Completed article

articles/debugging-my-first-circuit.md

@@ -8,12 +8,14 @@
 
 I've been slowly picking up electronics over the past year. At this year's Burning Man, 3 out of 5 EL wires broke on me. This time, instead of e-cycling them, I decided to use it as a learning opportunity.
 
-If you've never done electronics before, SparkFun is a great resource. This video got me back into it and the rest of their lessons are great:
+If you've never done electronics before, SparkFun is a great resource. This video got me back into it (like me learning about [Firebug][] for the first time) and the rest of their lessons are great:
 
 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SLkPtmnglOI" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
 <https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/tags/concepts>
 
+[Firebug]: https://getfirebug.com/
+
 ## 2017/10/11
 The first step was isolating the problem. The EL wire I have is 1 circuit + battery holder and 1 wire which clips in.
 
@@ -56,22 +58,79 @@ So the problem is the broken button
 I had only soldered once before this point and that was for jumper headers so I was taking things slow
 
 ## 2017/10/22
+The idea I had to verify the button truly was the problem was to replace it with wires as a proof of concept
 
-------------
+As a result, I:
 
-As the trope goes, I've built a lot with software and wanted to start pushing myself into the physical world.
+- Verified wires would fit through button's casing hole
+- Desoldered button
+- Soldered in wires
+- Reconstructured chassis (so we could add batteries/power)
+- Touched wires together
 
-I've been trying to do it on/off for many years (up until a few months ago, I still had an unused soldering iron from 6 years ago).
+It worked!!
 
-I think the issue was all the kits out there are recipe-based (i.e. here are these parts, wire them up like this, and we're done) and not concept/application based which is how I learn best.
+TODO: Add video here (maybe Imgur gifv)
 
-I started to actually make progress when I saw this video from SparkFun:
+For double sanity, we hooked up the button to the mutlimeter and confirmed it was still spotty
 
+## Some time between 2017/10/22 and 2017/12/20
+Now that the issue was identified, we decided to order replacement buttons
 
-It was akin to someone showing me [Firebug][] for the first time (or maybe using `window.alert()` before that). For the non-crusty folks, Firebug is the predecessor to all modern dev tools
+However, clearly this wasn't going to future proof the items for it happening again
 
-With the knowledge about multimeters, I finally knew how to understand what was causing problems (e.g. voltages, continuity, determining resistance necessary)
+At the time, I thought the issue was the buttons being too tall so my solution was to buy a shorter button, hot glue it to the top of the case, and run wires to the PCB's holes
 
-[Firebug]: https://getfirebug.com/
+I'm still a little doubtful that that was the problem (e.g. could have been dust from Burning Man getting into the button's internal circuits)
+
+So I might wind up taking even more precautions in the future (e.g. taping over button's hole)
+
+Anyway, at this point I bought momentary buttons to get started
+
+## 2017/12/20
+The buttons had arrived and I did a simple placement test to verify it would fit
+
+## 2017/12/31
+I hot glued a button to the top of the case
+
+I verified its connectivity afterwards (e.g. heat could damage circuit)
+
+Don't worry, I still went out on NYE ;)
+
+# 2018/02/14
+Delay caused by wanting to buy a fume extractor and personal life
+
+Also purchased a new soldering iron for better temperature control (Hakko Fx888-D is wonderful). My old solder was a Weller with no knobs, only a plug for the wall outlet
+
+Desoldered EL test wires
+
+# 2018/02/19
+The following is directly from my notes:
+
+- Delay due to purchasing wire strippers and solid core wire (24 AWG from hardware store, couldn't find 22 AWG =(
+- Learned to "wet" wires before soldering
+    - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkjMK26ROcM
+- Soldered wire to button
+- Ran wires through holes
+- Tried to solder again but the traces weren't accessible (soo much wicked off or burned over)
+    - I now know how to deal with this (see Adafruit troubleshooting later on)
+- Dropped temp to 650
+- Soldered into alternative holes but those weren't connected to the proper traces
+- Tried another board
+- Desoldered button partially as well as snipped ends as well as broke physically
+    - I was trying to avoid ruining traces. Unfortunately, I still did
+- Soldered 1 wire fine but trouble with other one
+    - Solder was getting onto wire but refusing to go on pad so it would stay on wire or iron
+- Got frustrated multiple times
+- Finally read through https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering/common-problems
+- First tried isopropyl alcohol then soldering again
+- No luck
+- Got frustrated and read some more
+- Tried scraping with knife and saw copper lead exposed as mentioned towards bottom of article
+- Exposed enough copper lead and soldered to it
+- Closed up case, inserted batteries, and pressed button
+- LED was displaced so could barely see it
+- Connected to EL wire
+- IT FUCKING WORKS!!
 
-I continued to built circuits on breadboards from recipe-like projects but was starting to understand concepts without being sheepish towards the circuit
+TODO: Add final image