Step 0: Acquiring parts, what you’ll need #

To make a badge, a number of parts, tools and consumables are needed. Here’s the overview and where to get things:

• Parts:

  • Prefabricated Circuit boards (with SMD stencil). Home-fabrication is possible, but not recommended. Tolerance requirements and specs are rather lenient for this board, so any manufacturer should do just fine.
  • Circuit board components. Full BOM listed on the assembly page.

• Tools:

  • SMD stencil for the circuit boards.
  • Solder paste applicator (a plastic card will do fine).
  • Hot plate for reflowing.
  • Soldering iron.
  • UPDI programmer for flashing the software.

• Consumables:

  • Solder paste.
  • Flux.
  • Solder.

• Additional (optional) parts:

  • Clamp, clip or pin for gluing to the back for attachment to clothing etc.
  • Power source:
    • Battery with JST PH connector. Single LiPo Cell, 3 Alkaline cells, or 4 NiMH cells.
    • OR USB to JST PH adapter cable + USB Cable + Power bank or wall plug.
    • (See the Power supply page)

Note that the BOM of a single badge is rather cheap (4-5€). This makes shipping potentially the costliest part of the project. If you have friends who could also use a badge, consider making multiples to lower the average cost. Most PCB manufacturers produce a minimum of 5 PCBs.