{"id":20492,"date":"2019-02-14T23:03:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T15:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?p=20492"},"modified":"2019-02-15T18:53:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T10:53:08","slug":"new-year-lions-another-attempt-at-kicad-svg2sz-pcb-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/14\/new-year-lions-another-attempt-at-kicad-svg2sz-pcb-art\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year Lions – Another Attempt at KiCad & SVG2SZ PCB Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inside the walls of Seeed HQ, Seeeders scramble bits and bobs in the run-up to the new year break. But they are not preparing for the holidays, they’re preparing for the long-anticipated annual dinner which is not like any other company’s. In this special article, I share a snippet of Seeed culture with my attempt at being a maker with my lion creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet Mac and Earl, together they make MacEarl – Maker. They are what I consider my debut project as a Maker. The heads are PCB boards designed using KiCad and the SVG2SZ plug-in, then decorated with cotton wool and a pair of rainbow LEDs. Mac’s body is actually an old Christmas hat that you can wear like a puppet with an Arduino nano controlling two WS2812 LED strips hidden<\/g> inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now, why all the fuss about the annual dinner? Maybe a little background is needed: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeed has held an old tradition whereby attendance to the annual dinner with all the scrumptious foods and lucky prize draw, required a DIY\u2019ed blinky thing (literally: a light emitting device). Every year, everyone is encouraged to get into the maker spirit with LEDs, Grove modules and all sorts of –uinos<\/g> and Pis to make a flashy thing, whether it\u2019s a simple hat with LEDs poking out of it or huge, over the top costumes in all their glory and blinkiness<\/g>. Then, only the best get to show-off their creations down the catwalk and compete for the top prize. In my short time at Seeed, I\u2019ve seen acrylic laser cut swords (they weigh a ton), emoji motorcycle helmets, crazy scientist glasses, a huge 6 feet tall LED wand and poodles strutting in bling bling<\/g> costumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, I tried using some individual RGB LEDs to subtly light up a maker t-shirt. It failed miserably. So this year I was determined to succeed. Having practiced \u201cdrawing\u201d PCBs using the KiCad plugin SVG2SZ, and being in the Seeed Fusion team for hardware manufacture<\/g>, it made sense for me to use this somehow in my blinky attendance ticket. And then, the final element came from the fact that ever since I was a kid, I loved those lion dance lions that appeared every Chinese New Year. The designs, the colors, the acrobatics and energy. I remember crying to my mum begging her to buy me a mini lion at the London Chinatown so I could play and admire them at home. She complied in the end, and it is still proudly displayed in my house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So my plan was to make\na mini lion puppet with digital RGB LEDs pulsating along the body and RGB through-hole\nLEDs for the eyes attached to a PCB head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If anything, this was\na lesson in improvising and cramming things to a strict deadline. The final\ndesign looks a lot different to what I had originally imagined but all-in-all,\nI think it worked out a lot better in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deadline was steadily approaching and I spent whatever free time I had (and maybe a little office time) drawing up the design, first on paper and then in Inkscape. Having drawn a Christmas board<\/a> before, I knew what I was doing and the what difficulties to expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n