Tomodachi

tomodachi

Tomodachi is a project to give you a heavily dependent and lazy panda to take care of, made because I need hardware and CAD design experience plus coding in firmware and also making panda themed gadgets is one of the coolest activities of all time

What the panda can do:

• Eat the food you give them (until they don't feel like it)
• Be head patted
• Perish

Features hand-drawn animations (more animations will come out once project is approed since I need the RTC to test more)

materials

(the material links were used assuming the fallout team has amazon prime for free shipping)

design

PCB Schematic

^note that the part labeled E1 is because Kicad was mad I have the SS12F44 switch connected by wires instead of traces, please ignore

PCB Footprint

Case

assembly

steps:

1. 3d print the case, case cover and panda ears
   • PLA is going to be used in this project but recommended to use a more stronger & less brittle filament for snap fits
2. Flash the firmware by using Arduino IDE:
   1. Download the firmware folder and place the firmware folder inside a dedicated folder
   2. Unzip the libraries.zip and place "libraries" folder in the dedicated folder (named exactly that)
   3. Go to Arduino IDE File > Preferences and set the library folder to libraries
   4. Connect the XIAO ESP32C3 DIP to the computer with a USB-C cable, select the port that pops up and set the board as a "XIAO_ESP32C3"
   5. Go to "tomodachi_sketch.ino" and compile and upload
3. Solder the components to the PCB
   • Use header pins to connect the throughholes on both the pcb and components for easier soldering (though tinning the holes will work too)
   • Make sure to insert the coin battery into the RTC after soldering (heat damage might hurt the battery)
4. Solder a wire from the bottom left corner pad marked "CONNECT TO SWITCH" (not the throughholes connected to the D2 schottky diode) to one end of the SS12F44 switch's three pins, and then solder a wire from the Out+ of the TP4056 component (also marked with "CONNECT TO SWITCH") to the middle pin on the SS12F44 switch's three pins
   • The SS12F44 connects the middle pin with one or the other of the three pins depending on where it is switched
   • Use a short length wire when soldering the two places, and wrap each connection in electrical tape to ensure no short circuits happen
   • For both of the mentioned throughholes on the PCB probably don't use header pins as it will be easier to solder a wire without them
5. Place the battery in the case first, then solder the wire from the battery's + end to the TP4056's 5V hole, and the battery's - end to the TP4056's GND hole (both located on the edge of the PCB)
6. Assemble case with cover and ears