I have a TV B Gone from Adafruit so I just made this one to see if I could. I did however want to make one that was smaller, easier to hide, and cheaper. Since the design was open source, I started with the schematic and worked my way from there. I did not really need 4 LEDs, nor did I need some of the extra parts that were on it. So after deleting some parts and routing the board, I ended up with what I have right now. You can download the attached files and make your own or just check the schematic out.
I ordered my PCBs from dorkbotpdx. My design is about .9 square inches. So that means it cost $4.5 for 3 boards ($1.5 each)
So I placed my mouser order which totaled $4.55 without shipping. All the little parts came in their own baggie (some in even 2). A waste of plastic, but handy i like to keep them for later use.
I added long wires on the LEDs and kept the battery leads long becuase I still want to try and put this is some clothing or something of the sort to hide it when in use.
There are 2 LEDs, one is a wide angle lens and the other is a narrow angle. I do not remember which is which.
It runs on 2 rechargable AAA batteries. I thought I had ordered the battery pack with the switch on it. I guess not.
I downloaded Adafruit's program for the microcontroller and used AVR Studio and my Pololu AVR programmer to upload it to the Attiny. I have tested it and it works fine. Here is a size comparison with it and the Adafruit one I have:
Tic-Tac box? Or the ever popular Altoids can :). Very cool, I might just have to make a couple. What has your experience with DorkbotPDX? I’ve heard that the service is really great, has that been the case for you? I do like the purple PCBs…
Well, I might just send in an order for a couple TV-B-Gone boards then, especially at that price…
Speaking of the fun you could have with these things, I was thinking it’d be hilarious to put a timer into the code so that it would transmit the “power off” code every hour or two.Then, you stick it into a really small box with some double-sided tape on the outside and stick it under one of the display counters at Radioshack. Every hour or so (like clockwork :)) all the TVs in the room go off. Maybe not terribly kind to the employees, but awfully fun!
Resident Master Woodcarver, wondering what to put it in? You should be showing US what to put it in! I say a component box made of dark wood with a contrasting colored (like pine or redwood maybe) Kill Button or whatever you want to call it.
This only cultures Snake Plisskin type thinking in me, BTW. Thank you Very clean PCB design as well, lovely.
I know, I know. I was thinking what would be a good way to conceal it. A cool case could work too, but I was thinking something not too suspicious would be good. Maybe I am just paranoid
