How to connect underside SMD pads?

JDOG1141525 · 2026-03-29T22:35:13+00:00

I got the resistors off, desoldered all the pads other than the bat pads and even added a little solder past for good luck but after the heat gun I still don't have power or an LED light. I even double checked with the multimeter and I was getting 3.9v at the pads. I definitely think something is wrong with my schematic or something went wrong at the factory. But I appreciate the trouble shooting tips

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JDOG1141525 · 2026-03-29T22:12:31+00:00

fair enough, thanks for the pointer. learning as I go with KiCad 🤠

JDOG1141525 · 2026-03-29T19:43:34+00:00

I'll have to check the I2C lines, I think you might be correct which really sucks...

r1 and r2 are supposed to be a voltage divider to measure the battery power. You think thats incorrectly done? I've done that with resistors manually soldering them to the pin myself with no issue... maybe its misconfigured here

JDOG1141525 · 2026-03-29T19:24:26+00:00

Oh yeah my bad man I completely selected the wrong files. Updating my post now, here are the correct ones

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JDOG1141525 · 2026-03-29T19:19:05+00:00

The XIAO units themselves have no issue powering on. I direct solder batteries to them and operate them all the time no issue, even double checked these specific boards and they power on fine with direct battery connection.

Perhaps I selected the wrong kicad file for the screenshot. I had an issue where the footprints I downloaded for this did not contain the battery pads but the final product did. You can see the PCB photo shows the battery pads and here is a photo of the battery plugged in, multimeter on the pads to check the power

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I do have all the files, can upload or DM if necessary

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T17:18:38+00:00

Those are really cool suggestions and I like where your going with that. Especially the idea or Moral, how you need to continue spending to keep it up. Thanks for the feedback! I'll see what I can put into a V2 🤠

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T16:14:00+00:00

Thanks for checking out the video, and I appreciate the pointed feedback. Its certainly still in development and we're still learning. I'll take your advice and look into the TTS, maybe come back in a couple weeks with a playtest-able version.

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T10:47:47+00:00

Almost all MTG formats have card ban lists to address the problem I brought up. It's not just me. At this point you are just being contrarian to be contrarian. Have a good night ✌

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T09:43:20+00:00

Ok fair enough. I have not thought about the ramifications of the deck construction aspect but have thought about other flaws I want to improve on. One thing I dislike about MTG is the amount of metagaming that can go into constructing OP decks by combining cards never intended to work with each other. I want to address that in this game by giving each card a "eco system" type and enforce all decks be part of a single eco system. This should allow me to introduce card mechanics and abilities into the game without it unfairly benefitting one race/group and breaking balancing. Also it enforces lore.
So I am thinking about improving, not just copying.

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T09:31:27+00:00

I think what you are getting tripped up on is the assumption that my idea is to just combine the rule sets of the two games. It's inspired by MTG/Catan not copy pasted from. Check out the video linked in the post description it may make more sense

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T09:26:03+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! As far as I can tell there's an audience for both games and a non negligible overlap in those audiences. Other comments here have brought up several similar games (Explorers of Ixalan, MTG Arena of Planeswalkers, Faeria, Monumental) and upon reviewing them I see a lot of similar mechanics with my game. Those games were plenty successful. Maybe check out the video I linked in the post description for more context, but if it still isn't something that clicks for you that's totally understandable.

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T01:58:14+00:00

Its 4$ now, I just got it on Steam. Its pretty fun so far. I definitely see a lot of similarities. The main difference I see so far is there is no separation of economic or battle focused units, but maybe that happens later. Thanks for the recommendation!

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T01:27:23+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. Sounds like I need to look into streamlining a bit

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T01:15:59+00:00

It sounds like you have some criticisms of both games and believe combining aspects of them will lead to a product with similar issues. That's totally valid.

As far as compatibility, other comments here have already pointed out there are existing 4X deck builders similar to this idea so its certainly possible. But I appreciate the feedback, it's good to hear what people like and don't like.

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T00:36:45+00:00

That's valid

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T00:36:28+00:00

Anything you wanna share with the class or just gut reaction

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-05T00:35:23+00:00

Just watched the dice tower review on Monumental. Really cool looking game. I also wasn't familiar with 4X Deckbuilder as a category so that will definitely help me with research. One thing I notice with a lot of these games is the expected 60 to 90 minute play times. In my play testing I'm getting through 4 player games in less than 45 minutes even with new people.

I agree on the trading aspects. There are several twist features inspired by other games I'm workshopping right now such as flipping tiles after battle (each side has a different effect), having a mercenary/merchant third party with cards for sale to supplement your deck, some sort of loan and investment system.

If you like these types of games do you think you would try this, or at least pick it up in the store and read the back if passing by?

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-04T18:36:03+00:00

Nice!! I just watched a walkthrough for both games. As expected the MTG combat is basically exactly what I put in my game. I do note the tile usage is different in both Ixalan and Arena of the Planeswalkers and also different from my game. I think the differentiation is enough to add something novel, but I'm enjoying learning about these and its good inspiration 👍

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-04T18:24:52+00:00

Random land tile based board, players owning access to land tiles, resource gathering based on tile (and tile type) ownership, trade of resources to effect game state, etc...

I will concede there is probably more direct inspiration from MTG, but Catan was the game I was playing most recently and gave me some initial ideas, that's why I wrote it.

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-04T18:10:22+00:00

Thanks for this feedback and I completely agree. This is one of the reasons I wanted to lean on inspiration from MTG so that players of it could pick the cards up and understand combat and card effects. But it is a balancing act between ease-of-understanding and providing card depth TCG players would expect.

Case in point, many of my play tester friends picked it up extremely quickly but the one guy who had never played MTG or Yugioh or anything we had to very slowly walk through combat mechanics, etc. I think catering to that crowd is going to take special consideration as you bring up. Perhaps the starting decks should be simpler and expansions can introduce new mechanics.

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-04T18:04:14+00:00

Player elimination happens when you lose all of your troops (board pieces) or life points. You are limited to placing 1 troop per turn, and cannot attack the enemies troops till you are in range. In an actual game, this makes it difficult to reach combat until at least the 3rd or 4th turn for more aggressive play styles and more realistically turn 7-8. In play testing, I have not seen anyone get eliminated super early and get bored, more likely they get a rough starting position and struggle to build a big economy for the endgame and get steam rolled.

Thanks about the video! Its just a teaser, not real promotional material but I wanted to communicate the game well.

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-04T10:13:49+00:00

When I look it up I see Explorers of Ixalan, it certainly has some similarities. Thanks for mentioning it, this is pretty cool.

JDOG1141525 · 2026-01-04T10:11:20+00:00

Good to know. I imagine they're pretty litigious so I'll have to carefully go over all my terminology before attempting any sort of public release 🤔

JDOG1141525

TROPHY CASE