Wim Van Gool
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wimvangool.bsky.social
Wim Van Gool
@wimvangool.bsky.social
780 followers 220 following 210 posts
Founding member @ http://area3001.com // Founder @ http://phyx.be // Team badge @ https://fri3d.be/
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wimvangool.bsky.social
Another productive evening at the Area 3001 hackerspace. Hand assembled 5 PoE+ WLED Light controllers for Fri3d Camp. Paste distribution was not perfect because of the manual alignment and not putting any tension on the stencil. But the boards came out great, no rework needed.
Closeup of a PCB with solder paste applied and some parts already mounted. Picture is showing a set of tweezers mounting a bridge rectifier on the PCB. Close up of the fine pitch QFN that was soldered on the board.
November 19, 2025 at 10:31 PM
wimvangool.bsky.social
This time it's our turn to release a stocking stuffer ;-) A small Holiday themed solder kit that's easy to assemble.
November 17, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
liliputing.bsky.social
Solder Party’s KeebDeck is a cheap, open source 69-key thumb keyboard #Keebdeck, #KeebdeckBasic, #KeebdeckKeyboard, #Keyboards, #OpenHardware, #SolderParty, #ThumbKeyboard
Solder Party’s KeebDeck is a cheap, open source 69-key thumb keyboard
A few years ago Solder Party started selling tiny USB keyboards made by combining an actual BlackBerry keyboard (ripped from an old device) with a custom PCB and USB-C connector. But since BlackBerry is out of business, eventually it's going to get harder to find devices to cannibalize for their keyboards. So Solder Party has now introduced two brand new products.
liliputing.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:06 PM
wimvangool.bsky.social
Perfect timing by @arturo182.bsky.social ! If you're looking for a gift for your nerd friends this holiday season, get them a KeebDeck Basic!
We will be using the KeebDeck Keyboard again for the 2026 badge of Fri3d.be after selling out in no time in 2024.
solder.party Solder Party @solder.party · 11d
The wait is finally over, we're happy to announce that the KeebDeck Keyboard and our first product using it, the KeebDeck Basic, are now available for sale from our @lectronz.com store! ⌨️

lectronz.com/stores/solde...
A photo of the KeebDeck Keyboard keypad and dome sheet. The dome sheet has many domes visible through the white plastic, and 8 black pieces of tape to cover where the backlight LEDs would be. The Keyboard has 69 keys with the usual PC layout, and a few extra ones color symbols and colors. A photo of a device composed of two PCBs sandwiched together with a silicone keypad in the middle and poking through the front PCB. The keypad has an ortho layout with most keys of a PC keyboard. It also has some extra colorful macro keys at the top. There is a Solder Party logo on the Meta key as well as in the middle of the top row. The silkscreen reads "KeebDeck Basic, arturo182, Solder Party". The two PCBs are held together by four Phillips-head screws.
November 8, 2025 at 6:15 AM
wimvangool.bsky.social
Apparently not what she meant when she asked me to "cut the apple in 8" 🤷
(Why only 2 slices you ask? She stopped me 🫣)
2 apple slices cut in the shape of the number 8. As requested by my wife, or so I thought...
October 24, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
solder.party
The @hackadayofficial.bsky.social Supercon Badge this year will feature a KeebDeck derivative! ⌨️

hackaday.com/2025/10/23/a...
Announcing The 2025 Hackaday Superconference Communicator Badge
It’s the moment you hard-core hardware nerds have been waiting for: the reveal of the 2025 Hackaday Supercon Communicator Badge. And this year, we’ve outdone ourselves, but that’s thanks to help fr…
hackaday.com
October 23, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
andrewkostrub.bsky.social
Updating my LEGO White House
October 23, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
merriam-webster.com
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
leeborg.bsky.social
If you want this poster to remind you to slow down you can get it by following me and @cyborggarbage.bsky.social October 6 on the Goshwassociation 12 hour Livestream! Any new members or donations of any size will get you a cool slow sloth riso poster! Woohoo! 💾⚙️🦥
September 30, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
solder.party
Great time to buy Solder Party boards from Pimoroni!

shop.pimoroni.com/search?q=Sol...
September 26, 2025 at 7:44 PM
wimvangool.bsky.social
There is something wrong with the blue Lego bricks from a few years back... They seem way more brittle than their white, red or black equivalent bricks.
September 17, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
solder.party
Today we're at KiCon, the @kicad.org conference, showcasing our past, present, and future products!

Of course the biggest focus is on #KeebDeck 😊

Closeup on each column below.
A table with black fabric on it, and lots of A4 sheets with text on it. Each sheet describes a project, and there are PCBs and products on the sheets too. Photo from above so the 9 sheets are seen. There are also some stickers.
September 11, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
solder.party
Curious about our upcoming KeebDeck products (www.keebdeck.com)?

Find us at KiCon in Bochum, Germany later this week, we’ll be showing off those boards and more!
September 8, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
arturo182.bsky.social
Anyone here into keyboards?
A box with a lot of assembled KeebDeck Basics.
September 9, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
tubetime.bsky.social
i reverse-engineered the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5! check it out at github.com/schlae/cm5-r...
board layout in KiCad with lots of layers and colors
August 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
wimvangool.bsky.social
The Hackerspace members are having fun with the new ESP32-S3 Stamp using the @solder.party carrier boards!
The Phyx ESP32-S3 Stamp in a circular experiment board from Solder.Party showing the LED ring lighting up.
August 23, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
arturo182.bsky.social
I've created a 2-in-1 Front Panel and Spacer replacement for the #why2025 Badge. While the pretty art is lost (hopefully someone remixes the model and adds more charm to it), the overall rigidity and the keyboard usability is greatly improved.

Enjoy ☺️

www.printables.com/model/138614...
A photo of a 3d printed front panel for the badge with the keyboard inserted. The model looks pretty simple from this side, a cutout for the display, and holes for the screws. The holes are sunken so the screw heads fit nicely in there. A photo of the panel installed onto the badge, and used with Dynom's case. The badge is powered on and showing the Application Launcher.
August 16, 2025 at 2:36 PM
wimvangool.bsky.social
Productive evening at the hackerspace this evening. The first prototypes of the ESP32-S3 STAMP and CH32V203 STAMP have been assembled and can now be tested. Thanks to @aisler.net for the fast and excellent service!
August 13, 2025 at 8:06 PM
wimvangool.bsky.social
Woohoo, an official landing page for the keyboard we used for Fri3d Camp 2024! I've even held the fancy KeebDeck SP 🤩 I'm really looking forward to the release of these products. Nice work @arturo182.bsky.social !
August 11, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
arturo182.bsky.social
New RP2350 stepping just dropped, E9 fixed.

www.raspberrypi.com/news/rp2350-...
RP2350 A4, RP2354, and a new Hacking Challenge - Raspberry Pi
New A4 stepping of our RP2350 microcontroller now available, with security and other improvements. Plus: another RP2350 Hacking Challenge!
www.raspberrypi.com
July 29, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
arturo182.bsky.social
RIP Tindie Forums
Tindie Community Forums, full of spam threads.
July 28, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
tinytapeout.com
Want to help build a crowdsourced microcontroller?

You're invited to design peripherals (UARTs, timers, synths, etc.) for a @riscv.org.web.brid.gy chip that will be fabbed for real!

Take part for free!

tinytapeout.com/competitions...
July 25, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Wim Van Gool
arturo182.bsky.social
It's been a while since I promoted my own and others' Maker/Electronics Starter Packs!

bsky.app/starter-pack...

bsky.app/starter-pack...

bsky.app/starter-pack...

bsky.app/starter-pack...

bsky.app/starter-pack...

bsky.app/starter-pack...

bsky.app/starter-pack...
July 24, 2025 at 5:30 PM
wimvangool.bsky.social
Some members of Area3001 were nagging about the lack of wireless connectivity on the @solder.party Stamp boards. So I quickly drew up an ESP32-S3 based stamp. Now on to prototyping and creating some documentation. Everything fits whilst still using 0603 passives and 125um tracks.
July 20, 2025 at 6:45 PM
wimvangool.bsky.social
Thanks to the people at FabLab Leuven for the opportunity. From what I gather it has been a successful workshop over there!
phyx.be Phyx @phyx.be · Jul 6
For the #FAB25 event in Brno Czechia we created a solder kit with all through hole parts to teach people the basics of soldering. Since the ICs were covering up parts of the logo we opted to laser engrave those chips and paint them. More info 👉 phyx.be/FAB25_BADGE/
July 6, 2025 at 8:10 AM