One thing I have been trying to do this autumn is stop and appreciate every leaf that catches my eye. I mean, I'm not taking photos of every one. Instead, just stop and be thankful for this little transient miracle that fell to earth.
I have picked up a couple of leaves and brought them into my office. And on one hand I know this is true but on the other hand, it's a little shocking how fast the leaves dry up and turn dull and brown and lifeless.
<strong>As for the synth,</strong> I've been super busy and not had much time but I have nailed down the analog filter for the VCO, now I am working on laying it out in SMT. I just had a real heck of a time orienting myself around SMT layout, and I still do. First off, I'm still getting used to only working on one layer of the PCB (yes I know about vias, but I find it hard to place them. I'm just iterating through this as, place related components together, rotate, try to route them, move them around some more.... etc. For something like this board, that has an analog ground and a digital ground, as well as some "high interference" PWM traces, I have some additional layout considerations I have to work through and it's not always easy.
Additionally, I think something just doesn't feel right with the KiCad defaults. The grid is off? Mixing 0603 and 0805 passives leads to some weird alignment issues, and I just don't get a nice orderly grid snappy in place feeling. I'm constantly fighting the router tool, it wants to jag off in weird ways I'm not expecting. I think a more experience will help, but I also think I could be changing some settings to get a better experience, I just don't know what those settings are.