

mcHF RF PCB back still visible are all the magnetics, but now it also has a relay mounted.

Full view of the front of the mcHF RF board. With the connectors, relays, neon bulb and the balun installed.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 08/12/2024

Last hand built items on the RF board are the SWR/PWR meter transformers. Installing those coax windings was a major pain in the back side. But the toroids are wound in opposite directions as the documentation describes, and things seem to be connected where they belong! 😅 #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF RF board with a bunch of magnetics and the BNC connector mounted. The newly added items are two square cross section toroids with 10 enameled wire windings each. The toroids also have one winding of a coaxial cable each. The coax provides “Faraday shielding” to provide adequate reverse isolation for the transformer. I am pretty sure the bend radius on those coax wires is "illegal" and that the board was not originally designed with this topology in mind. I am pretty sure there are better ways to lay it out so that it is not so painful to install... :D

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 07/12/2024

Here we go! All the filter inductors are wound and soldered in! I tried my best to do an even and clean job... I did check them with the low cost LCR meter I have and they seem to be in the ballpark of the specified values. #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF RF pub with 12 toroidal inductors. The winding count varies from left to right. On the left the inductors have less windings than on the right. The left most set of three inductors are for the roughly 10m bands, then 20m and 30m. The last two columns are 40m and 80m bands.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 07/12/2024

Now I need to wind all the inductors for the lowpass filters. Each filter consists of 3 inductors. I started with the 80m band toroids. 24, 27 and 24 turns each. #hamradio #kitradio #mchf #kicad

The green mcHF RF PCB. In the center there are three red ferrite toroids with copper enameled wire wound around them. From left to right they have 24, 27 and 24 windings each.

Schematic of the mcHF filter circuit. There are four groups of filters. For 80m, 40m, 20/30m and 15/17/12/10m bands. Each group of filters is a series of three inductors with capacitors connected to ground between each stage.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 06/12/2024

Sidequest: I took the mcHF design files and imported them to KiCad. You can find them on my GitHub. github.com/esden/mchf-kicad and yes they open in KiCanvas!!! ;) UI Board: kicanvas.org?github=https... RF Board: kicanvas.org?github=https... #hamradio #kitradio #mchf #kicad

The mcHF power amplifier section schematic as viewed in KiCanvas.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 06/12/2024

I have mounted the first few hand wound devices on the board. A balun, a choke and two transformers. They are part of the power amplifier circuit. (still getting the hang of hand winding and soldering these in…) #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF RF board with three hand wound devices using multi aperture ferrite cores. (each core looks like a binocular) From left to right. Power input choke, 2T bifilar transformer and TX 2T/3T transformer.

The mcHF RF board with one dual aperture ferrite core. This is the TX power amplifier input 4T/1T balun.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 05/12/2024

Look at that quirky balun! LOOK AT IT! They soldered a ferrite onto the back of a blank SMD component! I love it! :D Yes this is an off the shelf product, I did not come up with it! www.digikey.com/en/products/... #electronics #hamradio #mchf #rf

An SMD part soldered onto a green PCB. The SMD component has a ferrite ring stuck to its top. Multiple enameled wires in red and green color are wound through the ferrite ring and the wires are soldered to the legs of the SMD component. The SMD component also has lips at the end of the part to keep the ferrite ring in position.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 05/12/2024

Let's start on the RF board. Simple stuff first! Power jack, KEY and ACC, the BNC for the antenna, and an off the shelf balun. I still have to order the optional temperature sensor that would be added in this step to for some extra TCXO temperature compensation. #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF board with the BNC, KEY, ACC, Power plugs soldered on. In the top middle of the board a small balun is also visible. The left lower corner is missing an SO-8 package that is meant for the temperature sensor.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 05/12/2024

Now that the UI board is fully assembled we can test it! It is also time to update the boot-loader and firmware! All we need is some jumper wires and a USB cable. And the verdict is… NO SMOKE! (more details in picture ALT text) #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

First power up of the mcHF UI board. The firmware that the kit came with is quite old. V2.5.106 and the bootloader says “Unknown”. But NO SMOKE so that is great news so far!

To power the board I used some jumper wires to connect the 5V supply to the board through pin 28 on the 30 pin connector. Then to force the board into the built in DFU bootloader I used a small grabber to short the P6 jumper. After the bootloader is updated we don’t need to use the jumper any more.

After updating the bootloader I was able to flash the newest firmware onto the board. It is V2.12.2 from 2021, I have the feeling the firmware development slowed down a bit. ;) The new firmware immediately feels snappier and the encoders work more reliably.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 04/12/2024

Original design of the mcHF UI board has the LCD module soldered directly to the PCB. There is not much vertical space to allow for connectors. I decided to remove the pin header shrouds, cut the pins shorter and use screw machine terminals to make it removable. #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

A sandwich of screen, interposer connector and the UI PCB. At the end it is quite wasteful because it uses an off the shelf breakout providing the 2mm pitch connector strips but it costs a lot of height making removability of the LCD module a challenge.

The screw machine headers mounted directly onto the shortened pins of the interposer PCB. The removed pin header shrouds sitting next to the LCD module.

Screw machine headers soldered into the UI PCB.

The UI PCB with the LCD module mounted into the case showing that there is no gap between the case and the screen as well as no gap between the case halves and the screw holes align. (I know the screen protector is driving me crazy too! I will remove it when I do the final assembly of the radio)

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 04/12/2024

Ok, they turned out all right. There is way more wiggle room in the case openings than I originally expected. I did not have to be so precise about it. 😅 #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

Two LED soldered into the UI board. They are elevated above the board without dedicated standoffs. In production one would use plastic standoff sleeves to make the distance consistent. Doing it this way is too finicky otherwise.

The mcHF case mounted, showing the tips of the LEDs through the holes. The holes have quite a lot of tolerance around the LEDs.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 04/12/2024

I decided to temporarily put the case and boards together. I want to make sure that the recommended standoff distance for the LEDs is what I want. #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

mcHF case shifted to the right, over the UI board. Holding a through hole LED with tweezers sitting against the edge of the case to gauge the distance to the PCB.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 04/12/2024

Next I have added the encoders and the tact switches. Interestingly the pads for the SMD tact switches are genuinely massive, because of that, getting them soldered on centered and straight is much harder than it should be. :/ #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

mcHF radio UI board with the encoders and tact switches soldered on.

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 03/12/2024

Now the UI to RF board interconnect and the USB-A host connector. This brings us to the massive list of suggested mods to the original build of the board. It recommends putting pin headers on the UI board and pin socket on the RF board. github.com/df8oe/UHSDR/... #hamradio #kitradio #mchf

The mcHF UI board with the inter board connector mounted. It is the pin header which is not how the original kit is designed but it is better because the RF board is providing power, and it is better to have sockets on the power side and pin headers on the side that receives power.

Just a chunky USB-A host connector next to a now ancient looking Mini-USB connector. We might need to do something to convert it to USB-C at some point in the future? :D

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Piotr Esden-Tempski @esden.net · 03/12/2024

Starting with the UI board. First: “L-OUT", “L-IN”, “MIC" and “PHONE” 3.5mm jacks. I already run into an issue. The Baofeng handset I want to use has an electret mic. I need to solder on an 0805 680Ohm resistor at R8 for that. I don't have such huge resistors! I need to order it :/ #hamradio #mchf

Green PCB with multiple 3.5mm audio jacks mounted. The R8 resistor position is pointed out by an arrow on the board.

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