The SMD LED that blinks

That's right, folks. Somewhere in China, someone has managed to make White SMD LEDS blink at 1.5Hz!

OK, if you want to know how fast 1.5Hz is, just say, 'One Thousand and One' and that would be your 1 second.
So the 1.5Hz is you saying, "One Thousa..'. And I am hoping they would do 1Hz as well

It's great for putting them as navigation blinkers in small spaces but just like the Candle LED, I suspect that if some were put side by side, they might flash out of sync. Which, would be bad if they're connected on the same surface place. So, you need to place one at the top of the model and one at the bottom. And in a pinch, you can use them as 1.5Hz clock generators too.

Now you see it...

Now you don't.
And that's, 'One thousan...' for you of 0.6667 seconds

The 0805 LED is already very small but in modeling scale, its already a tad too big. There are smaller ones such as the 0603 and the 0401 which are great for scale lighting. Anyhoo, see that small square at the top left of the chip? I think that's the circuit to make the LED flash.

Sometimes, you just gotta Bling

I couldn't resist in getting some of these clear breadboards. For those who are into circuit design, breadboards are the best and fastest way to test if your design works before you move into the circuit board stage. Bigger circuits or chips with more ports would need more of them. Not a problem; you just snap another piece on and continue.

Although they're big and clunky, butdo bear in mind that this is just a prototype. I do have a choice of using spare finalised PCBs but it's not a good idea re-programming chips again and again when the Codes are not finalised.

Still, looking at the same old yellowing breadboards everytime can really be kind of boring and the monotony does destroy creativity fast...

They're small, they're inter-lockable aaaaannndddd clear!

Note that unlike the original breadboard, the clear one dies not have what I would call as power rails on both sides.
But gollee! The orignal is so full of dust and yellowing. Kinda like all my projects going to the limbo and back when parts arrives... or not.

I'm sorry, Sir. I won't be programming for you

Well, that sucked. Really sucked. And it was on a Monday too.

Let me tell you why.
(tl;dr - POS Test Clip not working)

Once I have finalised a program, it means it's code is ready for Production. So, the moment the chip has been programmed, it would be soldered onto the circuit board and that's it. So, if there is any changes after that, I would be expelling a lot of colourful expletives.

But, the codes still need to be changed. Unlike a normal chip which I can just pull it out of the socket, SMDs are a whole lot different. Desoldering SMDs requires a lot of work if your intention is to reuse them. Another alternative is what one would call ICSP (In-circuit Serial Programming) where you just connect the circuit board directly to the programmer. In this case, I would just need to solder the relevant pins from the chip to the programmer. No a problem until you realise there are tons of them lying on the table.

And so, to cut a long story short, I invested in a SMD test-clip. And after waiting for more than two months, it arrived. But after using/testing it for half and hour, it sucked. At first I thought it was because the solder got in the way. So I took a fresh chip and it failed 9 out of 10 times. Using this clip would have saved a lot of time, that is, if I had any last minute changes.

Oh well, maybe one day I would be able to find a more reliable clip but not today. I'll just let today suck monkey balls.

And so, here it is. That sucky SMD clip (black) connected to ribbon cables and then finally, to a DIL adaptor (yellow) to connect to my programmer

So, in normal sense, I would just plug this clip onto my circuit board and re-program the chip from there.
But it did not work. Damn it.

Flux Dreaming

Imagine this. You just work up from your dream. Very gently. And everything is still, serene, quiet. You're still comfortable in your bed, plus, the Sun has not come up yet. The only sensation you feel is some kind of a familiar and inviting warmth

And in a lazy way, you realise the memories from the last dream moments ago was still fresh...

I was in some college/organisation where I was being audited or something. Finally, when I was given the score, it was not a very good one with the Appraiser snarkily saying, "Perhaps you should have joined other activities/modules to improve that score." AND THEN I REALISED, (or recollected) THAT SOME OF MY RECENT DREAMS WERE ACTUALLY TEST MODULES!!!.

So, for the next hour or so, my mind was trying to remember which dream were the test modules, keep the score, and then went back to sleep to search for that room where the Appraiser was. I could not find her...

Then my Phone's SocMed notifications started...