iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This looks like a job for @aisler.net 😅 But first I've got to clean up all the routing and finish the production data. For those wondering what this board is, it's another excuse to make a small board, this time with the CH32X035 MCU in a XIAO/QtPy compatible form factor. More details will follow.

Picture of a small white PCB. It's a WCH CH32X035 based TNY board that is compatible with Seeed XIAO and Adafruit QtPy boards.

051

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

You can request free replacements for these broken parts directly from LEGO. If you know from which set they came. Apparently they've had quality issues in the past with blue tiles (and other colors). Mine came from the set "4953". Very good customer service from their end.

130

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

To say Fri3d Camp was awesome is an understatement... Met, and reconnected, with a lot of wonderful people in the woods. Looking forward to the next edition! 🫣

A view of the main stage tent and large dish lit up with a lot of lights.

A wide shot of the events site at night showing various tents.

010

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I've been working on this USB MIDI controller in between all the work for Fri3d Camp. The resulting device is so much fun to play with. It's powered by a WCH CH32X035 USB microcontroller and has 64 WS2812C LEDs. 3D printable and laser cuttable housing are finished. Next step: CNC enclosure

A closeup shot underneath the silicone keypad of the Blooppad Maxx.

Close up of the heart of the device. The CH32X035 microcontroller

Overview of the finished devices. 2 are shown. One with a 3D printed enclosure and one with a matte acrylic laser cut cover.

Blooppad Maxx connected to a PC running sequencer software. The interface is Web MIDI which is supported by various modern browsers.

192

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Playing with USB MIDI on the (prototype) Blooppad Maxx. This PCB has a WCH CH32X035 microcontroller, 64 WS2812C LEDs and an 8x8 silicone button array. I have no musical talent whatsoever. Bit having 64 buttons with RGB LEDs is right up my alley. Alternative USB HID firmware is in the works.

000

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Filling up flux syringes for Fri3d Camp makes me feel like a drug dealer somehow...

A box containing multiple 5CC syringes filled with flux and a short medal dosing needle.

010

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I ran out of time to come up with a design for the silkscreen for the 8x8 midi controller... 🤷

Assembled PCB for an 8x8 midi pad based around the CH32X035 microcontroller. The back side of this large PCB reads "This side was intentionally left blank"

1160

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Nice solution, I only had the those larger euro boxes available which means the weight is significant. I opted for a 3 layer approach. It fits 12 x Bakon BK-969C soldering stations (JBC C210 compatible)

Bottom layer of the euro box with 12 x main controller of the BK969C solderin stations

Middle layer of the euro box with 12 times the stand for the solder iron and the power cables

Top layers of the euro box containing 2 trays. One with the 12 soldering irons and 12 silicone mats. The other containing 12 of each solder wick, de-solder pump, tweezers, diagonal cutters and solder wire. Also contains 2 multi meters and 2 large rolls of solder.

010

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

This version already contains I²C pads on the bottom (you do need alternative firmware to use those) or you can add the 1mm pitch SMD connector for Qwiic/Stemma QT compatibility.

Close up of the KeebDeck Basic bottom pads for interfacing with an MCU

040

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

That @solder.party keyboard everyone is so hyped about arrived. That tactile feel is crazy for a silicone keyboard. It types practically the same like the old Nokia E63 / Blackberry keyboards. Too bad you can't feel it through the photo, but if you're fast @pimoroni.com might have some stock left!

me holding the Solder Party KeebDeck Basic. A silicone based, but very tactile, miniature keyboard with USB-C interface made out of a stack of PCBs.

5897

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Another productive evening at the Area 3001 hackerspace. Hand assembled 5 PoE+ WLED Light controllers for Fri3d Camp. Paste distribution was not perfect because of the manual alignment and not putting any tension on the stencil. But the boards came out great, no rework needed.

Closeup of a PCB with solder paste applied and some parts already mounted. Picture is showing a set of tweezers mounting a bridge rectifier on the PCB.

Close up of the fine pitch QFN that was soldered on the board.

161

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Apparently not what she meant when she asked me to "cut the apple in 8" 🤷 (Why only 2 slices you ask? She stopped me 🫣)

2 apple slices cut in the shape of the number 8. As requested by my wife, or so I thought...

120

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Kudos to their support. Lego sent replacement parts, no questions asked!

A bag of Lego bricks with a shipping note.

030

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

There is something wrong with the blue Lego bricks from a few years back... They seem way more brittle than their white, red or black equivalent bricks.

120

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

The Hackerspace members are having fun with the new ESP32-S3 Stamp using the @solder.party carrier boards!

The Phyx ESP32-S3 Stamp in a circular experiment board from Solder.Party showing the LED ring lighting up.

1131

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Productive evening at the hackerspace this evening. The first prototypes of the ESP32-S3 STAMP and CH32V203 STAMP have been assembled and can now be tested. Thanks to @aisler.net for the fast and excellent service!

1223

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

step one towards documentation ✅

Pinout diagram for the ESP32-S3 STAMP currently under development.

020

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Some members of Area3001 were nagging about the lack of wireless connectivity on the @solder.party Stamp boards. So I quickly drew up an ESP32-S3 based stamp. Now on to prototyping and creating some documentation. Everything fits whilst still using 0603 passives and 125um tracks.

1110

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Contemplating if I should start offering solder workshops at children parties... It's always satisfying seeing those kids smile when the LEDs light up!

I'm helping a kid aged 7 soldering his first solder kit

Table with 4 sets of soldering equipment and 4 enthusiastic kids learning how to solder their first board.

yours truly enjoying the fascination of the kids during the workshop.

150

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Doing some hand assembly of this small debugging board for a client. Boards by @aisler.net , again faster than initially promised reducing deadline stress. And yes, that is Comic Sans on the silkscreen 😈,

061

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Patch Tuesday but for hardware 🤦‍♂️ (stuffing variant was not configured correctly, so I had to remove some components on the 20 prototypes) luckily most was 0603. The next step is updating the GNSS matching circuit (which is 0402). That's when the Mantis comes in handy.

More than 100 SMD parts, mostly 0603, piled together after being removed from a PCB.

030

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

1 board patched ✅, 19 to go 🫣 Note to self, the RF path of GNSS is from antenna to receiver, not the other way around 🤦‍♂️ (This resulted in a LNA + SAW filter being inverted)

000

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Spending the day in our (Dekimo) EMC lab, assisting one of our clients in their journey towards CE compliance. They have all the cool gear like the Rhode & Schwarz ESW that goes up to 44GHz (but they don't let me touch it though... 😒)

Inside view of an EMC room set up for radiated emission test of a DUT placed on a Styrofoam table.

Rhode & Schwarz ESW test device. An EMI test device that goes from 2Hz all the way to 44GHz.

140

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

It might not be the most modern tool in my drawer, but it still gets the job done (if you feed it enough 9V batteries) It's an EC-220 calculator from Radio Shack for those playing along at home. It was released in the mid seventies.

Radio shack EC-220 calculator showing the number 12345678 on the bubble LED display.

1111

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Do I know anyone with a vintage PC collection that could use an old trackball? Stumbled across this in my storage. An old "Agiler" RS-232 trackball with installation floppies.

The box of the Agiler trackball for Windows 3.11

Inside the box showing the trackball, driver floppies and the user manual.

120

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Time to make some prototypes on the @opulo.io pick and place. I got tired of the low quality LED strips on the market, so I went for a drop in replacement design with Cree LEDs (90+CRI) and a Diodes AL5809 constant current sink.

Overview shot of the Opulo pick and place machine loaded with the led panel

Opulo pick and place machine loaded with the LEDs and drivers.

051

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Since I'm not allowed to give real tools to school for carnival, I'm making some cardboard replicas. Might switch to MDF or EVA foam after some durability testing later today.

030

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

That's exactly the reason why I added this shape on the sides of the ESP programming dongle. (Used to program roughly 200 boards)

150

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Would you look at that! I found the perfect spot to showcase the really big RP2350 stamp from @solder.party . Thanks @arturo182.bsky.social !

Comically large RP2350 based stamp PCB from Solder Party mounted on the wall in my office.

2343

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Fluke once made a plushie (albeit a cheap give-away style plushie) of the 283FC DMM. There is some room for improvement.

240

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Can confirm that the 1mm thick PCBs also contain watermarks. (This PCB is the front diffuser for a custom badge I made for @calmera.bsky.social )

110

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

These keyboard parts are developed by @solder.party , however for me it felt like an obvious choice to go ortholinear for a thumb-operated keyboard. That might be because I used ortholinear keypads on PDA's back in the day 🤷Just some of the devices I used back then :

Toshiba G900 showing a slide-out ortholinear keyboard

HTC TyTn II with slide and foldout ortholinear keyboard

Nokia 9500 Communicator with an ortholinear keyboard

Nokia E63 in red with an otrholinear keyboard

210

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Finally got around to assembling the stereo audio board for the Fri3d Camp 2024 badge. Works like a charm! Perfect for playing Doom during your commute.

Fri3d Camp badge 2024 with stereo audio output expansion running Doom.

Stereo expansion board for the Fri3d Camp badge 2024 hand assembled ready to be soldered in the reflow oven

Back view of the stereo expansion board on the Fri3d Camp badge 2024 showing the optional stereo amplifiers and speaker cutouts

Using the robins tools pixel pump for hand assembling the stereo expansion board

020

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Well well well, what is this beautiful thing lurking in the back?!? 🕵️‍♂️

Solder Party keyboard in the back of the photo, due to be launched in 2025 for sure.

030

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Makes me think about the time (2016 🫣) I made one of those word clocks using the lasercutter to do some deep engravings on thick balsa wood.

Word clock hidden in a wooden beam showing the current time using green LEDs. The current time shown on the clock is 15.37h.

010

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

This was a triumph! I'm making a note here: Huge success! TESS DSI interface in combination with the @raspberrypi.com touch screen 2 works!

TESS, the Adafruit feather compatible board with Allwinner T113-S3 processor running embedded Linux, connected to the Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 showing terminal output.

2241

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Well, that went better than expected so far. The CPU does what is advertised. We did need to add a lot of bindings for the other peripherals. Next up: DSI. We've hooked up the new @raspberrypi.com touchscreen. Let's see if we can get that working.

TESS on the back of the RPi touch display 2

050

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Prototypes for TESS, the @adafruit.com feather compatible board running embedded Linux arrived. Board bringup time this weekend! 🥳

1162

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

It's a wonderful and versatile keyboard. We sold approx 200 during Fri3d Camp last summer!

030

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Thinking about a new easy solder kit for the kids... Might add an UM66T-01L chip and buzzer on the PCB for the annoying Jingle Bells sound you get from those seasonal greeting cards 😅 (if I can get a hold of them)

PCB solder kit in the form of a reindeer with the on-off switch in a naughty spot 👀

020

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Well there's your problem... Time to replace the fixture and not just light source 😅

Water on the 50W LED light source due to ingress / condensation in a light fixture

020

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Working on some documentation for my LANA TNY board makes it painfully clear I'm not a graphical designer 😅 You can still get the LANA TNY at @adafruit.com www.adafruit.com/product/6042 or from our @lectronz.com store lectronz.com/products/lan...

pinout diagram for the LANA TNY board. This board is based around the WCH CH32V203 microcontroller.

1161

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Getting started on some documentation so my friendly hackers over at Area 3001 can get started on the firmware. I'll keep y'all posted on our progress.

pinout description for the feather compatible TESS board with an Allwinner T113-S3 chip on board

Blockdiagram showing the power distribution on the board

0122

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Saw this in an electronica store in Tokyo Akihabara. Roughly €1000 for a power lead...

"audiophile" power cable being sold on an electronics store in Japan for ¥154.000, roughly €1000

230

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

This feels like a miscommunication between management and engineering department when deciding between a QFN and QFP package... (Ti ADS1278-HT for those playing along at home www.ti.com/product/ADS1... )

Texas Instrument ADS1278-HT in CFP package which looks like a dead bug style QFN with leads soldered on each pin to make it into a QFP

241

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

We're getting somewhere with the @adafruit.com feather running linux. Board design is practically done, we managed to fit it on a 4layer board. Perfect timing to test out the 4L 0.8mm pool from Aisler 🤔 We did cheat a little and added extra UART and USB pins 🤷 your move @arturo182.bsky.social 😉

Top view of the Tess board showing the Espressif ESP C3 Mini module, and the power circuitry.

Bottom view of the Tess board showing the 22 pin MiPi DSI connector, the Allwinner T113-S3 Soc with dual core cortex A7 at 1.2GHz and 128MB DDR3 built in, and the 512MB~4GB onboard SD card.

2212

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 03/11/2024

Last month I realized I could use my solder skills to make some bespoke earrings from the leftover @raspberrypi.bsky.social RP2350 microcontrollers.

Samantha Snyder showing off the RP2350 earrings

1437

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

Heading home after a successful week at @raspberrypi.bsky.social in the UK. Baffled by the level of optimizations done on the factory line to ensure fast production with a very high yield! Perfect moment to optimize the placement of the feather board whilst waiting on my plane back home.

Laptop running Altium Designer, editing an Adafruit feather compatible PCB looking over the Cardiff airport.

0131

Wim Van Gool @wimvangool.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

I've been working on a new @adafruit.com feather compatible board featuring a dual core Cortex-A7, 128MB DDR3 and 512MB~4GB embedded SD card flash. I've also added an ESP32-C3/C6 mini module for Wi-Fi. Placement is roughly done, on to routing!

Adafruit feather compatible board with dual core Cortex-A7 running at 1.2GHz, 128MB DDR3, 512MB~4GB SD card flash onboard, ESP32-C3/C6 based Wi-Fi, fast battery charging and microphone. It also has headers for audio output and MiPi DSI connector compatible with the RPi 22pin pinout.

1344