I tried to build this kit, but it had a bad part.
Monday, July 20, 2026 at 09:18:36
Some long time ago, I picked up a kit called a MAKERbuino. As you can probably tell, this is from the time period when anyone who did stuff at home as a hobby was suddenly a “maker” and not a hobbyist. Since it’s been kicking around the shop for a while, I decided to get it out and assemble it (along with some other kits that have been similarly hanging around.)
Here’s the kit itself:
The kit consists of a:
Circuit board
Display
Buttons
Parts
Case w/battery
There’s also a radio kit in the background, that one will show up soon.
The board comes with the battery connector already soldered, so I started going down the assembly instructions:
The way this one works is you proceed to a certain step (#12) and bring it up. It should come up to an adjustment screen, at which point you’re safe to proceed with the rest of the assembly. (I did add the control for the backlight, just in case…)
Mine did not do this.
The display, while lit, was blank. I could see what looked like the grid lit, but nothing else. However, after a little while, the screen started flickering to life, so I hit it with a little heat and it came alive. Touching it would send it into convulsions, so I’ve come to the conclusion that the screen is probably bad.
You can see the problem here: https://wereboar.com … /bad-parts-in-a-kit/.
This is just a Nokia display. I had some similar units in stock, but they’re just different enough that they didn’t work. So, I’m stuck at this point. I reached out to the kit vendor, and they said that parts were no longer available for this unit as it was quite old. No surprise there.
I’ll see if I can find this particular style of Nokia display in surplus. Until then, stay tuned!
Next part of this series: Coming maybe.
References
Device build instructions: https://wereboar.com … 0and%20Schematic.zip