Building a Micro Journal Rev.5.1: a review from a mother mother

Un Kyu Lee did  it  again. He made a new irresistibly cute writer's  deck, the  micro journal rev.5.1.

It reminds me of Polly Pocket toys, so I got to make a Polly Pocket theme right?

I want it so much but 1 USD now 18000 IDR  (before, it  was about 15000).  both the shipping cost and the custom and tax duty are in Dollar.  So...this  time I decided to build  it using spareparts from local market.  Using  build guide from Un Kyu Lee and the list from github, and also the experience from building rev.5 (which I was struggling a lot of times), I tried to build the rev.5.1 by myself.

Surprisingly  it went  so smooth until it's not  :(

It works  for  few hours before the  screen went  blank. There was actually too many "suspects" that might caused it.

The screen about 70% succesful rate of being fixed whenever I reflashed the  ESP32.  I was convinced that my soldering skill was flawless and I was in denial that I refused to check the wiring. I kept believing the other  suspect was the real culprit.

1.  The ST7889 display

The rev.5.1 can use either the ST7789 or the  ILI90341.  I was going to use ILI90341 but I bought the wrong size.  The second store has both,so I bought both and used the ST7789.  Out of curiosity.

When I flashed the firmware for the first time, the screen was rotated. I had to  edit the code (with chatGPT assistance, this mother mother doesn't understand codes).

So the main suspect is of course the firmware because I might did something wrong with the edited code.  I also suspected the display because it has one tiny dead pixel.  Just a tiny dot like a mole on a chin, not very distracting.

2.The SD card.  

Before buying the SD card, I read that the maximum storage recommendation is 32 GB. I tried to get the 16 GB but it was as expensive as the 32 GB.  So this mother mother economically chose the 32GB.  I even bought the faster reading speed because that's what I use for the retro handheld. I didn't read the guide mentioned that it didn't need the fast SD card.

3.The animation

This time I made the wake up and sleep animation using ChatGPT assistance.  I generated some images based on the Polly Pocket Toys  and composed it to be animation.  The images are almost photo-realistic so it might be quite heavy.

I made it so it looks like a Polly Pocket with printed stickers and screen saver based on me and my dog Jembross

4.Config.json

The config files kept missing,the SD card failed to read it.  Sometimes it wiped the text files clean, but most of the time the text files were okay, only  the font color and background color were missing.  The sync  option also  gone. Again, it made the SD card suspiscious right?

4.The USB female wire.

Unlike  the referenced USB female on the build guide, my USB has 4 wires but in different color.  I don't  know whether it matters or not but for designer, colors matters the most.  So I was suspecting that I used the wrong USB female.  The wires also long, so I thought maybe I should have cut it shorter for better connection.

5.The Resistor

Although I saw the resistor  on  Un  Kyu Lee's build guide video, I didn't see it on the build guide on the github.  So was it only my imagination. Should I put it or not? I was so close to remove  it.

6.The Battery

I didn't charge the battery, I didn't know how much power it has so it was possible that it ran out of power right?

7. Not a suspect but the 3Dprinted case looks different.  The vendor printed  it in low details so it has lined textures on the surface.  I also used the older files, so I thought, maybe that's why the top can't be closed thight.

I did suspected my wiring or soldering skill but I was in denial for days.  I mean look at how cute it is.  I didn't want to disassemble my wiring, not with all those hot glue.  

Of course I already made a matching case with corduroy fabric which looks like the texture of the Polly Pocket Micro Journal

During the denial phase, I ordered another 3D printed case from a different vendor.  Because when I bought the supplies to built the rev.5.1 for the first time there was minimum order so I have enough supplies to make another one.

3D printing took days, while waiting I had conversation with my students.  Coincidentally they mentioned they were no longer in denial phase but already in acceptance  phase of working on an imperfect project. So I learned from them and tried to accept  that  I probably  did some mistake in my wiring/ soldering.  So I bought the isoprophyl alcohol to  remove the hot glue.  And...

...

...

Yup. It's not actually the wiring, but there was a strand of wire that intervere the other wire.  I forgot to clip it. Once I clip and hot glue it again, the micro journal polly pocket works wonderfully.

So in conclusion, the wiring guide is okay, the firmware is not at fault, it is the messiness!  ah I really have to learn how to work without being messy.

Anyway, as I already ordered a new case, now I got 2 micro journal rev.5.1

I  like both.  The new one has yellow and pink color scheme. The Yellow is a bit darker like egg yolk. It is inverted than what I usually prefer (normally the pink are on the outside) but it looks great and match  the beta rev.3 keyboard.

I call this one the Grape fruit, and I will make a grape fruit themed wakeup and sleep animation.

 *mother mother is a pun from Indonesian language, ibu is mother, while ibu-ibu is a woman, old enough to be a mother but not always a real mother. I am an ibu-ibu, so I am mother-mother.

2026! Time for New Hobby! Beading and 3D modeling!

 Back in 2021, yea during the covid era, I bought 11000 Hama Beads in various colors, because you need various colors to work with.  I bought a box that already have all the colors but the box got smashed, all the color got mixed up.  I spent days separating the beads by the colors using chopstick (what do I have to use tweezer if I have chopstick?).  I got traumatized I don't even want to look at the hama beads even today.

But beads look fun right? It's 2026, a new year, time for revisiting the beads,  Not hama beads, I chose miyuki beads, or to be precise the cheap version of it, glass beads.  I bought 4 books, 3 books use peyote technique while the other one use loom technique.  Since Aneka Benang sell the loom, of course the first method that I try is the loom beading technique.  It's a bad habit of mine actually, I impulsively buy tools and supplies so I can blame the tools if I failed to learn.  It wasn't easy and I wasn't sure I had fun but I think the loom waste a lot of thread.  See, I already blamed the tools.

But it is 2026!  There are 3D printers!  And I couldn't believe myself, instead of using the peyote method, I tried to make the loom by myself using 3D blender.  If you know me well, I don't like 3D, my specialty is in 2D.  It is not a secret, I am a design teacher, and last year I was the secondary instructor for some 3D class when I know nothing about 3D.  Aesthetically, I like 2D and pixel art.  I rarely play 3D games with first person view because I get motion sickness.  Thanks to the 3D class where I was supposedly the teacher (and of course thanks to the primary instructor who did almost everything), I learn a little bit of 3D.

The first prototype which works but I got greedy thinking that I can make it prettier

the third prototype which is not the last

So I made a loom using blender, the first one looks like a castle wall, it is sturdy and printed cleanly but the sides made it hard to put a finger underneath the beads.  But it works and I like the size.  So the second version, I tried to improved the experience, by only making the loom on 2 sides, and made the loom a little bit rounded.  I was proud about the design but I made the hinge too small LOL.  Because I didn't use the right scale.  The third one supposedly the final one.  I made it perfectly, scaled, measured...Someone even ask to buy it.  But... the thread slipped because of the curved edge doesn't have enough grip.  one part fell apart. And the size is too small.  I intentionally made the size small but it is too small for the project that I want to do.   The loom from Aneka Benang is not wide enough, while my loom is not long enough.

My Teacher ID card, because I love my job?

I guess I need to fix my loom prototype again, but 3D print is not that cheap.  Meanwhile, as I mentioned early in this post, I am using the cheap glass bead, the glass bead size is not uniformed, it looks okay as an artwork, I mean I like that it looks imperfect, but as a product to sell (not that I want to sell it), I think I need a more uniformed beads. Just like when making amigurumis, I never know how much I like pure cotton yarn before I tried milk cotton.  I need to try to do many things with various beads to find out which one is the best for me.

Now I don't know which one I like the most, beading or prototyping the loom?