Timesquare Feedback

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phenoptix
 
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Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 10:52 am

Timesquare Feedback

Post by phenoptix »

Having just built my very own Timesquare watch I thought I'd pass on some feedback from the build.

Firstly the kit itself is really lovely. I know it's not advertised as a beginners kit but it's really nice and easy to solder together and it doesn't have an intimidating parts list.

The instructions similarly (and typically for you guys) are great. I did wonder though if where the matrix is soldered on if the sentence "it must go in the right way on the right side. " could be further highlighted - underlined maybe or even placed earlier in the cell. Being three lines in I wonder if people have started to skim read at this point and the polarity could be missed. Desoldering the matrix would be really tricky.

Secondly could adding a little solder to the PCB pad of the battery holder be a small improvement? At first my clock didn't work and the problem was the battery holder, despite the holder being flush to the board the battery was slight concave and wasn't making a connection.

Probably my biggest concern however is of the daylight visibility - mine is a lime green matrix. The originally battery was a little low, only giving out 2.8V so I switched a new cell giving 3.2V and although now visible in daylight it is very dim. Covering with Kapton does improve visibility but my concern is out of the box people might be a bit disappointed with the brightness. I'm going to head out and get some coloured Gels to try as the orange over green doesn't look great. If this is a viable option I'll probably ship out the kits we have with a square of film.

All in all it's a fantastic kit, easy to solder with great instructions at a great price. Just the daylight brightness gave me some cause for concern.

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: Timesquare Feedback

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Thanks for the feedback!

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