Our first workshop took place at the software company DataArt, in their hub in the city of Novi Sad. The goal was simple: to have fun, learn something new about electronics, and practice our manual skills and dexterity.
Nino kicked things off with a technical presentation covering the basics of electronics and soldering safety. Then the real fun began, we practiced proper soldering techniques on universal PCBs (those yellow boards with lots of holes for quick projects) before jumping into the actual build.
We call it Challenge One because it represents our first level of complexity: a small, keychain-format gaming device that runs one game per controller. The “brain” behind it is the adorable ATTINY85-20PU microcontroller. We’ll be sharing more about the hardware in our upcoming YouTube video, dropping later this week.
After completing the assembly, the tiny tactile console became even more satisfying to play, especially knowing it was something you built yourself. One of the guys even called me the next day to ask if the sound could be turned off... because he got hooked and spent the whole day playing it at the office.
And YES, sound can be turned off. 🎮🔇
Written by Srdjan Srdic.