20250807 A Relaxing Day

20250807 A Relaxing Day

I was putting off soldering of these LiPo Chargers for quite some time as the thought of searching and organising the necessary components was quite daunting. Unfortunately, it is an urgent thing that needs to be done ASAP but I was procrastinating since after soldering the main PCB, I was literally not in the mood. But Life as you know it, tends to kick my ass once in a while to get me doing stuff that should have been done.

And so, I had to take a day off to recover from a swelling tendon at the back of my left heel. I did not have much problem and did not link it to my Monday’s fall into a drainage. I mean, my Right foot fell in and nothing happened but by late Tuesday afternoon, my Left Foot was starting to smart. It deteriorated badly by Wednesday evening, which became too painful to walk. Under the advise of my Wife, I took HER medication for swelling and on the next Day, it was so much better. Better but was not good enough for normal office walking or just plain ordinary 37° slopes. The Doctor called it tendonitis. In the end, I had to take an MC (a Medical Cert which the Doctor prescribes for you to Holiday, er, to rest), something I was never happy about, maybe because of my weird Work Ethics.

But anyway, the only thing to keep me busy for the day, apart from vegetating in various places in the peaceful and quite house, would be me trying to catch up on my, um, Works. Or open a few recently bought model kits. Or watch some Movies on the TV. Or just sleep throughout the day. Or… you know what, NOW I am in the mood for some soldering!

Soldering the Lipo Charger

To be honest, the LiPo Charger MODULE by itself is already a complete solution. However, for those who are not well versed in electronics or just do not want to solder stuff, I designed a PCB with some choice connectors (JST 2.54mm & 1.25mm) and soldered the module onto it. This turns the whole thingamajig into a USB-C Lipo Charger which not only is it convenient for the Blade Runner Lighting Kit but also, for possible future products.

I designed the Board with the pre-AutoDesk EaglePCBv7.7.0 and then sent it off to JLCPCB for production. These guys can custom cut the design and still not charge me for that feature. And they can go down to 0.8mm thickness too. Nevertheless, after I tested the initial 5x prototype pieces, it was smooth sailing with the production process.

20250807 A Relaxing Day
These PC Jumper connectors are fiddly. I used the Prototyping Board (aka Breadboard) as a jig to hold them upright while I solder them. You can tell the board has been used countless of times and KIV for so long, the legs from the through-hole components are rusting out in the open air. Anyway, for the LiPo charger, I need 1x PCB, 1x Charger module, 2x 2×40 PC headers, 2x 1×40 PC Headers, 1x JST XH2.54 female connector, 1x JST 1.25mm female connector, 1x Clear Heatshink tube, and a red oil based paint marker. At every stage of the soldering, especially the charger module, I would be testing them again and again.
Posted in A Piscean Works Blog, EaglePCB7.77, Electronics, JLCPCB, Printed Circuit Board, Tools.

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