Messing up ROYALLY.

Ugh... here we go again.

We needed a custom PCB to integrate all the sensors and the power distribution for the WRO Future Engineers competition. I designed the board in KiCad and even went the extra mile to validate the basic connections by building a physical test version on a prototyping board. I decided a Raspberry Pi Hat was the cleanest way to go. I got the PCB fabbed through JLCPCB and paid for the fastest DHL shipping to make sure we had time.

The package arrived in India and was sitting in customs when I got the call: I couldn't receive the package because the phone number provided was invalid.

I checked my order, and it turns out I had repeated the last digit of my 10-digit phone number, making it 11 digits. Neither JLCPCB nor I caught the error. With the competition looming, this was a delay we absolutely couldn't afford. There went $40 and a lot of sleep. It was a total unforced error on my part.

I’m still trying to stay hopeful, though. We’re currently pivoting to make the prototype board work for the main run. Despite the shipping nightmare, the hardware design itself is solid, and I really love the layout. We should still be able to pull something off.

Sid, signing off.

Death by a single cut indeed.