The v1.1 release of the sensor PCB makes it easier to solder the hall-effect sensor, with wider pin spacing and larger pads, and improves the silkscreen to clarify which side the sensor and headers should be soldered to.

• Sensor PCB, single (gerbers / pdf)
• Sensor PCB, panelized (gerbers / pdf)

Initial release of the Chainlink Buddy [Breadboard] PCB.

Compatible with Chainlink Driver v1.1

• Schematic pdf
• PCB (gerbers / pdf)
• Panelized PCB (gerbers / pdf)
• PCB bom (for manual assembly) interactive

Initial stable release of the Chainlink Buddy [T-Display] PCB.

Compatible with Chainlink Driver v1.1.

• Schematic pdf
• PCB (gerbers / pdf)
• Panelized PCB (gerbers / pdf)
• PCB bom (for manual assembly) interactive

Initial stable release of the Chainlink Driver PCB.

• Schematic pdf
• PCB overview pdf
• PCB gerbers zip
• PCB bom (for JLCPCB assembly) csv
• PCB CPL (for JLCPCB assembly) csv
• PCB bom (for manual assembly) interactive

This is mostly a minor mechanical update, with a handful of small but useful improvements, but there are some breaking dimensional changes to be aware of if you are planning to extend an existing v0.6 display (see below). A huge thanks to @dmadison for all the excellent contributions!

Breaking Changes

Thickness fix and tolerances

The design has been modified to match the 3.0mm nominal material thickness available at Ponoko and elsewhere, rather than using a value of 3.2mm which was based on incorrect material information Ponoko had previously published.

Since thickness is a key variable across the entire design, this results in breaking (though small) dimensional changes compared to previous versions; if you have previously built modules using v0.6, you should continue to use v0.6 when building additional modules instead of updating to v0.7.

Highlighting a few key dimensional changes:

Dimension	v0.6	v0.7
enclosure_height	148.786	147.786
enclosure_width	82.2	82.6
front_window_width	55.5	55.9

As part of this change (#93), additional tolerances were added to ensure pieces fit well together in practice instead of relying on laser kerf (i.e. an under-sized kerf_width compensation value) to make up for the zero-tolerance fits.

New Features

Sensor spacing jig

This laser-cut jig (part of the main laser-cut design) sets the proper spacing between the hall effect sensor and PCB when assembling the sensor boards.

You can find it inside the motor cutout in the laser-cut file (highlighted in red in the image to the right).

From #101

Spool home position indicators

An engraved indicator on the spool helps you insert flaps in the right positions.

The top half of the "home" character (by default, this would be the top flap of the blank/space) should be inserted into the spool holes indicated for proper alignment of the home position relative to the magnet/home-position sensor.

From #102

Assembly alignment indicators

New engraved indicators help with assembling the enclosure.

The front face has an "up" arrow (since it's easy to accidentally insert it upside-down/inside-out), and there are circle and triangle indicators to help make sure you insert the sides correctly too!

From #111

Zip tie cable management

Slots for zip ties to to keep the motor and sensor cables under control!

Designed for small (e.g. 2.5mm width) zip ties.

From #109

Optional inter-module alignment bar

Since there is some slop in the inter-module connectors when linking multiple modules together, you can now add an optional 1/4" dowel (shown in red) along the base of the modules to keep them in a straight line.

From #142

Very minor mechanics change from v0.5 - the spool strut tab is now "stepped" so that the distance between the spool walls doesn't depend on the exact thickness of material used. This should avoid issues with flaps binding against the walls of the spool if the material thickness is below spec (e.g. when ordering from Elecrow which seems to be ~2.8mm thickness rather than 3mm). See animation:

Also, based on feedback from someone who ordered recently, I'm generating a separate Acrylic laser-cutting file with a smaller kerf correction value than Ponoko specifies to hopefully avoid slightly oversized parts that require sanding/filing to fit together.

This is the latest design using hall-effect sensors (rather than IR reflectance sensors), and also includes a slightly refreshed controller PCB design.

Note that the controller PCB changes are considered minor and unrelated to the sensor change. That is, you can use the new hall-effect sensors with older controller boards, and likewise, the new controller design will still work with the older IR reflectance sensors.

Major changes:

• PCB for sensors is now a separate, panelized design, rather than an alternate configuration on half of the controller PCB. For small quantities, they're available in inexpensive packs of 4 on Tindie so you don't have to order a full panelized pack of 200 of them. You can also now omit the sensor PCB entirely if desired, as documented in the wiki
• Mechanical design updated for hall-effect sensor board and magnet

Minor changes:

• Controller PCB now has a jumper to optionally power the Arduino from the Motor supply (so it can be used without being plugged into USB)
• Controller PCB now plugs into additional Arduino pins for better physical stability
• Controller PCB now has better mounting holes, including holes to optionally attach it to the Arduino using standoffs
• Controller PCB now has a pull-down resistor on the sensor input shift register to avoid phantom inputs when expansion boards aren't connected
• Mechanical design now includes inter-module connector pieces for optionally joining adjacent modules

• Eliminates all gears - the spool is now directly driven by the motor for less mechanical complexity
• Adds an optional connector piece for loosely attaching adjacent modules to each other, and a 4mm hole on the top and bottom to allow modules to be attached to an external structure if desired
• This is the design seen in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq4o_88kN8g (all 4 modules)

• New controller design: Arduino-compatible shield, chainable for up to 12 modules controlled from a single Arduino Uno
• Eliminated 5mm rod/axle for spool; uses M4 bolts instead, for easier parts sourcing
• This is the design seen in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04el3LYiOaI (the center module; the outer modules are v0.2 modules) and https://imgur.com/a/0VAMZ

• v0.2 pcb design - USB controller and sensor board
• This is the design seen in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Df4Lg8UIck