iSpindel Assembly
Shopping List
- (Affiliate Links Below)
- The Jeffrey PCB version 2.69. Please use this link to register with PCBWay.com to get a $5 discount and give me a referral.
- Wemos D1 Mini with Deep Sleep. Amazon link. eBay link.
- DS18B20 Temperature Sensor. Amazon link. eBay link.
- BAT43 Diode. Amazon link. eBay link.
- 4.7K ohm resistor. Amazon link. eBay link.
- 220K ohm resistor. Amazon link. eBay link.
- TP4056 USB C – 6 pin. Amazon link. eBay link. Micro USB – 6 pin. Amazon link. eBay link.
- GY521 MPU-6050 Module 3 Axis Gyroscope. Amazon link. eBay link.
- Toggle Switch. Amazon link. eBay link.
- Surface Mounted 18650 Battery Holder. Amazon link. eBay link.
- 3.7V 3400mAh 18650 Lithium Battery. Amazon link. eBay link.
- Please note that I use a 48 gram NCR18650B 3400 mAh battery. I get about 3 weeks of battery life and I can get to about 25 degrees in pure water when installed at the lowest position.
- XL BIG PET Soda Bottle Container. 5 pcs eBay link.
- Soldering Iron Kits with solder and clippers. Amazon link.
Why People Remove the Diode on the D1 Mini
If you don’t remove the diode from the D1 mini you could end up in trouble. When you plug in the D1 mini you are also sending 5 volts to the D1 mini’s VCC which is attached to the battery. That battery isn’t meant to handle 5 volts so this a bad thing and if left unchecked could start a fire. Powering the battery with 5 volts can only happen: 1) if the battery is present and 2) if the power switch for the iSpindel is at the on position, and 3) if the diode still exists on the D1. It looks like the solution is to remove the D1 mini’s diode and then the battery can’t get overloaded. The only ‘downside’ is that you’ll need a fully charged battery present before you flash the D1 mini’s firmware via USB cable. I sincerely recommend removing the D1 mini’s diode as a safety precaution. I will update my assembly instructions to include the removal of the D1 mini’s diode in the future.
IZOKEE D1 Mini
The diode on the Wemos D1 mini v3 in the red square above. It is labeled “SL”. In some cases, the label may be different or the diode may be in a different spot depending on the versions of the board.
I’ve been told that the USB side should be installed slightly elevated when using IZOKEE D1 Mini since the USB sits directly on The Jeffrey PCB if you don’t install the USB slightly elevated you will not be able to plug in the USB after assembly. I would recommend flashing the IZOKEE D1 Mini before assembly to try and sidestep this issue but I would recommend installing the USB side of the IZOKEE slightly elevated in case you need access to the USB port after assembly. Once the iSpindel is fully assembled and flashed you can update the firmware ‘over the air’.
68 Comments
Per Ole Gabrielsen · March 25, 2020 at 3:36 AM
Love your PCB 😀 Just ordered 10 of them. I advise others to flash the D1 mini before the solder it all together. What do you think of that?
Joey Joe Joe Jr · March 31, 2020 at 8:40 AM
I’ve never done it that way but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Have you tried it from parts to the final assembly?
Per Ole Gabrielsen · March 31, 2020 at 8:44 AM
Yes, it work like a charm 👍
Joey Joe Joe Jr · March 31, 2020 at 8:48 AM
Nice!
Per Ole Gabrielsen · March 25, 2020 at 4:09 AM
PS! And if you remove that diode, it is not possible to flash before assembly the lot!
Joey Joe Joe Jr · March 31, 2020 at 8:41 AM
No, the D1 won’t be able to be powered from the USB if the diode is missing. You would have to find another way the D1 if the diode is missing.
Francois Lalonde · April 2, 2020 at 6:13 AM
Received my PCB yesterday! They look great… can’t wait for the parts to arrive and start the build.
Joey Joe Joe Jr · April 2, 2020 at 10:10 AM
Nice!
Evelyn Johnston · April 5, 2020 at 7:45 PM
Thanks for the useful info.
claudio · April 11, 2020 at 10:04 AM
Hi, Wemos D1 Mini V3.0.0 or V3.1.0?
Joey Joe Joe Jr · April 13, 2020 at 11:53 AM
Either should be fine. The concern I have is the physical layout of the D1 mini board. Both versions look like they have the same layout.
For example, the PCB wasn’t designed for a D1 mini with the USB port on the bottom, or for a D1 mini with an external aerial.
Kevin · May 12, 2020 at 11:55 AM
It appears that the Wemos D1 linked in the parts list has long shipping time right now (not arriving for over a month and a half). Are other D1 ESP8266 boards compatible with the Jeffery 2.0?
Joey Joe Joe Jr · May 13, 2020 at 9:02 AM
Hi Kevin,
I am not aware of any other board that could be substituted. Sorry.
Per Ole Gabrielsen · May 13, 2020 at 9:37 AM
Hi Kevin!
You can use D1 ESP8266 as an substitute, but it is heavier an will weigh down the iSpindel more than the “normal” one do.
best reg.
Per Ole
Joey Joe Joe Jr · May 13, 2020 at 9:40 AM
Does the D1 ESP8266 have the same pinout and will it fit in the petling? This is the larger version of the D1 mini right?
Matt · May 19, 2020 at 7:24 PM
I’ve followed your instruction but I can’t get the tilt to work. I’ve tried multiple different IMU sensors.
DO you have a tip for that or do you know to debug it further so I can determine if it is reporting the wrong address (like other sites suggest)
Joey Joe Joe Jr · May 20, 2020 at 11:10 AM
Have you hooked up the D1 mini to a serial monitor? What does it say? Do you get any errors?
Matt · May 22, 2020 at 6:56 PM
I’ve got the following output from the putty but it doesn’t do anything from there. I’m assuming “Acc Test Connection ERROR!” is my problem but that appears on all my IMU. Any ideas?
FW 6.2.0
2.2.1(cfd48f3)
Worker run!
mounting FS… mounted!
reading config file
parsed config:
{“Name”:”iSpindel001″,”Token”:””,”Sleep”:1,”Server”:””,”API”:3,”Port”:80,”Channe l”:0,”URI”:””,”DB”:”ispindel”,”Username”:””,”Password”:””,”Job”:”ispindel”,”Inst ance”:”000″,”Vfact”:191.8,”TS”:0,”OWpin”:12,”POLY”:”-0.00031*tilt^2+0.557*tilt-1 4.054″,”SSID”:””,”PSK”:””,”Offset “:[0,0,0,0,0,0]}
Acc Test Connection ERROR!
offsets not available
Boot-Mode: Deep-Sleep Wake
woken from deepsleep, normal mode
Joey Joe Joe Jr · May 23, 2020 at 10:42 AM
I searched that error message in the iSpindel code then found the below issue in Github. Yeah, it looks like that error comes from the ACCelerometer test. So something is wrong with the gyro or something is going wrong between the gyro and D1 mini. Can you get to the iSpindel Info page? Do you also have 0 tilt like the guy in the link below? If you have a multimeter you can take the battery out of the iSpindel and check the continuity between the gyro and D1 to see if it’s a bad solder of some kind of issue with the PCB. It could also be a bad gyro. I don’t see any other errors pointing to any other issue.
https://github.com/universam1/iSpindel/issues/345
Gregory Fleming · May 26, 2020 at 9:02 AM
You made me a happy reader, thanks…
Joey Joe Joe Jr · May 26, 2020 at 11:05 AM
My pleasure. Take care and be safe Gregory.
Martin Tauson · June 10, 2020 at 2:55 AM
Love your guide, thank you so much. I am new to eletronics but have decided to give this a try. First issue to find all parts to order to Sweden. Will let you know if you guide is newbie proof 😀
Joey Joe Joe Jr · June 10, 2020 at 1:04 PM
Good luck! Let me know how it goes 🙂
Les · June 25, 2020 at 1:29 PM
I’ve just built one of these up.
Set up and calibration went fine.
however, It will only send one update (to brewfather/ubidots) ont the reset and then nothing.
If I hit the reset button it wakes and sends data again.
It doesn’t seem to want to wake its self from sleep (the blue led on the d1 mni doesn’t come on/flash..
Any Ideas?
thanks
Joey Joe Joe Jr · June 26, 2020 at 2:08 PM
What does the serial monitor say from the D1 mini? Do you know how to do that? I’ve been thinking of making a video about how to view the serial monitor. You can use something like Putty to connect via a computer.
Michael · July 20, 2020 at 6:45 PM
Joey, you mentioned on a podcast that you might be putting together part kits for the iSpindle. Any luck with that? I would rather not order a whole bunch of parts I can’t use for anything else.
Joey Joe Joe Jr · July 21, 2020 at 4:02 PM
Unfortunately, no. I personally don’t have the room or the time to build, store, package, and ship the kits. The other issue is the nature of electric components, by which I mean a lot of components are not tested during manufacturing, and hence some will be delivered DOA. There are lots of counterfeit and low-quality components out there. I just don’t have the bandwidth to accommodate the effort required for the kits. Multiple people from different parts of the world have come forward asking to collaborate on kits. I have gotten pretty far with a few of them. They have all either disappeared or bought the wrong parts without getting samples first for testing. As it turns out, building kits and selling them is a pretty major undertaking with a fair amount of risk involved for the person making them. On top of all that, the kit would likely cost more per iSpindel than just buying the parts directly from China as the consumer would need to pay for shipping twice (once from the supplier of the components, and again from the kit shipper). Hopefully, someone in the future will be able to assist with the kits. If you want to keep costs down, I would try and get people to pool enough money to purchase enough material to make at least 5 iSpindels. The more you build the cheaper they are.
Good luck and thanks for your support!
Cheers,
Joey Joe Joe Jr.
Michael · July 27, 2020 at 10:01 AM
Thanks Joey. Guess I will have a few to play with 🙂
Joey Joe Joe Jr · July 28, 2020 at 11:29 AM
Having some extra iSpindels isn’t such a bad thing!
Moe Szyslak · August 22, 2020 at 6:48 PM
That’s the worst name I’ve ever heard.
😉😂😂
Joey Joe Joe Jr · August 29, 2020 at 8:45 AM
“Baaaaaaawwwhaaa!”
Runs out of Moe’s… Hahaha
Matthew · September 3, 2020 at 12:13 PM
Ordering parts. Is everything still relevant?
Joey Joe Joe Jr · September 8, 2020 at 6:14 PM
Yes, still relevant. Let me know if you have any questions.
Mikkel Christiansen · September 19, 2020 at 3:20 PM
I’ve put all the parts together, but when run the nodemcu it already shows “COM3, COM4 and COM5” in COM port without having anything connected with usb to the computer. When I plug in the Ispindle nothing changes?
Is the problem the usb-cable, have tryed tree different kind, but maybe they are all charging cables? and not data cables.
Would really appreciate if you could help me out 🙂
Joey Joe Joe Jr · September 21, 2020 at 9:38 AM
If you have a cell phone that has the same USB port you can try the cable on the phone and plug it into a computer. If the computer recognizes it, you have yourself a data cable. I’ll be releasing a serial monitor video this week that talks about how to find the correct COM port. Be careful that you don’t flash the wrong device.
Ryan · October 23, 2020 at 3:43 PM
Anyone had any luck finding a container that doesn’t ship from Lithuania? Any in North America?
Tim Deneef · November 12, 2020 at 11:38 AM
Hello,
I’m created 2 ispindels.
Installing the firmware works fine.
But the temperature always turns value 0.
Does someone know why?
Joey Joe Joe Jr · November 16, 2020 at 8:39 PM
Hey Tim, haven’t heard about that one yet. Are you able to post a serial monitor log?
Tim Deneef · November 16, 2020 at 10:47 PM
After installing the last software 6.4.1 it works fine.
Joey Joe Joe Jr · November 23, 2020 at 8:27 PM
Awesome sauce.
Christian · November 21, 2020 at 3:12 AM
Thanks for the beautiful PCB.
If you are planning a new layout, please add a large + and – in the battery area on the board instead of “THANK YOU!” and a grid dimension of 10 mm instead of 7.5 mm for the resistors and the diode (all horizontally)?
And maybe without guns?
Christian from Austria
Joey Joe Joe Jr · November 23, 2020 at 8:28 PM
Thanks for the feedback!
Nick · November 22, 2020 at 7:30 AM
I am trying to make the 0 point calibration with the latest firmware v. 6.3.1 but the process never ends (the led stays blue and never blinks). I tried the v 6.2 but the problem remains. I use the PCB4. Any ideas?
Joey Joe Joe Jr · November 23, 2020 at 8:31 PM
There is a newer version of firmware. Have you tried that?
Nick · November 23, 2020 at 10:19 PM
I am on linux. I erase the entire flash and then I have tried to flash both v6.2 and v 6.3.1 but it does not work. Do you suggest to test the latest master?
TGGT · December 11, 2020 at 1:42 PM
Probably a hardware issue. Very possibly a duff accelerometer.
WookieNZ · December 9, 2020 at 12:13 AM
figure out that smoke issue? I am getting the same thing, I didnt use isopropolalcohol. However the chip on the bottom left of the breakout board next to “OUT-‘ is extremely hot. Liewise should B+ and OUT+ be short circuit? Mine is and i dont see any errant solder. thanks.
Joey Joe Joe Jr · January 5, 2021 at 10:51 PM
The chip next to OUT- will heat up and fall off if the battery is backward. Yes, B+ and OUT+ should be shorted out together, it’s by design on the TP4056 breakout board.
TGGT · December 11, 2020 at 1:47 PM
Removal of the D1 diode is a little paranoid. The Lipo charge board handles the battery nicely. I’ve had a unit attached to a PC for hours and the battery doesn’t get remotely warm. Incidentally the battery won’t see 5 V it will see 5 V – diode drop (typically 0.7 V), so around 4.3 V. The 18650s tend to output 4 and a bit V anyway so it’s really just not an appreciable risk.
Joey Joe Joe Jr · January 5, 2021 at 10:44 PM
iSpindels have been known to light fire. The overvoltage bypasses TP4056 (B+ and B OUT are directly connected on TP4056 breakout board). Can you please provide your references to your claim or post a 7-day timelapse charging video proving it’s safe?
Joey Joe Joe Jr · January 7, 2021 at 10:56 AM
Hey, still waiting for your response but the more I look into your comment the more dangerous I find it. Leaving the D1 mini plugged in with the diode still attached, with a battery in the iSpindel, with the power switch turned on will continue to apply voltage to the battery after it is fully charged. Please check out this article and do more research. The battery will not stop charging if the diode is still present, it will charge forever. I cannot recommend this.
Pete · February 1, 2021 at 11:05 AM
Hi there Joey! When adding The Jeffrey 2.69 to PCBWay cart should I select some features like Thickness, Min Track/Spacing, Min Hole Size, Minimum diameter of holes…? Really new to this PCB world.
Thanks!
Pete
Joey Joe Joe Jr · April 4, 2021 at 11:39 AM
Hey Pete, sorry for the late reply! When you order from the PCBWay link it auto-fills in everything for you. You don’t need to change anything but I recommend you play with quantities as I think there is a setup fee, like 10 pcs is only 3 dollars more than 5 pcs. Aside from that, pick the solder mask color (background color) you want and the silkscreen writing color (some colors cost more). Cheers.
msonst · February 10, 2021 at 9:11 AM
Hi,
could you please let me know what the 220k at A0 are used for?
Is it supposed to give the analog input a defined level?
Thanks Michael
Joey Joe Joe Jr · April 4, 2021 at 11:44 AM
It’s for the voltage reading from the battery. There is a calibration process to firm up the value to a reading from a multimeter.
Nic Scheepers · March 12, 2021 at 11:48 PM
Hi , is there any reason why the tp4056 has to be a USB typ-c -6pin?
Joey Joe Joe Jr · April 4, 2021 at 11:51 AM
No, it’s not actually a USB C it’s really just an adapter. You can’t actually utilize USB C functions like fast charging. Just make sure your power source (battery charger, computer) can output at least 1.0amps but any connector will do.
Laksepote · April 4, 2021 at 12:16 PM
Hint: Remove the led from the GY521 with the side cutter. Its a lot safer than the solder.
Joey Joe Joe Jr · April 4, 2021 at 12:40 PM
Nice, thanks for the suggestion.
Laksepote · April 5, 2021 at 1:52 AM
Again, thanks for the great board and instructions. I need some more pcb’s, and I wonder: Can I just upload your Gerber file to any online pcb-shop? I think pcbway is way too expensive.
Luca · May 30, 2021 at 2:54 AM
Hi Joey,
I bought the PCB recently, version v2.69, and I noticed that the temperature sensor has been rotated 180 ° with respect to the PCB you see in your video, how come?
Thank you
Luca
Joey Joe Joe Jr · September 11, 2021 at 1:08 PM
So the rounded smooth part of the temp probe matches the concave surface of the inside of the tube. Round to round is better than square to round.
TugsyNZ · September 13, 2021 at 8:47 PM
Do you know if the signal from the D1 mini Pro is better\stronger than the others as it has the ceramic antennae?
Tobias · December 5, 2021 at 1:55 PM
Hello,
Unfortunately I can not buy this Petlings from the EU for tax reasons. Do you know another source? This size seems to be not common.
Best Regards
Tobias
Grifo · January 24, 2022 at 2:37 AM
Hi!
Really like your design and I’m about to do a few boards.
I just have one question. I know you advice for 1% resistors but I was wondering if 5% ones would suffice since the 1% ones are out of stock near me?
Keep up the good work,
Thank you,
Grifo
Daniel · January 30, 2022 at 7:14 PM
Hi, I assembled the iSpindel but when plugging in the D1 mini for flashing the firmware the device is not recognized and I get a message in the USB ports of Device Manager “Device Descriptor Request Failed” . I’ve tried multiple computers and multiple USB cables from Android phones, I think it is the d1 mini not working. Any suggestions?
Rick · January 28, 2023 at 10:47 AM
Can I use a D1 mini v4? no diode and the pinout seems the same. Any other differences?
lijingchang · March 25, 2024 at 6:53 PM
Hello, I am a homebrew enthusiast. I have made my own ispindel density meter and also flashed the firmware. However, my secret key and settings were done step by step according to your tutorial. Why is it that my ispindel can only see data on the website the first time I restart the network, and then it never sends data again? This problem has been bothering me for 3 days, and I hope to get your help