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MiniDave
MiniDave HalfDork
5/10/24 2:02 p.m.

The twins are 9 years old now!!!!

Rons
Rons GRM+ Memberand Dork
5/10/24 2:32 p.m.

In reply to NOHOME :

I will throw out this Ridler winner in regard to trailer queens

I believe it see's street duty as well.

EvanB
EvanB GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/26/24 2:15 p.m.
Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/26/24 2:34 p.m.

The geared gauges was a literal lol. But I have to say, I recognize this learning curve. This wasn't a fabrication shop flexing their skills on a ridiculous project, this was watching someone learn new things. And watching, I'm thinking "why not just use the Arduino?" until they got there on their own.

They previewed their solder "printer" a couple of years ago. 

Also, I have a Smiths boost gauge and electronic speedo. Everything they said about the font and bezel is bang on. 

Pete. (l33t FS)
Pete. (l33t FS) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/26/24 6:50 p.m.

That's certainly an interesting and innovative (and punderful) way to make a printed circuit board, in that it's adaptable as you change your mind partway through the project.

 

I hope that once it was all proved out that they applied some sort of conformal coating to it.  Cars are vibratey places.

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/26/24 8:30 p.m.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Yeah, it definitely needs something to keep it together. Those traces aren't really attached to the board, it's more like solid core wire without insulation. But for the way they were using it, it works. I have a big pile of obsolete PCBs from working through circuit variations. 

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
10/26/24 9:21 p.m.

The DIY circuit board was an interesting effort, and fun to follow in that "we will always pick the hardest path available" way that defines Project Binky. But there are circuit board suppliers for the small scale and home designer analogous to what "Send Cut Send" does for the home fabricator. Check out "PCB Way "as an example.

 

Trent
Trent UltimaDork
10/26/24 9:29 p.m.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Richard leaked a very rough cut of the episode last week that discussed epoxy potting the whole board once the design was finalized. 

That was missing from the final edit for some reason 

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/27/24 1:18 a.m.

In reply to NOHOME :

I have many purple PCBs :)

Apexcarver
Apexcarver MegaDork
10/27/24 11:52 a.m.

The other factor for automotive is potential moisture exposure and corrosion. (Condensation can be enough). England being England, I would probably want to put some kind of conformal coating on there when it's finalized. Using the right one could also give some mechanical reinforcement to the soldered connections to help the vibration resistance.

The problem with just using epoxy is that how it degrades can be a question mark and could allow trace currents. 

Then again, I overthink a lot. 

There are different conformal coating sprays available on Amazon, there's a big industrial rabbit hole on selection of the correct one. I'm not an expert, I just know enough to be dangerous.

Pete. (l33t FS)
Pete. (l33t FS) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/27/24 11:58 a.m.

In reply to Apexcarver :

The nice thing is that they have all of the files, so they can print a new one out if they feel like it, or as mentioned above just have one made.

 

I imagine that the market for Link ECU controlled gauges for a classic Mini is exceedingly small, but if someone else wants one then they know where to go smiley

BoxheadTim
BoxheadTim GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/27/24 12:02 p.m.
NOHOME said:

The DIY circuit board was an interesting effort, and fun to follow in that "we will always pick the hardest path available" way that defines Project Binky. But there are circuit board suppliers for the small scale and home designer analogous to what "Send Cut Send" does for the home fabricator. Check out "PCB Way "as an example.

I suspect they're aware of these suppliers based on some of the comments. I think once they got their solder printer going, it's a much faster and cheaper way to prototype, though. I think I some point I saw something like "revision 42" flash up on the screen when it came to the board layout...

I suspect that a good way to deal with the fragility of the current board would be to use it to finalize the board layout and then have the likes of PCBWay make a couple of the final revision.

Streetwiseguy
Streetwiseguy MegaDork
10/27/24 1:21 p.m.

Good lord'n'butter.

Nuts.

Kendall Frederick
Kendall Frederick GRM+ Memberand Reader
10/27/24 5:37 p.m.
BoxheadTim said:
NOHOME said:

The DIY circuit board was an interesting effort, and fun to follow in that "we will always pick the hardest path available" way that defines Project Binky. But there are circuit board suppliers for the small scale and home designer analogous to what "Send Cut Send" does for the home fabricator. Check out "PCB Way "as an example.

I suspect they're aware of these suppliers based on some of the comments. I think once they got their solder printer going, it's a much faster and cheaper way to prototype, though. I think I some point I saw something like "revision 42" flash up on the screen when it came to the board layout...

I suspect that a good way to deal with the fragility of the current board would be to use it to finalize the board layout and then have the likes of PCBWay make a couple of the final revision.

I'm an electronics engineer who worked on a lot of small volume projects and we'd do exactly this, proto boards with our printer and then send them out when it worked.  We used to white wire a lot of stuff and this helped clean up that practice.

Toyman!
Toyman! GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/28/24 11:57 a.m.

I was hopeful for something meaningful to happen. Then they spent the first 5 minutes explaining why they weren't going to move the project forward more than a minuscule amount and how they were going to make this part of the project as pedantic and complicated as possible. I was starting to think these guys were German but then I remembered how complicated the Bentley was.

Fast forward 57 minutes to the end...not only did they not have a running car, they didn't have a complete dash. 

I'm over it at this point. Y'all let me know if they ever get it finished.

They are 11 years into this project. I'll probably be dead of old age before they get this car built. There are better ways to spend my time. 

 

 

adam525i
adam525i GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
10/30/24 9:58 a.m.

Meh, I'm here for the fabrication, problem solving, new ideas and dry humour. A finished car on the internet isn't that exciting, I'm fine if it is never "done".

Ian F (Forum Supporter)
Ian F (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
10/30/24 10:07 a.m.

To me, Binky is a prime example of the phrase, "the last 10% takes 90% of the time..." and considering how long the first 90% took, we can imagine it'll be quite a few more videos before the car is finished enough to drive regularly. 

...also an example of "perfection getting in the way of finishing the damn thing..." 

ojannen
ojannen GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
10/30/24 10:10 a.m.

In reply to adam525i :

I enjoy the engineers being engineers content too.  I can't wait for them to put a ham sandwich into some carbon fiber.

californiamilleghia
californiamilleghia UberDork
10/30/24 11:11 a.m.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

To me, Binky is a prime example of the phrase, "the last 10% takes 90% of the time..."

I have built a lot of 90% cars that are nice , but not show quality , and are not worth enough to spend 2x the hours for that 10% which is not noticed by most people.

As far as the new Binky , I learned a lot that I will never use !

Trent
Trent UltimaDork
10/30/24 11:11 a.m.

Lets face it. There are more than enough "Perfection is the enemy of finished" builds on the internet. There is plenty of leftover bandwidth for this level of ambition.  

This, coming from a guy who is trying to teach himself Raspberry Pi coding, because I too cannot find a suitable gauge solution. 

 

At what point does a build thread/log transition to being entertainment and then have to cater to the readers/viewers wants? 

I was getting upset "How come there haven't been updates" on one of my build threads even after I explained that I had been suddenly widowed and laid off in the same week.  The outrage about the Binky timeline kind of reminds me of that. 

06HHR (Forum Supporter)
06HHR (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
10/30/24 11:43 a.m.

In reply to Trent :

Wow, so sorry for your loss. Unfortunately we've been conditioned by reality TV to expect show-quality builds to take a week when we all know the reality of these things the simplest appearing tasks often take the most time. My .02, in the end, even if you've set up a Patreon to help monetize/fund the build it's your project. The timeline is the timeline, it takes as long as it takes and it's done when you say it's done.  

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/30/24 12:06 p.m.

In reply to Trent :

Look into Circuit Python. It's a lot easier to deal with, the hardware deals with automotive on/off power behavior better and the hardware is smaller. Drop me a line if you want.

Appleseed
Appleseed MegaDork
10/30/24 2:36 p.m.

In reply to Toyman! :

You'd never build an airplane with that attitude.

Pete. (l33t FS)
Pete. (l33t FS) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/30/24 8:16 p.m.

In reply to 06HHR (Forum Supporter) :

This also isn't their day job, and a part of me likes to believe that the exposure that they get from the video series is making their day job a lot busier, so they have less off time to muck about in the shed.

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