Metronome period LCD counter in an enclosure

 I finally got my conversion of the Morse Speedometer to Metronome Period Timer to work OK with an 8x2 LCD.

Decided to quickly box it since the 8x2 LCD was already mounted to the box lid.  Instead of building the circuit onto a piece of perf board I just peeled the wax paper off the back of the little solderless breadboard and affixed it to the lid:

small solderless breadboard

back of breadboard with self stick foam

solderless breadboard attached to back of box lid, LCD module on top, jacks on bottom

Then I added a 3.5 mm input jack and a coaxial power jack.  Unfortunately this bogged down the quick boxing.  The plastic box (from our old, departed friend, Radio Shack) has a thick top so the shaft of the 3.5mm jack wasn't long enough to engage the threads of the retaining nut.  I replaced that jack with a rather expensive Amphenol jack which had a longer shaft.  Second the coaxial power jack just didn't want to work so I had to replace that one as well.

Finally tried the unit after replacing both jacks and it still didn't work.  I checked the wires and connections and everything looked OK.  Then I decided: the heck with it and just stuck it into the box and it started to work ! :)

working timer, period is 1.1767 seconds or 51 beats per minute

  Fortune favors the bold ?  in this case more like random chance favors the stupid :)

I'm calling this a win and walking away !

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm