The Case!

Oh my... I am so excited. I drove out to see Mike (99mpg.com)on Saturday and he literally gave me the whole day (till midnight) helping me build a case for the prototype. Note, click for photos of the case creation process. Actually, I should probably say, he let me make some decisions and watch. It was one of those days that expands your horizons. I got to learn about machining, solar, battery charging, soldering techniques, etc. I especially enjoyed learning about the digital micrometer and working with fine precision. Now I want one of those for my birthday. Anyway, I came home with a nice acrylic case that is split in the middle. It is very close to as small as possible. It still needs 4AA batteries, and will need some further board modifications. 1) We chopped down the board to fit a small case. 2) We removed some components to make it shorter. 3) 4AA batteries puts out 4.2-5.6 volts (rechargable) This should do fine with 2x3.2V solar panels + a .6V drop diode. 4) The 3.3V regulator for the board should work fine since it's drop out is around 0.9V. This means the board will stop working around 4.2V. The screen however requires 4-6V so we might be pushing the parameters a little. 5) We chopped the solar panels with a glass cutter to reduce the width. 6) The case has no openings and a bunch of screws to close it. I'll turn it on at the start of the event and hopefully sleep functions and solar will allow it to run the whole time.