Past Projects > Cobbling

Cobbling is a term that is used for putting together a breadboard with wires and hardwired components to perform something. In my case, it was the wiring for the Keezer Kiosk project's temp sensor. While there was tons of info on the internet on how to connect the sensor to pin 4, the 3.3v and the negative pins, I wasn't sure which was which.

After reading more on how others were connecting the sensor and using the command line to verify information is reaching the components. I ended up using a voltmeter that wasn't verified and fried a pi and sensor in the process of checking pins. Do NOT test pins with unknown, and untested equipment. As such, do not go hacking on known good code to fix and issue with the connections. Make sure the connections are good before even powering up.

Where the real term "cobbling" came in for me is when I wanted to move away from the breadboard and put the components in a single wire assembly for tying to the Raspberry Pi's case and dropping the sensor in the freezer. Taking the idea from the board to the single cable wasn't an easy task. I used a known-good, new sensor for the purposes of this as I didn't want to destroy my prototype that was working.

Taking the 4.7Ohm resistor was used to leach power from the 3.3v pin, I soldered it in the same orientation as it was on the breadboard. Since the resistor was solid, it kept the pins away from each other and I added some electrical tape to make sure they kept their distance. With a simple zip-tie on the Pi's case to make sure the sensor's wire didn't get pulled out, it made the installation clean and professional.