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Hardware Codex

Resource collection

Here’s a general list of resources & links that may be useful to you!

The most useful thing you can get from this though is to get into the habbit of searching stuff up! There are so many resources out there and this page can only cover so much

Project inspiration:

Section titled “Project inspiration:”
  • Adafruit is one of my favourite resources! There are literally hundreds of insanely cool projects out there.
  • Hackaday posts daily articles on cool hardware hacking things going on! While you may not find as many full projects, it may give you inspo to hack around with!

Finding 3D models & libraries

Section titled “Finding 3D models & libraries”
  • GrabCAD community library (this has LITERALLY any 3D model you can think of)
  • SnapEDA has footprints & symbols for most electronics components if you can’t find one online, but I would recommend making your own when possible; it’s not super hard!

Useful software

Section titled “Useful software”
  • Excalidraw is an awesome site for making really quick sketches that look good!
  • For PCB design, use KiCAD!. It’s free, open source, and works on any platform.
  • For 3D modelling, use either Fusion360 or Onshape!

Technical resources

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Communities

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First and foremost, if you are a teenager, make sure you are in the Hack Club Slack! It’s where the comms for any Hack Club events take place and you can get free things

Discords:

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  • KiCAD (PCB design and help)
  • QMK (Keyboard firmware)
  • VORONDesign - 3D printing discord dedicated to their own designs, but you’ll pick up on a lot of things just by scrolling

Subreddits:

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Measurements list:

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These are the measurements I use to design parts for 3D prints!

  • M3 screw head diamter: 6mm (this is both for socket head and button head - they’re approx. the same!)
  • M3 heatset inserts: 4.7mm OD, 4mm depth
  • M3 screw-ins for plastic: 2.9mm
  • M2 screw-ins for plastic: 1.9mm
  • M3 SHCS screw head depth: 3.1mm
  • M3 BHCS screw head depth: 1.8mm

Most of these were taken from the VORONDesign team’s designs - I’ve found them to just generally work pretty well across other designs as well