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.